JODI PROZNICK

'Jodi is one of those people who instantly inspire you to be a better person' - Dale Barltrop, Former Concertmaster, VSO

Jodi Proznick is a Canadian jazz bassist, composer, educator and producer. In 2019, she was named Jazz Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and has been nominated for three Juno Awards. She was also a recipient of the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor's Arts and Music Awards in 2022.

Jodi Proznick has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s finest jazz artists. She has won numerous National Jazz Awards, including Bassist of the Year in ’08 and ’09. Her group, the Jodi Proznick Quartet, was awarded the Acoustic

Group of the Year and Album of the Year in ‘08 and the Galaxie Rising Star at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in ‘04.

In addition to leading her own group, Jodi has performed with many of Canada’s top jazz musicians, including PJ Perry, Don Thompson, Kirk MacDonald, Guido Basso, Oliver Gannon, Dee Daniels, Phil Dwyer, and Laila Biali. She is regularly in demand to perform and record with visiting jazz artists including Michael Bublé, Byron Stripling, Michael Feinstein, David “Fathead” Newman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Ed Thigpen, Jeff Hamilton, Peter Bernstein, Charles McPherson, Seamus Blake, George Coleman, Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Harold Mabern, Eric Alexander, Jim Rotundi, Eddie Daniels, Jeff Hamilton and Lewis Nash.

In addition to recording her own Juno-nominated CD as a leader, Jodi has been featured on over 50 recordings as a side person.

Jodi began playing bass at the age of 13 under the direction of her father David, an award-winning music educator. In ‘93, Jodi received the General Motors Award of Excellence, establishing her as one of the top young musicians at Musicfest Canada, and then went on to receive a scholarship to study bass at McGill University in Montreal. After graduating, Jodi played with many of the top musicians in Montreal, including Juno winners Christine Jensen and Renee Lee as well as Montreal greats Andre White and Greg Clayton. She was awarded the IAJE Sisters in Jazz award in ‘98 as one of the best up-and-coming female jazz musicians.

Jodi moved to Vancouver in ‘00, where she now lives with her husband and collaborator, pianist Tilden Webb, and  son Tristan. Her personal highlights include opening for Oscar Peterson in 2004, performing as a featured soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and recording numerous times for CBC Radio. Another highlight in Jodi’s career was when she was asked to be the featured bassist in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games’ closing ceremonies and soundtrack.

Jodi’s deep passion for education lead her to pursue a Masters Degree in Education at Simon Fraser University. She was a faculty member at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (2012-2020) and Capilano University (2003-2013) where she taught improvisation, jazz theory, jazz history, popular music history, rudiments, jazz combo and bass lessons. She is currently the Department Head of the Jazz Program, Artistic Director of the Summer Jazz Workshop and Sister Jazz Day at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music where she teaches jazz bass, combo, jazz history and jazz theory. She has been a guest adjudicator and clinician at many festivals, colleges, universities, and conferences across Canada including faculty at the prestigious Banff Center for the Arts.

Her current project is Co-Artistic Director of  The Ostara Project with pianist/composer Amanda Tosoff.

As well as an extensive background as a jazz educator, Jodi was involved in teaching early childhood music classes for over 15 years. Her methodology included a combination of Orff, Kodaly, Dalcroze, Montessori and Suzuki philosophies of music education. Her areas of interest include arts-based research, embodied educational practices, attachment, phenomenology and creativity.

She has been described as “… armed with an arsenal of talent sure to develop recognition as one of the finest bassist in the jazz world today” (Ejazznews), “… (playing with) an infectiously in-the-pocket sense of groove” (Cadence Magazine), “… a jazz bassist with great time and a rock-solid sound ” (Katie Malloch, CBC Radio), “ a great player, who plays with intoxicating passion” (RivitingRiff.com), and “a wonderful bassist who really digs in and plays from the heart” (David Fathead Newman – Coda Magazine interview).


