Mimi Patricia Snider

Jazz Vocalist, Percussion-Trained

Mimi’s love of intricate rhythms, melody, harmony and spontaneity holds her heart steadfastly in the creative and passionate energy of jazz.  Her group performances feature all of these elements. 

A jazz vocalist with a deep affinity for rhythm and the expressive language of improvisation, Mimi Snider brings a distinctive sensibility to every performance. As both vocalist and percussion-trained musician, she inhabits the music from the inside out—shaping its pulse, colour, and emotional character with an intuitive understanding of groove and ensemble interplay.

For several years, she was featured at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, performing material from her CD Thank You, Merci—a heartfelt tribute to the extraordinary musicians and enduring musical spirit of New Orleans. Her musical journey has also taken her to intimate jazz clubs and venues throughout Vancouver (eg Frankie’s Jazz Club Rossini’s Jazz Club) and Toronto (eg Rex Hotel, Emmet Ray, Montreal Jazz Bistro) where she has shared her interpretation of the jazz tradition with audiences drawn to music that is both sophisticated and deeply felt.

Her artistic journey took an unexpected turn following a minor surgical procedure that resulted in persistent laryngeal spasms and profoundly affected her singing voice. What followed was a long and demanding process of vocal retraining, patience and rediscovery. It seemed as though muscle memory had been lost.  She worked to rebuild technique and find that connection again.

During this almost 15 year period, she continued expanding her creative skillset, more as a creative outlet in place of her singing voice, studying American plays with scene study work with reputable acting schools and actors at William Davis Acting School, VanArts, the Improv Centre (Theatre Sports) as well as entering more deeply into poetry writing, percussion, jazz theory, piano, guitar and reuniting with the clarinet. 

These experiences have expanded her creative palette as a vocalist, deepening her understanding of storytelling, intention, breath, rhythm, gestures, phrasing, and the many possible dimensions of communication in performance—facial, physical, emotional, and vocal.

Although her voice would never return to what it had been—in time, she came to understand that it did not need to.

Today, her voice carries a different character and intent:  deeper, more textured, and more reflective. There is a new weight and intimacy in its sound, shaped not only by years of musical experience but by the journey of finding her way back to singing. What once felt like a loss has become another dimension of her creativity—a voice that carries the desire to tell stories through song with vulnerability and resilience.

After almost 15 years, she has returned with a new concert, performing and creating with renewed strength, a deeper appreciation for the voice, and an even more intimate relationship with the music. 

This new concert celebrates musical conversations that crossed oceans, cultures, and generations and traces the rich and often overlooked exchanges occurring between the late 1800s through to the 1950s that helped shape American jazz. Through the waterways and highways connecting Cuba, Mexico, New Orleans, New York City, and to other parts of the Americas such as Brazil, Cuban, Brazilian, Mexican, and American musicians shared rhythms, melodies, sounds, and ideas in an increasingly rich musical way.

The half century or so leading up to the Cuban Revolution of 1959 was particularly fertile. Cuban and American musicians were in close musical dialogue, with artists travelling between Havana, New York, New Orleans, Mexico, and other locations, including Brazil. During this period, Afro-Cuban rhythms increasingly became an integral part of the language of American jazz, while jazz itself—including bebop—found new pathways into Cuban music and other musical communities throughout the Americas. 

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the political rupture in U.S.–Cuban relations that followed profoundly changed these patterns of travel and exchange, creating a new chapter in the relationship between the musical cultures of Cuba and the United States. The musical dialogue continued, but the environment in which Cuban and American musicians could exchange ideas had changed for a time.  And during that time, Brazilian bossa nova would create another extraordinary chapter in the conversation between Brazilian music and American jazz.

This concert returns to that earlier era of musical exchange—late 1800s to mid 1900s—not as a fixed historical moment, but as part of an ongoing conversation.  It honours the roots from which American jazz grew:  primarily African-derived rhythms and African American musical traditions both rooted in communities descended from enslaved Africans, while also drawing upon European harmonic and instrumental traditions, as well as musical influences from Indigenous communities. It also honours the cultural and musical exchanges between Cuba, New Orleans, Mexico, and New York City during jazz's formative years, and later Brazil.

This new concert is a reflection of that continuing conversation and a celebration of those who carry the legacy forward.

