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Rick is several times nominated and holds the title of Forest City London Music Awards Jazz Vocalist 2019. He is honoured to be back at The Aeolian Hall Jazz & Musical Arts Festival (AJAMAF), this year as Rick Kish & Friends! These guys have been doing shows together, all over the place for quite some time. In particular they were super fortunate to essentially hold a monthly spot at Jazz On The Thames at Michael’s On The Thames from February 2019 through every possible opportunity available during the pandemic to December 2022. They tour extensively with LINK theatre & concerts as a really Retro CROONER Christmas & The Crooner Show which was seen most recently in Ingersoll at ITOPA and the Globus Theatre in Bobcaygeon, ON this past summer.

The fellas are excited to head to The Century Church Theatre in Hillsburgh, Ontario this Fall with The Crooner Show

Rick has performed onstage at the Grand Theatre in London, Huron County Playhouse, Drayton Festival Theatre, Port Stanley Festival Theatre, Blyth Festival Theatre, Bluewater Summer Playhouse, and elsewhere…

He served as Artistic Director at Port Stanley Festival Theatre, The Bluewater Summer Playhouse and LINK theatre & concerts…

For a lot more information about what we do, please go to…
www.rickkish.ca/therickkishcombo
www.linktheatre.ca

Connor Boa is a jazz vocalist and actor based out of London Ontario. He came to London nearly 10 years ago and in that time he has had the opportunity to work with many amazing musicians, artists, creators and performers as well as work on many amazing shows, such as a really Retro CROONER Christmas, The Crooner Show and many other shows with LINK theatre & concerts. He has also had the chance to work amongst many great actors in theatre at the Grand Theatre, Palace theatre and many more. Jazz music has always been something that is in Connor’s blood with many accrediting him to have that true and authentic crooner sound from the Frank Sinatra days of music. He is extremely excited to join Big Bandemic and live out a dream to sing with a true big band.

Located in London, Ontario, Mr. Love has performed as a classical guitarist from Los Angeles to Quebec City. He received his musical training at Los Angeles Valley College (Robert Mayeur) and the University of Southern California (James Smith, William Kanengiser). He has also played in master classes with David Leisner, Manuel Barrueco, David Russell and Benjamin Verdery. Awards include the Ensemble Award from U.S.C., the Music Faculty Scholarship from L.A.V.C. and first place in the L.A.V.C. Classical Guitar Association competition.

Local concert performances include Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church, Aeolian Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Museum London, St. Mary's Presbyterian Church, Colborne Street United Church and Wesley-Knox United Church and Interiors. He is also active as a chamber musician, performing regularly with the Artamus Guitar Trio, Trio di Gala (with Caroline Hauffe, flute and Allison Pilon, oboe) and Duo di Gala (with Caroline Hauffe, flute).

As an award winning, published composer, Mr. Love has composed for film and television and publishes his own works on his web site Music4ClassicalGuitar.com. Encompassing a wide range of styles, his compositions are descriptive in nature with rich, colourful textures that evoke strong visual imagery.

Mr. Love has performed extended engagements at notable local establishments such as the Elmhurst Inn, Willie's Café, Verandah Café, Garlic’s of London and Windermere’s Café. Mr. Love has also been a featured performer at many private parties and weddings.

His repertoire includes compositions from the Renaissance to the present, reflecting a wide range of stylistic interpretations in the classical genre. Arrangements can be made to supplement his performance with flute, voice, violin or additional guitarists to form special ensembles for any occasion.

In addition to his performance schedule, Mr. Love has maintained a thriving teaching practice for over 25 years, working one on one with students of all ages and coaching ensemble classes.

When not wrapped around a guitar, Mr. Love is often practicing aikido or walking by the river in search of abandoned tree forts.

Based in London Ontario, Canadian guitarist Andrew Cloutier has been making music professionally since the early 2000s. He studied at Western University in London, with a focus on music theory, composition, and classical guitar performance.

He has received awards and recognitions from the Jack Richardson London music awards, the OMFA provincial music festival, and Western University. He has also participated in masterclasses with world renowned guitarists and composers, including Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Roland Dyens, the Assad Brothers, and David Russell.

As a performer, his musical interests include the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, music from South America, and works by contemporary composers. In addition, he is an instructor at the London Academy of Music, and the music director at Strathroy United Church in Strathroy Ontario.

Andy performs on a 2009 guitar by Canadian Luthier Bruno Boutin.

In 2018, veracious Mohawk singer-songwriter Logan Staats was chosen from 10,000 hopeful contestants vying for a spot on musical competition show The Launch. Before an audience of 1.4 million viewers, Staats won, officiating the breakthrough that would leadhim to Nashville and Los Angeles, and to his single “The Lucky Ones” winning the Indigenous Music Award for Best Radio Single. “The Lucky Ones” also occupied #1 in Canada.

