Laura Crema has a rare interpretive gift that allows her to inhabit a song and dive deeply into the lyrics of an old standard to suggest new meanings, shades and inferences that have lain dormant until they were lit up by the resonance, depth, and warmth of her voice.

Born and raised in Burnaby BC, Laura Crema has performed and recorded with some of the finest musicians in Canadian jazz, Roma jazz, country, roots, and new and improvised music. She has toured and performed across Canada and Europe. She also has had the great honor to play many of Canada’s most prestigious jazz venues, including The National Art Centre in Ottawa. Laura has recorded six critically acclaimed albums under her name, the most recent is collection of original songs co-created with guitarist, Bill Coon. For this unique performance at the VIFF Centre, Laura has put together a set of some of Lorenz Hart’s most memorable songs written for stage & screen.

Laura Crema – Vocals
Sharon Minemoto – Keyboard
Bill Coon – Guitar
Conrad Good – Bass
Nino DiPasquale – Drums

About the film: Blue Moon (Richard Linklater, US, 2025, 100 min) Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley

In what has been described as the performance of his career, Ethan Hawke plays the legendary songwriter Lorenz Hart. On the evening in 1943 when his long-standing collaborator, composer Richard Rodgers is celebrating the triumph of the hit musical Oklahoma!, penned by new partner Oscar Hammerstein, the alcoholic, homosexual and devastatingly astute Hart is pinning his hopes on a meeting with his protégé Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley).

“Blue Moon revels in a fine mind and a great soul, and Hawke’s embodiment of both is exalted and startling. His makeup renders him unrecognizable and is eerily compelling, while his vocal self-transformation is nothing short of miraculous.” — Richard Brody, New Yorker

“Like a backstage pass for Broadway buffs, it’s one hell of a show for those in the know, and a sparkling introduction for the uninitiated.” — Peter Debruge, Variety

“As elegantly witty and luxuriantly melancholic as one of Rogers and Hart’s toe-tapping, heart-swelling compositions.” — Wendy Ide, The Observer