Ms. Sienna Dahlen, MM

Bio

Sienna Dahlen is a JUNO award-winning jazz vocalist and a longtime performer of folk, alternative and other styles of contemporary music. She is a sought-after lyricist and has collaborated with many well-known Canadian and European artists including Christine Jensen, Joel Miller, David Braid, Jean-Michel Pilc, Marion Ruault, Mads Baerentzen and Karl Jannuska. Sienna is also a music educator and has taught jazz and contemporary voice in addition to course lecturing in five universities and colleges throughout Canada since 2008. Thanks to her academic experience, Sienna is often invited to give masterclasses and to be a clinician in various educational settings. Elle enseigne également en français et a déjà écrit et enregistré des chansons dans sa deuxième langue. In addition, Sienna is an instrumentalist (piano and guitar) and has recorded six albums of original folk and jazz music to date. Her album, « Verglas » (2013), received wonderful reviews and was signed to the longstanding Montreal jazz label, Justin Time Records. In 2016 Sienna released « Ice Age Paradise » a chamber folk/jazz album that was recorded with a group of ten classical and jazz musicians and presented in several festivals and notable venues including the Ottawa Winter Jazz Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and The Yardbird Suite. In 2018 L’Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal created arrangements of Sienna's compositions from that album and several concerts were presented of the music. In October of 2020, Sienna was given carte blanche in Montreal's Off Festival de Jazz to form a group of her choosing, which included herself, Claire Devlin, Ana Dall'Ara Majek, and Veronique Marengère to promote the experimental music of, Døttir. In 2023, Sienna and long time friend and collaborator, guitarist Bill Coon from Vancouver released “Balladextrous” on Cellar Live Records and since then the duo has toured extensively across Canada. In 2027 she will be releasing a new album with her trio Stemmeklaverbas featuring Kate Wyatt and Adrian Vedady on Bent River Records.

Internationally-speaking, over the past twenty-five years Sienna has presented her music throughout Europe, in parts of the US, Mexico and in South America. She has also participated in artist residencies in Iceland, Portugal, Mexico, Cuba, France, Argentina and at the Banff Centre in Alberta. Here in QC, Sienna enjoys hosting house concerts for local and out of town groups at her home in a series called Ripplehouse and she often invites her voice students to perform as guests if they so desire. (As a side, Sienna is also a Registered Hypnotherapist (ARCH) and has helped many people who suffer from performance anxiety to overcome their fears and blockages.) 

Finally, Sienna is the featured vocalist on the soundtrack for the 2007 Oscar-winning animated short, The Danish Poet created by Torill Kove (music by Kevin Dean).

"Sienna Dahlen has made a beautifully compelling record that is soulful and unique."  
Ron Sexsmith (acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter)

“My first thought when hearing her enigmatic swooping vocals was of Jeff Buckley… The whole album has an enchanted feel; the songs are personal but not confessional, and the orchestration develops them perfectly. There’s unflinching clarity and  also beauty in these songs of love and loss.”

Alison Bentley, London Jazz News, UK

“Mélodies extrêmement élaborées…musicalité, diction et goût remarquables chez Sienna Dahlen (délicieuse voix, typiquement “britannique”), à l’image de celle de Josefine Lindstrand chez Django Bates.  Éric Quenot, Jazz Magazine, Paris, FR

"...Verglas goes from the good to the great with “Carrie,” the last of its seven cuts and a stunningly memorable, rage-filled anthem against an impending death."
Peter Goddard (Toronto Star) 4/4 stars

"...une auteure-compositrice-interprète folkie, pianiste et guitariste dont la connaissance du travail harmonique propre au jazz, aussi aux musiques classique ou contemporaine, s'avère nettement supérieure à la moyenne chansonnière."   
Alain Brunet (La Presse), Montreal   

Teaching techniques

Given the broad range of musical styles and academic settings that I have explored over the past 25 years, I feel I am able to offer a very wide range of knowledge to students of varying backgrounds, ages and interests. I was also trained in extended vocal techniques under the tutelage of Toronto-based vocalist, Christine Duncan and have added this to my palette of stylistic choices.

My approach to teaching jazz and contemporary voice along with popular music, jazz ensembles and songwriting has developed extensively over the years. I enjoy guiding my students in various conventional and sometimes unconventional directions for the purposes of achieving the greatest amount of musical flexibility and success on all pertinent levels. At the same time, I also strive to embrace what each student expresses as a need or a desire in the areas of their own music-making. In doing so, I am able to work in tandem with that student with the goal of nourishing their artistic growth while achieving a high level of respect, balance and understanding for one another in the lesson setting. Je parle aussi le français et j'aime m'exprimer dans cette langue. J'ai beaucoup de respect et intérêt pour la musique québécoise et française!  

Artist Residency- Centro Rural de Arte, Patagonia, Argentina

May 2010

INDIGENOUS AND ALIEN

Three week international artist residency in collaboration with visual artist, Nadine Bariteau. Site specific work using found objects and sounds plus live experimental voice work. Audio sampling, editing, projection using plastic megaphone sculptures made from discarded water bottles.

Artist Residency- 360 Xochi Quetzal, Chapala, Mexico

May 2015

Month-long international residency- topics covered included songwriting, audio sampling and montage, poetry-writing, collaboration with local musicians and other artists, organized concert and exhibition.

Artist Residency- Skalar Sound Art, Seydisfjordur, Iceland

May 2016

Time Sense

Month-long collaborative residency with DJ/electronic sound designer, Marie-Hélène Brousseau in Iceland. Topics included research-related excursions, text-writing, field recordings, audio montage, composition and pre-production for an album. 

Sound and Movement workshop with Susanna Hood, Montreal

November 2019

Open Source Forms - Improvisation structures using movement, voice, drawing and writing. 

Your Voice - Invitation des intransigeantes (Yves Dorison and Simona Calder)

http://fr.calameo.com/read/001882310cf427ce5f1de

Notable Past and Future Performances

Summer 2026
Residency and Performance with Thomas Gaudet
Rimouski Jazz Festival
(To come)

Fall 2026
Hypnotherapy and Performance Anxiety Masterclass 
Centre Orford, Orford, QC
(To come)

October 14-22, 2025
Composing residency with David Braid
Porto, Portugal

September 19, 2025
Horizon Series
Duo with Bill Coon
Saint Sauveur, QC

November 8, 2024
Salle Gésu, Montréal
Orchestre national de jazz
Music and Arrangements, Conduction by Miho Hazama
Guest Vocalist

July 22/23rd, 2023
Music By the Sea Festival
Bamfield, BC and Victoria, BC
Duo with Bill Coon and other artists

February 4th, 2023
Shadbolt Center for the Arts
Jazz@theBolt Series
Vancouver, BC
Duo with guitarist, Bill Coon

October, 2020
Off Festival de Jazz, Montreal, QC
"Carte Blanche" with Dottir et amies. 

July, 2019
Festival de Lanaudière, Lanaudière, QC
L'Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal
"Under the Influence Suite", Composer and Conductor, Christine Jensen

August, 2019
Théatre de Verdure, Montréal, QC
L'Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal
"Under the Influence Suite", Composer and Conductor, Christine Jensen

August, 2019
Rimouski Jazz Festival, duo with François Jalbert

July, 2019
"Sleeping Rough" a modern opera, marionette and theatre piece performed in Ottawa at the Great Canadian Theatre.