It seems only fitting that Eli Bennett and Rosemary Siemens’ first album together would be out just in time for Valentine’s Day.
The husband-and-wife duo from Burnaby, who perform together as SaxAndViolin, are set to release their first album together, Can’t Help Falling In Love (Instrumental Love Songs), Vol. 1. The album, which comes out on Valentine’s Day, features love songs that inspired their own personal love story.
(The two were featured in the Burnaby NOW in December 2019; you can see an online version of the story here.)
The album’s title track is particularly special to the couple. In 2017, before they were married, Bennett arrived for a surprise visit at a concert Siemens was giving in Gretna, Manitoba. He came down the aisle playing Can’t Help Falling In Love and got up onstage to propose to Siemens in front of the audience (a proposal that went viral on social media).
Later that year, the two married in a public wedding ceremony in Siemens’ hometown of Plum Coulee, Manitoba, with 1,500 guests. Their 28-member wedding party included Juno-nominated professional musicians and a former member of the Canadian Tenors, who all sang themselves down the aisle. Bennett once again played Can’t Help Falling in Love on his saxophone as Siemens walked down the aisle.
In 2018, while touring North America separately, Bennett and Siemens performed some 175 shows in 100 cities – while Siemens was pregnant. Their son, Theodore Parker Bennett, was born on Sept. 13, 2018, and their song for him, You and Me, was recently nominated for a 2020 Canadian Gospel Music Award.
Since the official launch of their SaxAndViolin duo in 2019, they’ve performed around the world, including recently at the Vatican, and their videos have been seen millions of times on Facebook and YouTube.
“To be able to share our music and love story together with audiences around the world is something we wouldn’t trade for anything,” Siemens said in a press release.
She described the new album as “the soundtrack of our love story.”
It includes classic love songs including I Will Always Love You, Love Me Tender and Can’t Help Falling in Love, along with more current offerings including Ed Sheeran’s Perfect and Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years.
“After sharing our love story through our viral engagement and public wedding, it was only a matter of time before we had to release an album of the music that inspired it all,” Siemens said.
Can’t Help Falling In Love (Instrumental Love Songs), Vol. 1, by SaxAndViolin is now available for iTunes pre-order and for purchase at saxandviolin.com/store, with release on Feb. 14.
See www.saxandviolin.com for more about the duo.
