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Aude Ray — Tripping the art fantastic

'The world is but a canvas for our imagination.' - American philosopher Henry David Thoreau This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not with this incredible opportunity before her. She'd worked too hard to get here.
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'The world is but a canvas for our imagination.'

- American philosopher Henry David Thoreau

This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not with this incredible opportunity before her. She'd worked too hard to get here. She'd been dreaming about this moment for weeks. Had already imagined herself on stage in fact, singing her songs, letting it all out, going for broke. No way was she giving up on that dream. No way...

But there was just one small problem. How does a singer compete in a music competition without a voice?

"It was a really busy time," says 29-year-old Aude Ray. She shrugs. "With all my classes and workshops and stuff, I guess I spread myself a bit too thin." Indeed. A woman of many skills — actor, dancer, jeweller, herbalist, music teacher, singer, songwriter — the young Whistlerite had so many things on the go last spring that she kind of let her health slip. The result: a bad case of laryngitis. "I totally lost my voice," she admits. And sighs. "Totally. And it couldn't have come at a worse time."

You see, Aude had just been selected to participate in a regional singing contest, Pacifique En Chanson. Excuse me? Think a French American Idol, but without the pettiness or call-in voting. "It's the first round of a national competition," she explains. "Artists from across B.C. and Yukon were invited to submit four songs to a judging panel. And the judges picked the four best singers to perform at a special gala concert before a live audience." She stops. Smiles from ear-to-ear. "And I was picked as one of the four! Me, the entrant from Whistler. I was so stoked."

Aude is the artistic equivalent of the Eveready bunny. Her words come tripping out at a mile a minute. And linear she's not. Our conversation veers from English to French to joual slang and back again. When she can't find the right word in one language, she switches to the other. And then sometimes there's simply no word to really represent what she's trying to describe. That's when she uses her hands.

Still, one thing is amply clear. There is a powerful life force flowing through this young artist. And loads of talent. Oh yeah. And ambition to spare.

"Becoming a finalist on Pacifique En Chanson was huge for me," she says. "Singing and songwriting — that's my first love, you know. I sing all the time. It's my passion." She stops. Grabs a quick breath. "And as one of the four finalists, well, you know, I would get to spend a week working on three of my songs with a producer and a musical director and a professional band of musicians. So cool..."

So there she was on day one of the PEC program, all cranked up and ready to go... and yet with no voice to sing with. "To be part of this week-long competition — to get all this special coaching and direction — and start off voiceless... that was so hard. I just had to accept it." A long pause. Her smile creeps slowly back into place. "But I never lost hope, you know. I knew my voice would come back. Knew I'd be ready in time for the performance."

She was the only one who did though. "No one believed that I could do it," she continues. "I mean, I couldn't train. Couldn't sing. Couldn't even talk. No whispering, no nothing. My singing coach had forbidden me to speak. It was the only way to get better. So I watched from the sidelines and drank lots of ginger tea and did whatever I could to help my voice heal."

Frustrating, for sure. But she learned a lot. "Before my laryngitis," she explains, "I think I always took my voice a bit for granted. But losing it made me appreciate it so much more. Maybe for the first time I realized what a gift it was..."

Aude was born and raised in a small Quebec town just east of Montreal called Sorel. She was always into music. Always into the arts... whether it was singing or painting or performing in a play. "I think the first time I was on stage was when I turned 13," she says. And grins. "My mom was in the audience. I think she was impressed because soon after she enrolled me in singing lessons."

After graduating from high school in 2000, Aude moved to Montreal to attend CEGEP. "I studied theatre at the Conservatoire Lasalle," she says. "And I loved it! I'd always dreamed of being an actor. And now, amazing, there I was living my dream."

She first came to Whistler in 2002 to visit a friend. "I took the bus from Montreal. It was hell!" She laughs. "I'll never do that again." Still, it was worth it, she says. The west coast was a revelation. And Whistler, well, Whistler was like nothing she'd ever seen before. "I stayed for a month. The mountains, the people, the lifestyle — it was almost surreal to me."

A life-changing trip at the very least. Exciting. Intriguing. Fascinating even. So much so that when she returned to Montreal everything seemed a bit drab. "It was like waking up from a dream," she says. "Back to reality. Back to school. Back to city life."

Aude kept studying. Kept playing music and writing songs. But something had changed inside. Montreal just wasn't doing it for her anymore. Her west coast trip had ignited more than just a spark of wanderlust in her soul. Now all she could think about was hitting the road. Travelling the world. Getting outside her comfort zone.

And she indulged that travel itch for the next few years. First came a trip to Southern Mexico. Then it was a two-year stretch in Banff broken up by a work stint in Gibsons on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast. That was followed by a trip to Europe and extended stays in England, Scotland and Ireland. And finally, there was a return engagement on the Sunshine Coast — Powell River to be exact — and a new teaching career with B.C.'s Conseil Scolaire Francophone. "That's when I really got passionate about using art and music to better connect with kids," she says. "The teacher I was working with in Powell River really liked what I was doing so she encouraged me to stretch myself." So stretch she did.

She returned to Whistler in September of '09, and worked at La Passerelle school, where she was a 'special educator' ("you know, working with kids who have special needs"). And she loved it. "It was all very new to me, but it was very empowering too. I found that art and music could be such a strong healing force."

But Whistler couldn't hold her for long. At least not yet. "I don't know why I moved exactly," she admits. "But at the end of the school year, I came across this ad for a loft to rent in Victoria." She smiles. "And well, the idea of living by the sea and writing songs in my own private loft... it was so romantic that I just went for it."

And yet. And yet. There was something about Whistler that she couldn't shake. And when an acquaintance suggested she should start her own business teaching music lessons to school-kids in Sea-To-Sky, she decided to take a chance. "I started with two students," she remembers of her start-up in September '11. "The next week I had 10. For a while there I was teaching lessons to 30 kids! Guitar, piano, singing, songwriting — whatever was required." Now, she says, she limits enrolment to 20. "Anymore and it just gets too crazy."

But what about the Pacifique en Chanson contest? What ever happened there?

"I finally got my voice back on the Thursday of that week," says Aude. "And the gala concert was scheduled for the coming Saturday. My voice was still too weak to practice of course, but I didn't panic. On the Friday — the day before the show — I was finally allowed to try a run-through of my songs with the band." She smiles. "And that went great. That's when I knew everything would be okay."

And then came the big day. "My voice wasn't all that strong you know. At least not like it usually is. But I was so happy to be singing — so appreciative of being able to do what I love again — that I really let myself go. I had so much fun performing that day. I didn't care about the contest or the judges. I was singing for the pure joy of it."

She must have put on quite a show. For the judges were so impressed with her act that they awarded her first place. "I really didn't expect it. I thought the other three performers had sounded so good. As for me, I was just relieved to be able to sing."

Next for the Whistler singer is an appearance at the Western Canada finals. "It's called Chant' Ouest," she says, "and it brings together the four winners from the four western provinces for another week of song-work and yet another gala." The winner of the Chant' Ouest concert (held in Victoria this September 19th), she adds, will get to sing at the prestigious Festival Internationale de le Chanson in Granby, Quebec the following summer. "And that's a really big deal," she tells me, her eyes wide with excitement. "Some exceptional opportunities there. For sure!" Stay tuned...