Alumni Profile: Leonard Sumner

Congratulations to ACC Alumnus, Leonard Sumner, for being named Best New Artist at the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards this past September!

Leonard, a Media Production graduate from 2007, said getting into the performing side of the music business wasn’t exactly planned, but the work he’s done to get where he is today has been far from easy.

“It’s definitely not easy. People think it’s pretty glamorous, but it’s not really. You have to work just as hard as a 9-5 and sometimes harder because some days you start at seven in the morning and you’re not done until three in the morning. It’s definitely got its own weird hours, it’s nice, but it’s not easy.”

His debut album, Rez Poetry, was released in June 2013 with 11 tracks.

According to Leonard’s biography his music is described as a fusion of rhythm and blues, roots, hip-hop and country. Originally from Little Saskatchewan First Nation, Leonard took a few years off after high school before enrolling at ACC.

“I took Media Production because I wanted to learn audio recording because I had an interest in music, but I didn’t really know how to play any music or write music. While I was at ACC learning about video and audio, I started learning music at the same time. I taught myself how to play guitar and how to sing and play at the same time. It all kind of worked together naturally,” Leonard said.

Leonard’s goal to learn more about the technical side of performing has served him well. He credits his time at ACC as being invaluable in helping with his performances and having a good handle of what’s happening on and off the stage.

This Manitoba-born artist is now working on his music career full-time. He is currently still on tour with his first album, but has plans for the next three years to record and tour with a new album.

His travels generally take him across the country where he plays in major cities at various folk festivals. As well, he plays at many isolated, remote First Nations communities such as Little Grand Rapids, Garden Hill and Iqaluit.

He hopes to eventually make it onto the world music festival scene.

When asked, what advice he had to share with ACC students, he replied, “Whatever they want to do is really up to them, and how much they want to do is up to them.Their output is completely up to them – they have to show up and work hard.”