Sharon "Shari" Ulrich (born 17 October 1951) is a Canadian/American musician and songwriter. She has also worked as a television host, actress, film composer, and educator. A multi-instrumentalist, she plays

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

, Mandolin, guitar, piano, and

Dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

. She has been nominated for a Juno Award four times, winning " Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year" in 1982. At the 15th Genie Awards in 1994, Ulrich, Graeme Coleman and David Graff received a Genie Award nomination for

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, for the song "Every Road", which appeared in the film '' Max''.

Early life

Ulrich was born in San Rafael,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to Esther and Stanley Ulrich; she was the youngest of three children. Esther was proficient on piano, while Stanley (who worked in banking), played the

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

for relaxation. Shari picked up music early, playing violin at age nine. Stanley died when Shari was 10 years old, leaving Esther to raise their family as a single parent. Ulrich moved to

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

at the age of 18.

Career

Ulrich performed on the coffeehouse circuit around

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in the early 1970s. In 1973, she met up with Rick Scott and Joe Mock, and together they formed Pied Pumkin which first performed that year. Ulrich toured with

Valdy Paul Valdemar Horsdal, (born 1 September 1945), commonly known as Valdy, is a Canadian folk and country musician whose solo career began in the early 1970s. He is known for "Rock and Roll Song", his first mainstream single. Valdy is the winner o ...

in 1976 as a member of The Hometown Band."Folk trio BTU serves up a solid set of new material on Tightrope Walk"
''The Guardian'', February 20, 2016 After they disbanded in 1978 she went solo, and won a 1981 Juno Award for "Most Promising Female Vocalist" and received Juno nominations in the following two years for "Best Female Vocalist".''The Canadian Encyclopedia'': Shari Ulrich
/ref> Ulrich wrote for ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) ...

'' and composed theme music for several networks, including the CBC. In 1989 she formed the

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

group UHF along with Bill Henderson (

Chilliwack Chilliwack ( )( hur, Ts'elxwéyeqw) is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Chilliwack is surrounded by mountains and home to recreational areas such as Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake Provincial Parks. There are numerous outdo ...

) and

Roy Forbes Roy Charles Forbes (born February 13, 1953) is a Canadian folk music singer-songwriter, whose music bears heavy influences from classic American genres of acoustic blues and traditional country. Forbes is known for his high soulful voice and p ...

. In 2009, Ulrich joined

Barney Bentall Barnard Franklin "Barney" Bentall (born March 14, 1956) is a Canadian pop/rock singer-songwriter who is most well known for his 1990s-era band, Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts. Their most successful Canadian singles included "Something ...

and Tom Taylor to release the album ''"Live" at Cates Hill''. After a break of several years, the trio reunited as BTU (Bentall Taylor Ulrich) and have released a studio album ''Tightrope Walk''. Ulrich continues to perform solo (often accompanied by daughter Julia Graff on violin, piano, mandolin, guitar, accordion and vocals). Graff also engineered and produced Ulrich's 2014 release "Everywhere I Go" and Bentall Taylor Ulrich's 2016 "Tightrope Walk" She tours occasionally with the Pied Pumkin, UHF, BTU and bluegrass group

The High Bar Gang The High Bar Gang is a Canadian bluegrass band, based in Vancouver. The band has been popular in their home province of British Columbia selling out many of their shows, and were asked to open for Blue Rodeo when they played in Vancouver. They ...

. She lives on

Bowen Island Bowen Island (originally Nex̱wlélex̱m in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh), British Columbia, is an island municipality that is part of Metro Vancouver. Bowen Island is within the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust. Located in Howe Sound, it is approximate ...

, British Columbia.

Personal life

Ulrich was married (1989 - 1996) to musician, songwriter and artist David Graff. They have a daughter, Julia Graff, who is also a multi-instrumentalist (violin, mandolin, piano, guitar, accordion & vocals) and is a busy audio engineer, music editor in film and television, and videographer. Shari also has a son, Oregon architect Mike Magee, who was put up for adoption in 1967, and with whom she reunited in 2009.

Discography

Solo

* ''Long Nights'', 1980. (

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

) * ''One Step Ahead'', 1981. (

) * ''Talk Around Town'', 1982. (

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 w ...

) * ''Every Road'', 1989. (

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

) * ''The Best of Shari Ulrich'', 1991. (Esther Records) * ''The View from Here'', 1998. (Esther Records) * ''Find Our Way'', 2010. (Esther Records) * ''Everywhere I Go'', 2014. ( Borealis Records) * ''Back to Shore'', 2019. ( Borealis Records)

Group

* ''The Pied Pumkin String Ensemble'' - Pied Pumkin, 1974. (Squash Records) * ''Pie Pumkin Allah Mode'' - Pied Pumkin, 1976. (Squash Records) * ''Flying'' - The Hometown Band, 1976. (

) (Re-released 2012) * '' The Hometown Band'' - The Hometown Band, 1977. (

) (Re-released 2012) * ''Pear of Pied Pumkin'' - Pied Pumkin, 1978. (Squash Records) * ''The Lost Squash Tapes'' - Pied Pumkin 1988. (Squash Records) * '' UHF'' - UHF, 1990. (Tangible Records) * '' UHF II'' - UHF, 1995. (Tangible Records) * ''Plucking DeVine'' - Pied Pumkin, 1998. (Squash Records) * Live' at Cates Hill'' - Barney Bentall, Shari Ulrich, Tom Taylor, 2009. (Independent) * ''Lost and Undone'' -

, 2013. (

True North Records True North Records is a Canadian independent record label. History True North Records was founded in Mississauga, Ontario in 1969 by Bernie Finkelstein. By 1971, True North was producing albums for various Canadian musicians, including Bruce ...

) * ''Tightrope Walk'' - Bentall Taylor Ulrich, 2016. ( Borealis Records) * ''Someday the Heart Will Trouble the Mind'' -

, 2017. (

)"Shari Ulrich – A Woman of Constant Music"
''Folk Roots Radio'', April 27, 2016

References

External links

Official website

Pied Pumkin

BTU

Joe Mock

Rick Scott

Julia Graff
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulrich, Shari 1951 births Living people American emigrants to Canada Canadian pop singers Canadian singer-songwriters Musicians from British Columbia Naturalized citizens of Canada Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners Musicians from San Rafael, California Writers from San Rafael, California Writers from British Columbia Canadian Folk Music Award winners 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers