“Tara Dawn Solheim exhibits an uncanny control of range, tone and volume with her voice. Her works have a blues and jazz inflected treatment and occasional soaring glissandos reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.” 

– Maury Wrubleski

Tara Dawn Solheim is an interdisciplinary Canadian artist who explores language, poetry, and music through vocal performance and DJing. Her artistic practice combines music creation, a cappella singing, performance poetry, DJing, and somatic exploration. She creates immersive performance experiences that explore connections between humanity, metaphysics, and nature. 

Tara has performed in many contexts throughout Canada, Japan and Spain. She is currently attending a 3-month residency at Can Serrat International Artist Residency near Barcelona. She lived for five years in Tokyo, Japan where she performed extensively with several music collectives. Residencies she has attended across Canada include the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, St. Peter’s College, and Wallace Stegner House. 

As a DJ, she is known for shaping the energy of each room through vibration. She spins funky latin tech house as DJ TaraBytes, creating a blended sound built to move bodies on the dance floor. She spins often as a resident DJ at 10:59 Lounge.

For 10 years, Tara served as Executive Director of Sage Hill Writing, a non-profit organization providing writing residencies for professional writers and youth. She was the producer and host of The Vertigo Series, a monthly performance event series featuring writers and musicians for over a decade.

Tara’s exploration of the physicality of the voice has led her to study somatic practices including Fitzmaurice Voicework and the Franklin Method. She is a Usui Reiki Master and a Certified Practitioner with Somatic Experiencing® International. She investigates the elasticity of the body as an instrument through somatic practices to allow fresh possibilities for expression and resonation.

She is currently developing a body of performance work called WonderWalker Reimagined. WonderWalker is a female character who wanders the earth to bring light and awe to the forces of nature. In this project, there is a glimmer of ancient mystery that resonates within research she has been doing about her Norwegian ancestors and archetypal forces. As an interdisciplinary artist working in several forms, she explores this work through singing, music creation, sound meditation, poetry, and DJ experiences.