Andrew Penner is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, performer, composer, actor, sound designer, and producer currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. He performs as a solo artist and is the founder of folk rock and roll band Sunparlour Players.'A play about a band, starring that band'. The Globe and Mail Apr. 18, 2019 Penner is also an actor and has appeared in Soulpepper Theatre’s Spoon River and As You Like It, "Ghost Quartet" and "Natasha, Pierre And The Great Comet Of 1812" (Crows Theatre). He has composed music for Soulpepper Theatre’s Blood Wedding, Fool For Love Stratford Festival’s Grapes of Wrath as well as films Eadweard (film) and Small Town Murder Songs, FX show "Lost Girl" and many others.
Early life Penner grew up in a Mennonite family on a farm in southern Ontario."Green in the scene: Sunparlour Players released their third album Us Little Devils". Queens JOurnal, November 25, 2011 Asad Chishti
Career
In 2005 Penner formed the band, Sunparlour Players, and in 2007 released their debut album, "Hymns For The Happy". In 2009 they released, Wave North."The Tranzac Transcripts: Andrew Penner". The Torontoist, By Steve Fisher • December 2, 2010 On the band's 2011 album, Us Little Devils, Penner played eleven instruments."Sunparlour Players Talk 'Us Little Devils,' Reveal Canadian Tour Dates". Exclaim!, By Kerry Doole, Oct 19, 2011 He wrote many songs for the group. In 2014 Sunparlour Players released "The Living Proof" and toured heavily in North America and Europe.
Penner and his wife Erin Brandenburg are the founders of Kitchenband, an arts collective. The collective has many original works including Reesor, Pelee, Petrichor, Detroit Time Machine, The Wreck Of Harold Murphy and BOBLO, the latter of which earned Penner a Dora Mavor Moore Award in 2013 for outstanding sound design/composition.
In 2016 Penner formed a duo, Harrow Fair, with violinist Miranda Mulholland."What actor Shawn Doyle is reading and listening to". The Globe and Mail, Mar. 15, 2017 The pair released an album, Call to Arms."Harrow Fair sounds a Call to Arms with their debut album in the NP Sessions Studio". National Post, December 15, 2016 In 2020 Harrow Fair released their sophomore album "Sins We Made".
Penner has created and performed for theatre at The Stratford Festival, Soulpepper, Crows Theatre, CanStage, Native Earth, Obsidian and many others.
Penner has had success in composer Dave Malloy's musicals, performing in the Canadian premieres of both Ghost Quartet (as the Astronomer) and Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (as Balaga).Review: GHOST QUARTETANNOUNCING THE CAST OF NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812
He has either won or been nominated for several awards for this work in theatre and film including the Dora Awards, Toronto Theatre Critics Award, Summerworks Jury Award, Leo Awards ("Eadweard")
References