Biographies:
Marie Johanne Fischer: vocals
Music and Marie Johanne are inseparable. Singing with her twin brother at the tender age of three, her first memories are from performing on stage.
Marie Johanne’s voice is who she is: high, bright, and clear _ a delight to listen to. The vocal colours she brings to Symplycity reflect the passion of her French-Canadian Aboriginal background.
A Conservatory trained singer well versed in all genres and styles, she has offered her voice as a Cantor, in Church choirs and other community vocal ensembles. Her performance record reads like a rich and varied tapestry. She has performed with the rock band Still Motion as well as Dave Hadfield and Friends. She has sung in Coffee Houses, in a choir for a papal visit, sang the National Anthem at the Royal Winter Fair and the Special Olympics. She has been a Kindermusik Facilitator, a vocal instructor with Huronia Arts Academy. And at the moment, Marie Johanne is organizing a production for Way... Way...Way... Off Broadway , a children`s musical theatre company in Barrie.
Wide ranging experience like this is hard to miss. Marie Johanne feels excited and privileged to be a part of the amazing musical team Symplycity.
Ed Moll, guitar and vocals
“My dad was a chef who listened to Bach, Beethoven and Verdi opera. My mother was a homemaker who preferred Louis Armstrong and Jim Reeves.”
You can’t have had any more diverse sounds coming into a young man’s ears in that household. And now well into his second career as a music instructor at the Huronia Arts Academy in Barrie, Ed has joined forces with Ralph Johnson and Marie Johanne Fischer to form Symplycity. He plays guitar, flute, viola (he’s a violist in Barrie’s Huronia Symphony), sings, and writes songs and poetry.
Ed had a previous life as a United Church minister.
“God and I had a longstanding argument. She wanted me to be a musician - I spent 20 years trying to play clergy. She won. Through all of that I learned to listen, not just to words and sound but to the spaces in between.”
He relishes this new opportunity to play the sounds and the spaces with the trio, Symplycity.
Ralph Johnson: Upright & Electric Bass with Vocal Support
Ralph studied bass at Humber College and York University and privately with Mike Downs (Head Professor, Bass Dept at Humber), Dave Young (Oscar Peterson’s Bassist) and Joel Quarrington (Music Professor at McGill University)
Ralph worked out of the London, Ontario for a number of years with the show band “Friendly Persuasion” touring Canada and the US. During this period he worked with BB King and Barbara McNair.
After relocating to Barrie, he worked the local Jazz scene in trio’s, quartets, and several big bands. For a number of years he also performed in the touring bands “The French Connection” and “Straight No Chaser”.
When he is not performing with the North York or the Huronia Symphony, you may find Ralph teaching at the Seven Seas Music Academy.
He is now pleased to be a member of the highly acclaimed trio Symplycity.
Marie Johanne Fischer - vocals * Ralph Johnson - bass * Edward Moll - guitar
Marie Johanne Fischer, marketing and publicity manager
P: 705-252-6486 E: mjgoyette@rogers.com