In the years between now and then, Staats has come home, making the intentional decision to re-root at Six Nations of the Grand River. “I wanted to bring my songwriting back to the medicine inside of music, to the medicine inside of reclamation,” he says following a phase of constant travel and intensity.

To Staats, music is a healing salve, contemplatively composed and offered to listeners in need of comfort. Since returning home, Staats has been able to create music authentically again, reclaiming his sound through honest storytelling and unvarnished, sometimes painful reflection.

An evocative testament to rock’s cathartic spirit, the album was recorded with borrowed microphones at Staats’ apartment, at Six Nations recording studio Jukasa, and at downtown Brantford’s Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts.

“My nation and mycommunity are in every chord I play and every note I sing,” says Staats. “They’ve saved me.”

Mary Lou and Dan Smoke are an exceptional couple.  Mary Lou is Ojibway Nation, from Batchawana, on Lake Superior, and Dan is Seneca Nation from the Six Nations Grand River Territory. They met in 1972/3 and were married in the Onondaga Longhouse in a traditional Indigenous Haudenosaunee Wedding Ceremony in 1977. They have been happily married for 43years.

They have hosted "The Smoke Signals Aboriginal Radio Program," since 1990 and continue with this Western University campus-based radio program offering interviews with indigenous cultural workers and advocates from across Turtle Island. They have collected an extensive archive and books related to their decades of working as journalists and advocates.  From 1999-2019 they worked with the London CTV Station.

Mary Lou and Dan Smoke received honorary doctorates, Honoris Causa, Noble International Environmental Peace University and are Adjunct Assistant Professors in the Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University. In 2006, they were invited to teach a course at Western University's Faculty of Information and Media Studies  (FIMS).

Over the years they have won several radio and TV Awards as well as a Teaching Award from the University Students Council for their teaching methods at Western.  They taught, "The Representation of Indigenous Affairs in the Mainstream and Alternative Media."  Recognized as Elders with many organizations and institutaions, they also taught an "Introduction to Indigenous Spirituality"  for Brescia University College at Western from 2009 - 2016.  They are frequently called upon to teach indigenous protocals and ethics, as well as perform indigenous ceremonies. On Dec. 10, 2020, Dan and Mary Lou received the Atlhosa Peace Awards for their work in truth and reconcilation.

Mary Lou was selected as a "Woman of Distinction" in 2015, by the YMCA London and was celebrated in an Awards Ceremony at the London Convention Center.  A Native Women's Drum Group, "The Good Hearted Women Singers" sang her an Honour Song when she received her Award.  Mary Lou directed that it be sung for all the other 7 women also being recognized.

Mary Lou is a gifted traditional and contemporary singer and has performed with Jim Buller, who was her agent, many years ago, and the founder of the Association for Native Development in Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA), Canada's oldest indigenous arts service organization.  Recently, she was inducted into the Forest City London Music Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement on April. 28, 2019.  She received a congratulatory text from acclaimed singer Buffy Sainte-Marie. She was Co-Chairperson of CARAS JUNO Indigenous Artist and Group of the Year for 2020/21.

Dan and Mary Lou Smoke are the proud grandparents of Ryan Isaac Smoke, who is 19 years old.

"Thoughtful, sparkling, poetically-inspired chamber jazz!"

“…with the release of Earth Voices […] Tosoff has taken the concept that she so brilliantly mastered with Words and built upon it. More instruments, more beautiful poems, more vocalists that equal more invigorating compositions that inspire and lift the already powerful words off the page into the present moment.”

Julian Taylor doesn’t fit in a box. He never has—and more power to him. A Toronto music scene staple and a musical chameleon, Julian Taylor is used to shaking it up over the course of 10 albums in the last two decades. Of West Indian and Mohawk descent, Taylor first made his name as frontman of Staggered Crossing, a Canadian rock radio staple in the early 2000s. These days, however, the soulful singer/guitarist might be on stage one night playing with his eponymous band, spilling out electrified rhythm and blues glory, and the next he’ll be performing at a folk festival delivering a captivating solo singer-songwriter set. His songs have been placed in shows like Kim’s Convenience, Haven, Private Eyes and Elementary. He’s been invited to perform at two Olympic Games. The soulful blues, rhythmic soul, rootsy rock riffs and troubadour-esque folk songs that comprise his music are worth putting your busy life on hold for. In everything he does, Taylor has carved his own path, creating genre-free music with a generosity of spirit and a strong belief in the healing powers of song. Off stage, Taylor recently ventured into radio; when the Indigenous radio station ELMNT FM opened in Toronto in 2018, Taylor became the station’s afternoon-drive host.

