Press release –
Caity Gyorgy describes making her new album as “the most expensive therapy session of my life.” She wrote the songs while calling off her wedding and navigating one of the most turbulent periods of her life. She applied for grant after grant, got rejected, applied again, took out a line of credit, and saved every dollar she could from touring. When her creative partnership with arranger Mark Limacher hit a personal breaking point mid-project, she flew him to Finland out of her own pocket to hear his orchestral charts performed by a world-class ensemble, hoping it would bring them back together. It did. The album was recorded live with more than forty musicians at Calgary’s National Music Centre. It is now nominated for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year at the 2026 JUNO Awards. Caity is a three-time JUNO winner. This is the one that means the most to her.
The album, Caity Gyorgy with String, Arranged and Conducted by Mark Limacher, is entirely original, every composition written by Caity and Mark together. Orchestral vocal jazz recordings almost always revisit standards. This one does not. Mark’s arrangements do not accompany the songs so much as inhabit them, drawing on a lifelong immersion in the mid-century vocal tradition both artists love. The songs are arranged chronologically, tracing the emotional arc of a year Caity is only now able to look back on clearly.
Caity Gyorgy with Strings, arranged and conducted by Mark Limacher, has earned a nomination for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year at the 2026 JUNO Awards, recognizing it as one of the most ambitious and emotionally resonant vocal jazz recordings in recent Canadian music. Featuring entirely original compositions by three-time JUNO Award winning vocalist and songwriter Caity Gyorgy and JUNO-nominated composer, arranger, and pianist Mark Limacher, and fully orchestrated, arranged, and conducted by Limacher, the album stands apart for its rare commitment to creating new orchestral vocal jazz repertoire. At a time when orchestral jazz recordings often revisit established standards, Caity Gyorgy with Strings, arranged and conducted by Mark Limacher presents an original song cycle grounded in contemporary lived experience while honouring the lyrical and musical sensibilities of the mid-century vocal tradition.
Recorded live with a full orchestra of more than forty musicians at Calgary’s National Music Centre, the album represents an extraordinary independent artistic undertaking. Realized in collaboration with Calgary-based musicians, engineers, and creative partners, the project reflects a level of orchestral ambition rarely developed outside traditional industry centres. The scale of the project required years of creative development, personal
investment, and an unwavering commitment to realizing a shared artistic vision. For Gyorgy, the album marks a defining moment in her evolution as a songwriter.
“These songs came from a period of profound personal change,” said Gyorgy. “Writing them was a way of understanding what I was experiencing in real time. To hear them realized on this scale, with Mark’s orchestrations and this extraordinary group of musicians, has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.”
Limacher, who arranged and conducted the album, describes the project as the culmination of a lifelong artistic pursuit.
“This is the project I had always hoped to make,” said Limacher. “The opportunity to bring together original songs, orchestra, and voice in this way represents everything I value most about music. It required complete trust between all of us, and I believe that trust is something you can hear in the recording.”
The album traces a chronological emotional arc, written and recorded during a transformative year in Gyorgy’s life. Rather than presenting nostalgia, the recording contributes new work to the vocal jazz tradition, demonstrating its continued vitality and relevance. Gyorgy, whose previous releases have earned three JUNO Awards for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, is widely recognized for her singular ability to combine technical mastery with deeply personal songwriting. Limacher, whose own compositional work has earned JUNO recognition, brings a rare fluency across classical and jazz traditions, creating orchestrations that function not as accompaniment, but as an integral extension of the narrative.
Their creative partnership, first established through intimate duo recordings, reached its fullest realization in this orchestral setting. A newly released behind-the-scenes film documenting the making of the album offers a rare window into the scale and collaborative intensity of the recording process, capturing the human effort and artistic trust required to bring the project to life.
The JUNO nomination reflects not only the artistic strength of the recording itself, but its significance within contemporary Canadian music. As one of the few recent vocal jazz albums built entirely on original orchestral material, Caity Gyorgy with Strings, arranged and conducted by Mark Limacher represents a meaningful expansion of the form.
With its combination of emotional depth, compositional ambition, and orchestral scale, the album has emerged as a strong contender in this year’s Vocal Jazz Album of the Year category. Caity Gyorgy and Mark Limacher continue to develop new collaborative projects while maintaining active
performing and recording careers. Both remain committed to contributing new work to the vocal and orchestral traditions that shaped them.
