Music Stage: Best of Canadiana with Jim Gelcer and Bob Cohen (12:00-12:45)

Jim Gelcer has led dual careers in music and technology. As a musician he’s an internationally acclaimed composer, producer, and recording artist. As founding partner of Gelcer Myhr Productions, a Toronto-based production house for film, television, and advertising music, Jim produced work for clients including CBC, Bell Canada, MuchMusic, Warner Music, McCain’s, Dentyne, Reader’s Digest, Virgin Records, and Labatt. He is currently composing with film and tv music veteran, Donald Quan, at their company, Gopher Lunch.

In his tech career, specializing in Internet technologies, Jim has managed cross-functional teams and projects for Internet Direct, EveryWare, Bell, Apple, IBM, Cisco, and Open Text. He was on the executive team of Harvard startup Noank Media Inc., a next-generation copyright licensing system for the legal distribution and transmission of digital works over the Internet, where he was instrumental in raising startup funding and signing critical content license agreements.

Jim has acted as fundraising consultant to non-profit organizations including Canadian Spinal Research Organization and Small World Music. He has served on various boards including Glenn Gould FoundationToronto Summer MusicVia Salzburg, and Mariposa In The Schools.

From 2003-2013, Jim chaired the organizing committee for “Because God Loves Stories: The Alec Gelcer Memorial Storytelling Concert”, an annual evening of stories and music at the Toronto Festival of Storytelling. Keynote speakers included Michael Wex, Simcha Jacobovici, Ralph Benmergui, and Sandra Shamas.

Bob Cohen is a Toronto-based guitarist known for his Montreal studio work over the past 40 years. notable credits include stints with Jesse Winchester and the National Film Board as well as hundreds of national jingles and soundtracks.