Taylor’s journey began in a musically artistic family: his father plays classical piano, while his cousins on both sides of his family sing and play music, and his uncle is the conductor of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, which focuses on Afrocentric vocal music. Taylor started piano at age 5 and learned acoustic guitar over summer campfires. In 1995, while still in high school, he formed the band The Midnight Blues and started playing open stages in North Toronto. That band morphed into Staggered Crossing who were signed to a publishing deal in 1997, and their self-titled debut, released in 2001, spawned four rock radio singles, including top 10 hit “Further Again.”

When Staggered Crossing split amicably in 2007, Taylor started anew as a solo artist with two albums of rootsier material, while grinding it out on the cover band circuit in small towns across Ontario. In 2014, he launched the Julian Taylor Band and this time, all bets were off: all of Taylor’s myriad influences were on the table, masterfully combining and updating vintage sounds that inspired him to create bold, innovative new songs. Modern pop, vintage R&B, smooth soul, and the rock’n’roll swagger he was known for, were all tied together with an intense devotion to craft and a collection of some of Toronto’s finest musicians. JTB have three studio albums to date—their acclaimed debut Tech Noir, released in 2014, the double record Desert Star released two years later and 2019’s acclaimed Avalanche—and have no plans to slow down, although in 2020 Taylor revisited his solo career with 2020’s contemplative The Ridge.

Toronto poet Robert Priest describes Taylor and his work as “the kind of artist forever in the zone, the voice limitless, the songs full of feeling.

”

Payadora is a contemporary chamber music ensemble that performs Argentinian/Uruguayan tango and folk music and original compositions inspired by that tradition. Payadora has self produced two albums and has developed a loyal following across Canada over the past six years. The ensemble balances a combination of virtuosity and creativity, with stylistic accuracy. The ensemble features a collection of some of the most respected chamber musicians in Canada. Founded in 2013, Payadora has become one of Toronto’s most vibrant and sought-after acts. Their broad scope in tango draws from the height of Buenos Aires’ Tango tradition, including compositions by De Caro, Pugliese, Troilo, and Salgan, to the masterful, contemporary sounds of Astor Piazzolla and beyond. Drawing from eclectic backgrounds in Classical, Jazz, Latin, Eastern European folk music, and improvisation, Payadora’s performances exude technical virtuosity, playful spontaneity, and rhythmic vitality.

Their recordings are played regularly on Jazz FM’s Cafe Latino and Classical 96.3. The Argentinean consulate recently made a video in support of Payadora showcasing interviews and live videos from Payadora’s concerts. In addition, Payadora is the featured ensemble in the 2019 documentary “The Sounds of Canada: Argentina.”

Highlights from Payadora’s past performances include sold-out shows at the Ottawa Chamberfest, Indian River Music Festival in PEI, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto Music Festival, the Lula Lounge, the Jazz Bistro, the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, and for the Canadian Opera Company's World Music Series at the Four Seasons Centre. Payadora has been featured with the London Symphonia, Cathedral Bluffs Symphony and the Hannaford Street Silver Band, Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Stratford Summer Music Festival, Leith Festival in Owen Sound, Music in the Morning in Vancouver and Vancouver Island Music Festival.

They are currently collaborating with Grammy award-winning “Yiddish Glory” in concerts and have composed and arranged an entire record of Polish and Yiddish Tango. They will be performing at Queens University and a live TV broadcast for Zoomer Radio.

They received a grant from the Ontario Arts Council to produce a full-length film of 11 pieces in collaboration with PointeTango which they released in 2021.

They were selected to perform their show “Tango in the Dark” with PointeTango Dance Company as part of the Next State Theatre Festival and will be performing five live shows in Toronto in January 2022.

Payadora will be releasing their third album with a grant from the Ontario Arts Council in 2022. Additionally, Rebekah received creation grants from Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Councils to compose new works for Payadora.

“Blessed with so many musical gifts—taste, time, projection and a rhythmic sense of when to change chords—Carol’s piano is beyond reproach, warm yet rhythmically sharp, giving her voice a perfect hammock of support to swing in.” – REX REED

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Ethereal folk. Space Cowboy twang. Psychedelic spaghetti western. Intergalactic blues grooves. Pop noir. Since their debut in 2011, Whitehorse has evolved from magnetic folk duo to full-blown rock band. In truth, Whitehorse is never fully either one or the other, but an ever-evolving creative partnership that challenges both artists to explore new instrumental and lyrical terrain with each project. Together, Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland’s searing Americana noir sensibility is distinguished by guitar wizardry (and instantly recognizable tone) and magnetic harmonies.

Now, the JUNO Award winning duo Whitehorse return to the early days of electric blues with The Northern South Vol. 2, the second instalment of a project that melds the grooves and melodies of the original selections with the band’s steamy, swampy, squalling approach. The Northern South Vol. 2, coming January 2019 on Six Shooter Records, deals 1950s blues bops, hellfire gospels and sexed-up cuts from Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed and more. The first single, “Who’s Been Talkin’” channels the cross-continent blues super sessions with spiny Wurlitzer, serpentine White Falcon, and, above all, a deep reverence for Howlin’ Wolf and his longtime guitar player Hubert Sumlin.

