Jenna thrives in collaborative environments. Her decade-long partnership with cellist Beth Silver has brought her to festivals and concert series across Eastern Canada, while her commitment to the local choral community has created life-long friendships and associations. Jenna is sought-after for her exceptional sightreading skills and capacity to follow conductors, singers, and instrumentalists, which derives from years of violin performance and orchestral training as well as the musical and oral traditions of fiddle music and communal singing/jam sessions in the Maritimes.
Jenna also works as a freelancer with many student instrumentalists and local professionals, particularly string players and singers. Her recent collaboration with Emili Losier has led to an exploration of Canadian female composer repertoire.
Passionate about non-classical traditions as well, Jenna has been involved with the musical theatre community in Ottawa, Toronto, and Halifax, and equally explores folk mediums.
Beth Silver & Jenna Richards
Cellist Beth Silver and Jenna have been performing together since they met in their undergraduate years at the University of Toronto. With a love of sight-reading repertoire and exploring different works, the duo quickly began programming pieces not only written for cello, but for other mediums like violin, and voice.
SISU Ensemble
Meeting during the pandemic, soprano Emili Losier and pianist Jenna Richards founded the voice-piano duo, SISU Ensemble, out of a love for collaboration and music-making. Sisu brings their joy of music to audiences of all kinds, carefully curating programs that are entertaining while evocative. The pair theatrically produces and performs for the elderly, children, individuals with exceptionalities and their families, as well as traditional audiences and the general population. Through the embodiment of characters, Emili transports her audiences to new worlds, weaving her musical narrative together with Jenna at the piano. Ultimately, Sisu loves to engage their audiences with socially pertinent content in an intimate fashion that produces meaningful and uplifting experiences.
Emili and Jenna have performed together extensively given their short history, including for Ottawa Chamberfest, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Concerts in Care, Kemptville Historical Society, and healthcare workers, and recently gave the premiere of “Ferme les Yeux” by Franco-Ontarian composer Marie-Claire Saindon. The two members of Sisu are extremely active as portfolio career musicians, including performance, community and multidisciplinary programming, administration, and research in their ongoing practices. Upcoming projects for the Sisu Ensemble include performances in Toronto and Ottawa, and the development of Kelly Marie Murphy’s work “Dear Ethel” into a chamber opera courtesy of a City of Ottawa grant.
Sisu is a Finnish word for inner strength - integral to the Finnish culture Emili inherited through birth. As the ensemble formed during the pandemic, it seemed natural to name the group after a word that means extraordinary perseverance. The word is more than a mere name: it describes the heart of the ensemble.
Collaborative piano
Jenna dedicates much of her year to work in collaboration with other artists. Associate Music Director of the Canadian Centennial Choir, she enjoys a busy calendar of work with several additional singing groups from classical to musical theatre, and public and private performances with instrumentalists. She is currently open to new projects.
Photos: Dominique Zwicker, House of Common, Curtis Perry, Alexander Vlad