%20WHITE.png)
Desarae Dee Receives GRAMMY Awards Consideration as International Career Continues to Grow
Canadian instrumental fusion artist, composer, and producer Desarae Dee has received GRAMMY Awards consideration for her composition “Telephone….Wait,” adding another achievement to a career spanning music, international performances, education, and creative entrepreneurship. The two-time award-winning artist and Recording Academy voting member continues to expand her presence across the instrumental music community.
The latest recognition follows her 2024 release, ADVENTURE, THE ALBUM, a project marking ten years of her professional music career. The album previously received GRAMMY Awards consideration in Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Best Instrumental Composition for “Adventure,” and Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical).
Her latest composition, “Telephone….Wait,” explores themes of hesitation, timing, and communication through instrumental storytelling. The release has received radio support from CBC Music's Afterdark with Odario Williams, Saturday Night Jazz with Laila Biali, JAZZ.FM91, and WVPE 88.1 in the United States.
Since beginning her professional career in 2014, Desarae Dee has appeared at NAMM, Canadian Music Week, Sofar Sounds Toronto, and Waveland Canada. In late 2025, she also completed an eight-week solo artist residency at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
More recently, Desarae Dee launched her Sonic Midwife Sessions Tour, making her festival headlining debut at the Kensington Jazz Festival before appearing at Convergence Music and Art Festival. She has also toured nationally and internationally with hip-hop and jazz collective Super Duty Tough Work since 2023.
Beyond performing, Desarae Dee serves as Music Director and Lead Accompanist for the University of Toronto Faculty of Music Gospel Choir. She is also the founder of Desarae Dee Music Group Inc., which supports her work across music production, performance, education, and creative development.
Through her ongoing projects, Desarae Dee continues to develop her career as an instrumental artist while contributing to Canada's music and arts communities.
“Telephone….Wait” is available now across streaming platforms.
“Telephone….Wait” explores the emotional tension between hesitation and taking action. What inspired you to turn the experience of waiting to make an important phone call into an instrumental composition, and what emotions were you hoping to capture?
For me, Telephone….Wait is about that space between wanting to reach out and finding the courage to do it. We’ve all experienced moments where there’s something we need to say, someone we want to connect with, or a conversation we’ve been putting off. Sometimes the hardest part isn’t making the call itself. It’s everything that happens emotionally before we pick up the phone.
I wanted to explore that internal dialogue through music. The anticipation, the uncertainty, the vulnerability, the second-guessing, and that quiet hope that maybe, just maybe, someone will be on the other end ready to listen.
As an instrumental storyteller, I’m fascinated by emotions we don’t always have the words to explain. I composed the piece with that emotional journey in mind, and my collaborator, Donyea Goodman, brought his musical perspective and orchestration to the arrangement in a way that expanded the story beautifully.
What I love most is that the telephone is both literal and symbolic. For one listener, the music might bring back memories of a relationship. For someone else, it could represent an unanswered prayer, a difficult decision, or the courage to take a step toward something new.
At its heart, Telephone….Wait asks a simple question: What happens when you’re ready to be heard, but you’re not sure anyone will answer?
The piano essentially becomes the voice of “Telephone….Wait,” communicating an entire emotional experience without lyrics. How do you approach using silence, repetition, and musical phrasing to tell a story that listeners can interpret through their own experiences?
I always say that just because my music doesn’t have lyrics doesn’t mean it doesn’t have something to say. When I compose, I’m thinking about music as a conversation. The piano can ask a question, express hesitation, offer reassurance, or communicate something that feels too vulnerable to say out loud. Every note has a purpose, but so does the space between the notes.
Silence is especially important because it creates room for the listener to feel. Sometimes what you don’t play carries just as much emotional weight as what you do. Repetition can represent a thought you can’t shake, a feeling you keep returning to, or the emotional cycle of wanting to act but holding yourself back. And phrasing is where the music begins to breathe. It’s how I give an instrumental melody the natural rhythm of human expression.
With Telephone….Wait, the piano carries that emotional conversation, while the surrounding musical textures help shape the atmosphere. There are moments of movement and moments of restraint, and that contrast is intentional. But here’s the beautiful thing: I don’t believe I have to explain every emotional detail for someone to connect with the composition.
My job is to tell the story honestly. The listener’s job isn’t to interpret it correctly; it’s to discover what it means to them.
Some people have told me the song made them feel something deeply. Others have talked about its musical textures, while some simply want to hear it on repeat. I love that! It reminds me that instrumental music can speak to people in different ways without needing to give everyone the same message.
You’ve embraced the creative identity of The Sonic Midwife, describing your mission as birthing transformation through sound. What does that philosophy mean to you personally, and how has it influenced the way you approach composition and performance?