Co Artistic Director, Ostara Project

Artistic Director, VSO School of Music Summer Jazz Workshop, Sister Jazz Day

Department Head, VSO School of Music Jazz Program

Bass Pedagogue, Yamaha Canada


Awards and Honours

 
Year Nominee/work Award Result
1993 Herself General Motors Award of Excellence, Music Fest Canada Won
1998 Herself IAJE Sisters in Jazz Competition Won
2004 Jodi Proznick Quartet Galaxie Rising Star Award, Vancouver International Jazz Festival Won
2008 Jodi Proznick Quartet Acoustic Group of the Year, National Jazz Awards Won
2008 Foundations Record of the Year, National Jazz Awards Won
2008 Herself Bassist of the Year, National Jazz Awards Won
2009 Herself Bassist of the Year, National Jazz Awards Won
2009 Foundations Traditional Jazz Album of the Year, Juno Awards Nominated
2019 Sun Songs Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, Juno Awards Nominated
2019 Herself Jazz Artist of the Year, Western Canadian Music Awards Won
2021 Vetta Chamber Music (as guest) Classical Artist/Ensemble of the Year, Western Canadian Music Awards Nominated
2022

 

2022

 

2023

Herself

 

Jasmine Jazz

 

Ostara Project

Recipient, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Arts and Music Award

Instrumental Artist of the Year, Western Canadian Music Awards

 

Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, Juno Awards

Won

 

Won

 

Nominee

On Faculty

Online Lessons and Home Studio

Jodi offers the following services online via Zoom or at her home studio in Port Coquitlam.

Bass Lessons | Audition Preparation | Jazz Theory and Composition | Production/Songwriting | Career Coaching

Email: jodi@jodiproznick.com for more information and to book your spot.

Music Arts Collective

Music Arts Collective is an online music school founded by a trio of passionate musicians, educators, and forever-students of music. Juno-nominated musicians Jodi Proznick and Amanda Tosoff, alongside arts administrator Francesca Fung, share their love of music, art, learning, and community through interactive workshops, conversations, videos, and more. Join us as we work with you to imagine, create, share.   

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music

Instructor: Jazz Bass, Honour Jazz Combo, Junior Jazz Combo, the Jazz Language I, II and III, Popular Music History, Jazz History, Improvisation and Songwriting.

Artistic Director: VSOSofM Summer Jazz Workshop

Previous teaching positions include faculty positions at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (2012-2019) and Capilano University (2003-2013).

Jodi has been a guest clinician/lecturer at the following universities:

  • Western Washington University
  • Capilano University
  • Brandon University
  • University of Saskatchewan
  • McGill University
  • Saint Francis Xavier University
  • Western Michigan University
  • Kwantlen Polytechnic University
  • University of British Columbia (Education Faculty)

Jodi has adjudicated at the at the following music festivals and summer music programs:

  • Fraser Valley Kiwanis Music Festival
  • Vancouver School Board Jazz Festival
  • Yukon Summer Music Week
  • CYMC
  • Douglas College Summer Jazz Intensive
  • Kwantlen Polytechnic University Summer Jazz Workshop
  • Envision Jazz Festival (Surrey Jazz Festival)
  • Moose Jaw Optimist Festival
  • Brandon Jazz Festival
  • Music Fest Canada
  • B.C. Interior Jazz Festival
  • West Coast Jazz Festival
  • Kiwanis Jazz Festival, Vancouver
  • Kiwanis Jazz Festival, Winnipeg
  • Capital Region Jazz Festival, Ottawa, ON.
  • Surrey School District Core Music Festival

Jodi has presented at the following conferences and/or professional development workshops:

  • British Columbia Music Educators Conference
  • International Association of Jazz Educators
  • Coquitlam School District Professional Development Workshops
  • Surrey School District Professional Development Workshops
  • Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Teaching and Learning Symposium
My philosophy is centered around the idea that all people are musical – if you have a heartbeat, you have rhythm. If you can make a sound with your voice, you have a song.

“The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain… Music expresses only the quintessence of life and of its events, never these themselves.”

~ Oliver Sacks from Musicophelia: Tales of Music and the Brain

"Health comes when we have the courage to acknowledge that, even as the young need our guidance, we need their vitality to help us live fully and well. When we have the courage to teach in that spirit (and to accept the vulnerability that comes with it), we have planted the seeds of authentic community between those who teach and learn."

~ Parker J. Palmer