Morgan Childs is a drummer living in Toronto, Ontario. Originally hailing from Invermere, BC, in that province’s mountainous East Kootenay region, Morgan spent 10 years on the Vancouver music scene before making the move to Toronto in the fall of 2009. During that time, Morgan has built an international career as a performer and educator with some of the world’s finest musicians. Morgan is highly regarded among his peers for his deep swing feel, sensitivity, versatility and musicality, as well as his reverence for jazz history and wide-ranging musical vocabulary. Showing enviable versatility, Morgan is also a noted composer and bandleader. His groups have been frequently featured on CBC radio shows Hot Air, Tonic, and JazzBeat. Morgan has been the recipient of the Fraser McPherson Memorial Scholarship, three CBC Galaxie Rising Star awards at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival (2006, 2007, 2008), the 2009 and 2012 General Motors Grand Prix du Jazz at the Montréal Jazz Festival (with The Amanda Tosoff Quartet and Robi Botos Trio, respectively), and a 2010 TD Fellowship in Jazz from the Banff Centre.
Morgan earned a degree in jazz performance from Capilano University in North Vancouver, and received a scholarship to attend the world renowned Banff Centre International Jazz Workshop in 2002 and 2003. Morgan has sought private instruction with an impressive list of elite drum artists, including Blaine Wikjord, Dave Robbins, Clarence Penn, Ari Hoenig, Jim Black, Gregory Hutchinson, Byron Landham and Alan Jones.
Morgan has performed across North America as a leader and a sideman at major festivals, universities, clubs and concert venues. Some of the notable artists has performed, recorded, and toured with include; Ingrid Jensen, Rob Scheps, Mike Murley, Brad Turner, Bill Coon, Mike Allen, Phil Dwyer, Laila Biali, Ian Hendrickson-Smith, Brandi Disterheft, David Braid, Hugh Fraser, Robi Botos, Zach Brock, Chris Gale, Kelly Jefferson, and Don Thompson. In 2007, Morgan released his debut CD as a leader, “Time” on the Vancouver-based Cellar Live record label.
As an educator, Morgan has been a clinician and instructor at high school and university music programs in Canada and the United States, including Humber College, Capilano University, Vancouver Island University, Grant MacEwan College, the University of Lethbridge, and the Phil Dwyer Academy of Music and Culinary Arts. He is currently on faculty as a private drum instructor at the Humber College Community Music School.
