LIVELab Presents

Darcy Hepner and Nancy Walker: An evening of jazz, measured in real time

Internationally acclaimed saxophonist Darcy Hepner and award-winning pianist Nancy Walker join forces for an evening of jazz enhanced by technology. During the performance, the musicians’ movements will be captured using our motion-tracking system, and audience members will have the option to take part in a research study exploring live musical experience.

OPTIONAL STUDY- information will be sent to the email used for registration

($15 refund for study completion)

About Darcy Hepner

A crowd favourite and no unfamiliar name to jazz fans in Hamilton, Darcy Hepner is the son of professional musicians (conductor Lee Hepner and pianist Patricia Rolston). His professional career began as a cellist at the age of 15 and transitioned to flute, clarinet, and saxophone during his studies at McMaster University (BMus 1978). While pursuing jazz studies at the University of Miami he performed with Henry Mancini, BB King, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, Mel Tormé and many others (MMUS 1980). Moving to New York City in 1983 he studied composition and saxophone at New York University with Lee Konitz and Bob Mintzer. During his second residency in New York from 1996 to 2005, Hepner toured with Blood, Sweat and Tears, played in Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and in clubs with such artists as Buster Poindexter, Tom Wopat and the Ed Palermo Big Band.

Since 2008 he has recorded and performed with Tom Wilson (musician) and Lee Harvey Osmond as both a woodwind player and conductor/arranger for his symphony shows which have included performances with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.

In 2015, he collaborated with Canadian musician Ian Thomas as arranger and conductor to develop a concert for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. The music for the concert was used to produce Thomas’s “Life In Song” recording. Since he has developed a sold out Beatles show for the HPO, and will conduct the music of James Bond in 2025.

Hepner taught at Berklee College of Music (Boston) 1985–89, and was founder and head of the Music Program at Selkirk College in Nelson, BC, 1989–96. From 2005 to 2020, he held the position of professor of music at Mohawk College, Hamilton.

About Nancy Walker

Pianist and composer Nancy Walker has been recognized with honours Canada-wide, including the Montréal Jazz Festival’s Grand Prix de Jazz, the National Jazz Awards Keyboardist Of The Year Award, a JUNO nomination for Instrumental Album Of The Year, and an induction into the Mississauga Music Walk Of Fame. A dynamic improviser, an artful composer and a responsive accompanist, Nancy has been praised both for her work as a solo artist and as a musical collaborator. As a side player she can be heard on a wide range of jazz recordings, by artists from saxophonist Kirk MacDonald to vocalist Emilie-Claire Barlow. More recently she can be heard on the 2024 recording Here’s To Life by John Neudorf (on which she was both pianist and co-producer), and Sarah Jerrom’s 2025 JUNO-nominated Magpie. Nancy’s musical scope extends beyond the jazz genre. As a composer of contemporary choral music, she was commissioned to compose the music for a full-length musical theatre production (SATB chorus and soloists) in collaboration with The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, entitled FIRST. The musical premiered at the New Credit Community Centre in June, 2018, and in 2020-21 the production received The Ontario Historical Society’s Indigenous History Award. Later, the Mississauga Children’s Choir commissioned Nancy to adapt one of the songs from FIRST (Water, with lyrics by Steven Campbell) for their senior children’s choir. It was performed in May, 2024 at the final concert of the choir’s 2023/24 season. Earlier in her career Nancy worked extensively as a side musician with many artists outside the jazz idiom, including Raffi, Sylvia Tyson, Roger Whittaker and The Parachute Club.
Nancy has several discs to her credit as leader; her most recent is Deeper Down, featuring eight of her original compositions, reflecting her love of nature, her pull toward the cinematic, and her view of the age we live in.
Nancy has taught on the music faculties of Humber College and York University, and she herself holds a Master of Arts in Music (Composition)
from York University. “Nancy Walker has played enough piano to know how to keep listeners interested however hard she pushes the boundaries of familiarity.” Geoff
Chapman, Toronto Star “Harmonically she's influenced by the usual suspects—Evans, Hancock, Jarrett, etc.—but her delicate touch and denser harmonic constructs brings to mind British pianist John Taylor as well…Walker's music is easy on the ears, but don't mistake that for lacking in interest or challenge, because she masks an advanced harmonic concept within an accessible veneer.” John Kelman, All About Jazz “A fine example of the modern jazz musician’s art.” Mark Miller, The Globe and Mail