Shumaila Hemani

BIO/DESCRIPTION

Shumaila Hemani, Ph.D. in Music from the University of Alberta and Former Music Faculty, Semester at Sea, Spring 2020 voyage is an Alberta-based Sufi singer-songwriter, acousmatic composer, and traditional performer. Her composition: Perils of Heavy Rainfall received second Prize at Listening During COVID contest by the Canadian Association of Sonic Ecology (CASE) and her song Anticipating was featured on the Cross-Canada tour for Suicide Prevention Awareness and Hope (2020). Hemani’s music has been featured in the Alberta Musical Theatre’s A World of Stories (2020), CJSW’s A Drop and the Turning (2021), CJSR’s From Here We Go Sublime (2021), and the New Music Edmonton’s No Normal Podcast, Episode 5 (2021). Praised enriching Edmonton (Edmonton Journal, 2015), Hemani’s “mesmerizing,” and “emotionally nerve-striking” carrying “vocal virtuosity,” and “expressing radically different inner existential visions” (2015) (Calgary Herald) compositions have also been applauded by the pioneering Canadian soundscape composer, Hildegard Westerkamp, for taking the listeners to an immersive world different music, chanting, and drones beautifully. Radio Airplay’s John Wright considered Anticipating as expressing “a visceral emotionality and a deep musicality expertly ushering listeners into a place of contemplation and consideration” (2020). Supported by the Cultural Diversity Award, Hemani will release her album trilogy: Awakening, Mannat, and Shagirdi in 2021.