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Using nothing but their voices and innovative live-looping techniques, genre-bending FreePlay takes you from the concert halls of Europe, to the jazz clubs of Manhattan, to the temples of India, and back to their native Toronto, Canada… all without leaving your seat. From Bach to Bird to the Beatles, Dylan and Suba effortlessly cross musical boundaries, continually combining and recombining sounds to create a concert of endless variety, with the intimate delivery of two people. Imagine Simon and Garfunkel crossed with a Bach 2-part invention… or an acrobatic jazz melody combined with ancient Indian beats… or an 8-part vocal arrangement created by two singers… and you’ll get a glimpse of what FreePlay has to offer.
Award-winning Dylan Bell and Suba Sankaran are international leaders in the a cappella world, having worked with legends such as the Swingles, the Nylons, and the New York Voices. They have performed in over 20 countries across 6 continents, and they are the co-artistic directors of SING! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival, the only a cappella festival in Canada.
Dylan and Suba first met in Toronto in 1993, singing in a jazz choir at York University called “Wibijazz’n'”: soon after, they started directing the choir together. At their year-end concert, Dylan and Suba performed an a cappella “director’s duet”, and FreePlay was born. What started as a typical voice-and-piano jazz duo began to evolve: more instruments were added, and more musical styles explored, to create a duo unique in its musical depth and variety. In 2007, FreePlay created the uniquely innovative, all-a cappella live looping performance style that has earned them international recognition.
FreePlay’s diverse concert program has taken them across Canada and around the world, with performances at major music festivals spanning six continents. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2009, and their most recent album, Go Back Forward, was released in 2018.
Partners offstage as well as onstage, Dylan and Suba delight in exploring music together, bringing this joy to audiences worldwide.