For Mimi Snider, this is more than a return to the stage. It is a continuation—a reconnection with a musical lineage that has always understood that music can cross borders and that songs carry history. It is also a rediscovery of the voice:  a voice shaped by what came before and, with care and respect, finding new life by listening, remembering and continuing the conversation.

This concert is dedicated to two significant music mentors both gone too soon:  Kate Hammet-Vaughan, Jazz Vocalist, Capilano U, VCC and Patrick Parson, Artistic Director Ballet Creole, York U.

Live vocal jazz performance experience has included vocals doubling on percussion as follows:  

Vancouver International Jazz Festivals several years promoting debut vocal jazz CD "Thank you, Merci" celebrating the musicians of New Orleans. Mimi has also performed in jazz clubs in both Toronto (Rex Hotel, Montreal Bistro, Gate 403, 120 Diner) and Vancouver (Rossini's Gastown and Rossini's Kitsilano, Cottage Bistro and Oct 9th, 2025 Frankie's Jazz Club).   

Worked with the following people on various projects in live performances or recordings:   

Mimmie Adams, Nick Apivor, Chris Banks, Paul Blaney, Russ Botten, Colin Campbell, Guiomar Campbell, Carla Gonzalez-Casanova, Morgan Childs, Bryant Didier, Liane Fainsinger,  Boris Favre, Tony Foster, David Ivaz, Brent Gubbels, Chris Haas, Frank Hayashi, Nathan Hiltz, Ron Johnston (pianist), Rick Shadrach Lazar, Paco Luviano, Anthony Michelli, Bob Murphy, Patrick Parson (Ballet Creole), Raúl Abreu Piñeda,  Joe Poole, David Restivo, Artie Roth, David Say, Jennifer Scott, Bernie Senensky, Randolf Stoll, Amanda Tosoff, Nancy Walker, Rene Worst.

Performances with other groups have included:

The Governor General Awards in Ottawa with Rick Lazar's Samba Squad (SSQ) on percussion accompanying Jesse Cooke, as well as accompanying SSQ in many Toronto Festivals (Salsa on St Clair, Beaches Jazz Festival to name a few); Premier Dance Theatre (now Fleck Dance Theatre) accompanying Ballet Creole (voice and some percussion) and playing djembe for dance classes; performing at Toronto's DuMaurier Theatre (percussion), and other Toronto Harbourfront performance platforms (voice and percussion); performing in a trio with voice doubling on percussion accompanied by Brian Katz for “Israel at 50;" Kitsilano Showboat Theatre, Vancouver (Paul Snider originals) and the Vancouver Fringe Festival (Paul Snider's "Music of Junk") accompanying with voice doubling on percussion; performing at Toronto Fringe Festival accompanying storytellers including Dr. George Blake and his Kalalu Folklore Theatre (vocalist and percussionist) including djembe in many of his festivals.

Education in the expressive arts:  

Private lessons in voice, jazz theory, percussion, piano, guitar, clarinet (Brian Katz, Mark Kieswetter, Liane Fainsinger, Rick Shadrach Lazar, Jillian Lebeck, Bob Mover, Patrick Parson (Ballet Creole), Raúl Abreu Piñeda, Jodi Proznick, Jennifer Scott, Diane Spears, Kate Hammet-Vaughan, Rubén Vasquez to name a few ), Royal Conservatory courses in theory, harmony, voice, basic piano and how to teach Kodaly, and group workshops with several performing artists including Sheila Jordan, Nancy King, Bob Mover, Ballet Creole (drum and dance masters from West Africa), Fred Kwasi Dunyo (drum and dance master from Ghana), and other guest artists from West Africa, Brazil, and Cuba; several years studies in theatre arts (scene study, improvisation, theatre for social action, and community musical theatre performer as chorus dancer and vocalist), dance/movement training (many styles including ballet bar, tap, modern, West African and Trinidadian); poetry writing (one year one-on-one mentorship program at University of British Columbia) and five years clarinet training, including private lessons during high school years to perform in a small chamber orchestra for Gilbert & Sullivan school productions as solo clarinetist, as well as a small high school ensemble that toured public city venues, in school concerts and big bands. 

Other Education: 

Her education in psychology and education, together with her training and work in speech-language-communication has fostered a deep curiosity about rehabiliation, and how people communicate and learn. This curiosity naturally extends into her expression as a vocalist and percussion-trained musician, where her academic and professional experiences continue to inform and enrich her musical exploration—and, in turn, her musical experiences continue to deepen her understanding of rehabilitation, communication, learning,  and connection.