Tags
artist dj producer, CIQ music, cities, electronic dance music, electronic musician, Europe, Gsynth studio, industry, international, new music producer, news blog, orphanage, travel
Never one to sit still, CIQ has been to many known and unknown corners of the world, whether for business or pleasure, music, vacation or nonprofit youth work.
By the time she entered high school, her music teachers had taught her everything they reasonably could. She turned her curiosity to the world and people, reading books from thinkers, meeting people from everywhere, and traveling to remote corners of the world in a pursuit of knowledge, experience and understanding.
Some of her first international trips brought her to Central America and Eastern Europe in the nineties. After training in the jungles of Florida in skill sets for international volunteer work, she found herself involved in construction projects in poorer communities. She spent a summer at a Central American orphanage, another in a community in Bulgaria, and another in Poland. She was also able to take in some tourism during her travels, particularly in Europe.
After high school, following a gap year with some intense music studies, she moved to the USA, to Illinois’ midwest and Arizona’s desert, for two years with Master’s Commission, an arts focussed youth ministry program that enabled her to further develop her skills on stage and in the arts, and working with people in the local communities, covering a wide range from youth and young adults social and popular culture, to children in the inner cities of America. Her special focus was music, a keyboardist and multi-talented musician in constant demand. She also found time to learn many new skills and be involved with many different creative projects in all the arts.
Following a successful audition at York University she moved back to Toronto where she spent two years focused on keyboards performance study, improvisation and electronic music. She didn’t waste a moment, jumping into the music industry, networking and finding leads before frosh week had even started. At this point, she became involved with working for a handful of media sources, promoting local events with club night and rave promoters, and performing mainly locally as long as it didn’t interfere with her studies. She also began travelling internationally to satisfy her curiosity with the music industry with a trip to Nashville during a school break.
She stayed in Toronto a few more years, studying producing engineering at Harris Institute music business school and working for a string of top companies in Canada’s music industry. She learned many new skills working for the best. Most of her work was in Toronto but she did occasional work with big events in USA such as Cornerstone Festival in Illinois and New York City’s CMJ college radio event.
She took plenty of time for international travel to places like London, UK, New York, USA, Cannes, France, Miami, USA, and several other popular cities worldwide, Southampton to Manchester, Detroit to Nashville, Montreal to Calgary, Stockholm to Gothenburg. She had already been in many countries in Europe since the nineties, including France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, United Kingdom and Sweden, Canada and United States in North America, and in Belize and Guatemala in Central America.
Eventually she moved back from the heart of Toronto’s arts district to a quieter location outside the city where she could focus in the recording studio, rather than working in Toronto’s music industry nonstop and promoting events on the weekends. In addition to creative projects, nonprofit youth work continues to be an important part of her life and career. Her motivation for working in music and the arts and with people was always to make a difference in the world, and to inspire people to live their dreams and to love one another. She now has the opportunity to reflect often near the beaches of Lake Ontario, and to spend quality time with her extended family. Too young to retire or lead a too quiet lifestyle at home, she took another entrepreneurial business course and is considering options for the future, and is still deeply involved in the international music industry. She spends most her spare time in her recording studio loft. Her work with youth takes her on adventures exploring beaches, parks and events in local communities and is a continual source of inspiration. She hopes her music will be influential in the international music industry in the future, and will inspire those who come into contact with her and her creativity in a unique and fresh way.
CIQstories 