The fourth annual Canadian Music Café, which moved from the Rivoli to the Hard Rock Café at Yonge-Dundas Square this year, wrapped up yesterday. The three-day event was designed to showcase Canadian bands to music supervisors and television and film directors in town for the Toronto International Film Festival. The 15 featured acts from different musical genres included Gentleman Reg, Jill Barber, and Kreesha Turner.
To promote this year's event, coordinator Michael Perlmutter distributed 1,000 invites to film festival delegates and worked with Planet3 Communications to contact 1,000 media representatives. Five music supervisors from Los Angeles—including Gary Calamar, who has worked on Six Feet Under, Weeds, and Dexter—were flown in to watch the performances and give feedback. The invite-only café is produced by five Canadian music industry organizations, including the Canadian Recording Industry Association and the Canadian Music Publishers Association.
"I think we've had more people this year than the last three years," said Perlmutter, who started working on the project in late June. "We've averaged 100 to 150 people a day, and we're ecstatic about the numbers."
Perlmutter, who works as a supervisor on productions like Degrassi: The Next Generation and Queer as Folk, reviewed 200 artist submissions and listened to 600 songs before settling on the 15 performers, who each played 25-minute sets. He said highlights of the event included performances by the band City and Colour and Martha Wainwright, who flew in from New York to make an appearance.
Most deals between supervisors and bands happen after the film festival is over, but Perlmutter said one deal (which he couldn't discuss) is already in the works. "A lot of connections and contacts have been made," he said.
