Hard Rubber Orchestra

“Godzilla of the Vancouver jazz scene, a big, goofy monster that stomps through complex charts with the swagger of a big swing band and the head of a termonuclear explosion.”

Formed by John Korsrud twenty years ago, The 18-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra has been one of Canada’s most active and unpredictable ensembles of creative music.

Over the years they have collaborated with an incredibly diverse spectrum of Vancouver artists such as Phil Dwyer, Sook-Yin Lee, Linda Bouchard, Brad Turner, Joe Keithley, Kokoro Dance, Dee Daniels, Emanuel Sandhu, Alvin Cornista, The Tomorrow Collective, Veda Hille, and filmmakers Brian Johnson and jamie griffiths. HRO has released two CDs, recorded numerous CBC broadcasts, toured to Europe in 2003 and across Canada several times, and received the 2005 Alcan Arts Award – the largest arts award in Canada for creation. They have pushed the boundaries of the concert experience, creating several large multi-media shows such as The Ice Age ice shows (2010, 2000), the arts rave Drum & Light Festival (2010, 2009, 2008), The Elvis Cantata (1996, 1994), the Alcan awarded Enter/ Exit (2005).

HRO is also one of Canada’s leading ensembles to commission new compositions, commissioning forty new works by thirty composers from jazz and classical fields such as Phil Dwyer, Hugh Fraser, Brad Turner, Michael Blake, Tony Wilson, Fred Stride, Paul Dolden, Peter Hannan, Linda Bouchard, Howard Bashaw, Keith Hamel, Rene Lussier, and Jean Derome.