The Sonic Midwife is probably the most honest description I’ve ever found for what I do.
A midwife helps bring something into the world. I see my role as a musician in a similar way, except what I’m helping to bring forward isn’t necessarily something physical. It might be an emotion someone has buried, a memory they’ve forgotten, a moment of healing, or a realization they didn’t know they needed.
I don’t believe I create the transformation for someone. I create the musical space where transformation becomes possible. That understanding is deeply personal for me. There was a point in my journey, particularly in 2018, when I seriously considered walking away from the piano. I was questioning my purpose and whether continuing made sense. But my faith played a significant role in why I kept going. I felt strongly that God wasn’t finished with what He had placed in my hands.
Over time, I began to understand that my purpose wasn’t simply to become a better pianist, release more songs, or collect achievements. It was to use the gift I’d been given to connect with people in a meaningful way.
That’s why I approach composition and performance with intention. I’m not necessarily trying to impress someone with how many notes I can play or how complicated I can make the music. I want to communicate something real. Sometimes that requires technical complexity. Sometimes it requires one chord, one melody, or one moment of silence.
And because everyone’s life experience is different, the same composition can bring out different responses in different people. That’s where the beauty lies. I’m the Sonic Midwife because I help birth emotional stories through sound. What those stories awaken in someone else is part of their own journey.
The extended visual adds another storytelling dimension to “Telephone….Wait.” How did you develop the relationship between the music and its visual narrative, and what aspects of the composition were you hoping audiences would experience differently through film?
I’ve always been intentional about how I present my music visually because I see the visual as an extension of the composition, not simply something to accompany it. With Telephone….Wait, the telephone became the central visual symbol because it represents so much more than making a call. It represents connection, anticipation, vulnerability, unanswered questions, and the possibility of finally being heard.
When I developed the visual direction, I wanted to preserve the emotional openness of the instrumental piece. I didn’t want the visuals to tell people exactly what the music meant. I wanted them to offer another way into the story.
That’s one of the interesting challenges of visual storytelling with instrumental music. Once you introduce imagery, you can influence how people interpret a composition. So I think carefully about the atmosphere, pacing, and emotional relationship between what an audience sees and what they hear.
The music already contains its own tension and release. The visual gives those emotions another dimension, allowing the audience to experience the anticipation of the story in a more tangible way.
I’ve also carried the red telephone into the broader creative identity of the release. It’s become a recurring motif throughout the campaign, connecting different visuals and moments back to the same composition.
My hope is that someone can experience Telephone….Wait with or without the visual and discover something meaningful in both versions. The music tells the story through sound. The visual invites you to step inside its world.
Through the Sonic Midwife Sessions Tour and Desarae Dee Music Group Inc., you’re expanding your work across performance, education, and immersive creative experiences. What new possibilities are you most excited to explore, and how do you envision your artistic identity evolving through these different platforms?
What’s exciting for me right now is that I’m finally giving structure to a vision I’ve been developing throughout my nearly twelve-year career.
Desarae Dee Music Group wasn’t an idea that suddenly appeared this year. I’ve been building the work for years. I officially registered the company in 2026, which was an important step in creating a stronger foundation for everything I’ve been developing as an independent artist, composer, producer, educator, and creative entrepreneur. I’ve never seen my artistry as something that belongs in only one space.
I love composing and recording original music, but I also love education, live performance, and creating experiences where people can connect with music beyond simply pressing play.
The Sonic Midwife Sessions Tour is part of that bigger vision. I’m interested in creating performance experiences that bring audiences closer to the stories behind the compositions, where musical storytelling, conversation, and human connection can exist together.
Education is another important part of that mission. Through initiatives like Sonic Story Lab, I want to help young people explore music not only as a technical skill but also as a language for creativity, emotion, and self-expression.
And through DDMG, I’m building an ecosystem where these different parts of my work can grow with intention. That includes original compositions, live productions, educational programming, and opportunities to develop and protect the intellectual property I’ve spent years creating. But I also want to be very clear about something: expansion doesn’t mean I have to be everywhere, do everything, or become everything to everyone.
This chapter of my career is about being more intentional with my time, my energy, and the opportunities I choose. I’ve learned that building something sustainable is just as important as building something successful.
As my artistic identity evolves, I don’t see myself moving away from being Desarae Dee, the instrumental storyteller. I see myself creating more ways for that identity to reach people.
The pianist tells the story. The composer gives it shape. The educator helps someone discover their own voice. And the Sonic Midwife creates space for transformation.
To me, they’re not separate identities. They’re different expressions of the same purpose.
