Background
Jim Gelcer was born in Cape Town, South Africa and moved to Toronto, Canada in 1968.
Jim Gelcer was born in Cape Town, South Africa and moved to Toronto, Canada in 1968.
He attended Eastman School of Music in 1980, studying drums, vibraphone, arranging and improvisation with Ray Ricker, Bill Dobbins, Dave Ratajczak, and Lee Musiker. In 1984 Jim studied jazz with David Mott at York University.
Soon afterwards he established himself as a professional musician. Gelcer has performed, recorded, and toured with acts as diverse as Lee Aaron, and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band. He has also worked with Lorne Lofsky, Paul Hoffert, Don Thompson, Russian Little, Terry Clarke, Pat LaBarbara, Guido Basso, Steve Wallace, John Sherwood, Nancy Walker, Richard Underhill, George Koller, Regional Schwager, Dave Young and Bratty and the Babysitters.
Early in his career, Gelcer composed music for film and television, including Price of Vengeance (1985), The Journal on Canadian Broadcasting Company (1985-1989), and My Happy Days in Hell (1994).
More recently, Jim teamed with Donald Quan to form Gopher Lunch, a film music recording house and music library. Gelcer worked with the Harvard University digital media start up, Noank Media Incorporated., as the Vice President of Content Acquisition and Business Development and later Chief Operating Officer.
Noank Media Incorporated. aimed to license and distribute digital content globally while fairly compensating content owners, using the most efficient, sustainable, and effective business and technology systems They successfully demonstrated their proprietary digital media exchange platform and reached a partnership with CERNET (China Education and Research Network).
He has served on the board of several arts organizations including the Glenn Gould Foundation from 2010 – 2013 as Fundraising Chair, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, and Mariposa in the Schools.