Singing in both English and French, music being a universal language, Shonk aims from the heart straight to the heart. She insists that music informs all aspects of her life and she is, above all, a music fan. Asked to name some of her current musical preoccupations, she cites Kurt Vile, Mac DeMarco, Amy Winehouse, Adele and Feist. “Feist has provided the soundtrack of my adult life. I’ve seen her four or five times live and to see how free she is on stage…how she invites the audience to be free themselves…so beautiful, authentic, contagious.”

It is evident that Gabrielle Shonk is embracing the opportunities before her and is only sometimes thinking about “not messing it up.” She is committed to following her instincts instead of obsessing over where she arrives. As she reasons it, “One can’t control what will happen, but you can make the journey fun and meaningful.”

Singer-songwriter Marty Kolls brings the energy of her east coast upbringing, classical music training, and life-long experience on the stage to every one of her performances. She mesmerizes her audience with her voice, melody and presence, with songs that speak of living life from the heart. “Marty Kolls is a revelation,” says the London Free Press’ Arts Editor, James Reaney.

For over 25 years, the Gryphon Trio has firmly established itself as one of the world’s preeminent piano trios, garnering acclaim and impressing international audiences with its highly refined, dynamic and memorable performances. With a repertoire that ranges from traditional to contemporary and from European classicism to modern-day multimedia, the Gryphons are committed to redefining chamber music for the 21st century.

Creative innovators with an appetite for discovery and new ideas, Gryphon Trio has commissioned over 85 new works and frequently collaborates on projects that push the boundaries of Classical music. Christos Hatzis’ multimedia work Constantinople – produced by the Gryphon Trio in partnership with Banff Centre, Tapestry New Opera, Ex Machina, and Music Toronto – continues to enrapture audiences in venues such the Royal Opera House, Linbury Studio.

The Trio tours regularly throughout North America and Europe and enjoys longstanding relationships with organizations such as Music Toronto, Chamber Music Society of Detroit, and Ottawa Chamberfest. Triple concertos have allowed performances with major orchestras including NACO Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and San Francisco Symphonies and tours with smaller orchestras such as the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra.

The Gryphon’s prolific recording catalogue includes over 23 releases on the Analekta, Naxos, and other labels, and is an encyclopaedia of works for the genre. Honours include 11 nominations and two Juno Awards for Classical Album of the Year, and the prestigious 2013 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Deeply committed to community engagement, education and the development of next generation audiences and performers alike, the Gryphons conduct masterclasses and workshops at universities and conservatories, and are Artists-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music and Trinity College. Since 2010, The Trio’s ground-breaking outreach program, Listen Up!, has inspired and engaged 16 Canadian communities to collaborate on large-scale multi-faceted arts creation projects. The Trio has lead Orford Music’s Piano Trio Workshop since 2013. In 2020, The Trio will direct the classical music summer program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Gryphon cellist Roman Borys is Artistic and Executive Director of the Ottawa Chamber Music Society. Annalee Patipatanakoon and Jamie Parker serve as OCMS’ Artistic Advisors in addition to their responsibilities at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, where Mr. Parker is the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance and Ms. Patipatanakoon is Associate Professor of Violin and Head of Strings.

Hailed by critics for her “exquisite solo work” (The Globe and Mail), “luscious tone” (Toronto Star), and her sensitive musicianship, Sarah Jeffrey is Principal Oboe of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A regular soloist with the TSO, Sarah has also appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras across Canada, performing works by Bach, Mozart, Vaughan Williams, Marcello, Haydn, and Mozetich. She is also an active recitalist and chamber musician, making frequent guest appearances with the Amici Chamber Ensemble, the ARC Ensemble, and Trio Arkel.

A devoted performer of new music, Ms. Jeffrey has commissioned several chamber works, including Chaconne for Oboe, Horn, and Piano by Erik Ross, and Rhapsody by Ronald Royer.

Ms. Jeffrey is a recipient of the Ontario Arts Council’s Chalmers Award for Creativity and Excellence in the Arts, and teaches regularly at Canada’s finest music schools. A passionate and devoted teacher, Sarah is on faculty at The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory and the University of Toronto, and spends her summers at the Orford Arts Centre and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. She can be heard discussing the finer points of the oboe on CBC radio, both as a performer and as a guest on several podcasts.

Sarah shares her life with her husband, TSO horn Gabriel Radford, their two children Evelyn and Aidan, and Jack the cat. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys travelling, cooking, swimming in cold lakes, hiking, and of course, the art of reed making.