Biography

Sam Broverman is a Winnipeg-born, Toronto based jazz singer and songwriter. He has performed in venues across Canada, the US, Europe  and Asia. He began his professional singing career in Winnipeg as a teenager, appearing in theatre and cabaret productions and also on the nationally televised shows “Hymn Sing” and “The Doug Crosley Show”. Sam has performed regularly in the Summer Entertainment Series at Winnipeg’s Lyric Theatre.

Sam has PhD in mathematics from the University of Manitoba. He supported his studies by working as a professional singer throughout his university years. After graduating, he moved to Toronto, where he continues to be a professor of actuarial mathematics at U of Toronto, and continues singing.

Sam has sung with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir for many years. In 2008 he recorded a five song EP, “Five Standards” and in the spring of 2011 he released his first full jazz album, “Dream Maker, Heartbreaker: Sam Broverman sings Johnny Mercer”. Sam’s second jazz album, “Leftover Dreams”, was released in the fall of 2013. It is a collection of the songs of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen on the occasion of their 100th birthday year.  His third album is “Feelings of Affection”, released in 2016.

Sam performs regularly in jazz venues around Toronto, including the Home Smith Bar, Jazz Bistro, Lula Lounge, The Rex, Mandy’s Bistro, Hart House at the University of Toronto, Aviv Restaurant and The Duke Live. In 2012 Sam created the popular show “A Jewish Boy’s Christmas”, which he has performed to sold out audiences every December since. In November, 2018 Sam released his “Jewish Boy’s Christmas” album, which includes songs from that show.

In 2013 he appeared on the TVO show The Agenda, hosted by Steve Paikin, where he talked about and sang songs of Johnny Mercer. One of Sam’s favorite activities is songwriting, particularly parody and novelty songs. He has had the opportunity to perform some of his math-related parody songs for several math research conferences. In the summer of 2015 he was the local organizer for a conference in actuarial mathematics attended by about 250 people. Sam wrote several parody songs for that conference and recorded a CD of eight songs that conference participants received. Sam has performed these songs at various math conferences.