Mary-Lee Bird

Mary-Lee Bird (she/they) is a queer interdisciplinary artist and instructor based in Edmonton, Alberta. Raised in rural Alberta in Hinton, Bird has called Edmonton home for the past fifteen years, where she has developed a dynamic and collaborative artistic practice rooted in music, theatre, and embodied performance.

Bird holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music (2009) from the University of Alberta and a Diploma in Music (2011) from MacEwan University. She completed Pochinko clown training with Jan Henderson at the University of Alberta in 2012 and 2013, an experience that continues to inform her interdisciplinary approach through physicality, improvisation, and character exploration.

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist and composer, Bird has released two full-length albums, Setting Up The Carnival (2014) and The Last Honey Bee (2016), as well as the single “The Devil in Us” (2022). Her music has received radio play on CJSR and CKUA. Her music is rooted in songwriter-driven composition, balancing poetic, experiential lyrics with equally expressive musical arrangements that draw on rock, pop, grunge, and punk, with subtle inflections of country and jazz improvisation. Deeply embedded in Edmonton’s performing arts community, she has been a musician with Rapid Fire Theatre since 2023, contributing live performance within one of Canada’s leading improvisational theatre companies.

Bird composes original music for theatre and dance, including the score for Kristine Nutting’s play Of Love and Wheat (2015). In 2024, she revisited and reworked the piece with Nutting during a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In 2019, she collaborated with dancer and performance artist Gerry Morita on Field Work, a rural Alberta site-responsive performance highlighting cattle and cows, exploring music, movement, and land-based practice.

Alongside her creative work, Bird is a dedicated instructor specializing in music creation and collaborative practice. Her teaching fosters inclusive, exploratory environments that support artistic risk-taking and interdisciplinary exchange. Whether leading projects or contributing as a collaborator, Bird’s practice centers queer expression, experimentation, and meaningful contribution to Edmonton’s artistic community.