Music

Born and raised on a second generation dairy farm in rural Ontario, Allison Lupton has always been immersed in Canadian folk life, but it took a love and intense study of Irish and Celtic music for her to find her way to the Canadian folk music tradition that she’s grown up around.  Her newest album, “Words of Love” showcases her original material, songs which fit so perfectly into the cannon of Canadian folk music that they could easily be mistaken for traditional numbers.  Along with her all-star band mates Andrew Collins, Shane Cook, Tony McManus, Joseph Phillips and Ivan Rosenberg,  Lupton brings to life the best of the contemporary folk music scene in Ontario, while incorporating the Celtic influences that have been such an important part of the Canadian immigrant story as well as her own musical path.

After working with various bands and groups including Killiecrankie, which was regularly heard on CBC Radio’s legendary Max Ferguson Show, Lupton starting putting out music under her own name in 2001 with her debut album “My True Love”.  The album launched her solo career, performing across Canada, the United States, and the UK.  Allison has since recorded 3 solo CDs and been featured on CBC Radio’s Vinyl Café and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. She recently toured the UK performing at the Hebridean Celtic and the Warwick Folk Festivals.  In 2015, she teamed up with Tannis Slimmon and Rosemary Phelan to record as The Lucky Sisters.  She has been nominated for “Traditional Singer of the Year” and “Vocal Group of the Year” by the Canadian Folk Music Awards.   In 2015 Lupton won Folk Music Ontario’s “Songs From the Heart” grand prize for her song “One More Day”.  With her new album, “Words of Love”, Lupton can count herself securely among Canadian folk music’s finest contributors.

Self-made singer songwriter Eric Ethridge is making his way across North America connecting with audiences and living out his wildest dreams. With an undoubtedly unique path, this past year has seen him pivot from a profession as a doctor to full-time country artist. Still practicing when he released his first self-titled EP, which features his breakout single debut, “If You Met Me First,” the ability to express himself creatively was what always gave him the most joy. “To me, a successful life is doing something you love while changing people’s lives for the better while doing it.”

Canadian-raised, his EP hit Number One on his country’s overall iTunes chart and was streamed over 3 million times in the first 6 weeks, with no promotion. Subsequently, the lead track earned a coveted spot on SiriusXM’s tastemaker program “On the Horizon” for 24 consecutive weeks.

Performing in a cover band while attending chiropractic school went along with his four jobs to help pay for the prestigious degree. His passion and focus shifted to music thanks to a string of rapturously received festival appearances, performing to crowds of 40,000. As his music and fanbase grew (thanks in part to wildly popular YouTube covers), Ethridge landed a performance slot between Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line at the major Canadian country festival, Boots and Hearts when he realized he needed to follow his heart and pursue music full time.

“I’m so grateful every day. I cannot wait to continue building this life in music,” he says. “Every day is an opportunity.”

My Father’s Son, an indie folk song-writer from Montreal, QC, melds together intricate lyrics with the richness of simplified, acoustic sound. Singer/songwriter Mark Kulmala released his first album, Heart of Wood, in the fall of 2016. The album’s themes of fleeting innocence, love’s lost and found, determination, and the simple beauty of the landscape are sure to resonate with listeners.  Having played in varying bands, in a variety of genres, over the years this endeavour sees a paired down amalgamation of lived experiences, both personal and musical, poetically creating emotionally complex but subdued, reflective songs. An air of storytelling colours the music with sentimental and wholly relatable verses that immerse the audience in the beauty of shared experiences.

From festivals, to large halls, to living rooms - My Father's Son has shared the stage with some of Canada's best artists:

Ben Caplan and the Casual Smokers, Dylan Menzie, Joey Landreth, Craig Cardiff, NQ Arbuckle, Zachary Lucky, Leyla McCalla, Belle Star, SloCan Ramblers, Carl Dixon, Skydiggers and Damhnait Doyle.

My Father's Son is releasing his sophomore album, The Greatest Thaw, on June 5, 2019. The album was recorded with Paul Pfisterer (The Beauties, RHYE) at Freckles Farm Studio in Chatsworth, Ontario. The album features Broken Social Scene's Lisa Lobsinger and was mixed by Dean Nelson (Beck). Broken Social Scene and Stars Front-of-House Engineer, Martin Davis Kinack, mastered the record.

This show will be a homecoming for My Father's Son, who started his career in London, Ontario before moving to Montreal.

Born and raised in London, Ontario, Ken Yates has steadily grown a reputation as one of Canada's brightest singer/songwriters.  His album "Huntsville", produced by Jim Bryson won two Canadian Folk Music Awards for Songwriter of the Year and New Artist of the Year.  He's received praise from the likes of John Mayer, was nominated as Sirius XM's The Coffee House Discovery of the Year and was recently on tour supporting the artist Passenger.

Come out & enjoy an evening celebrating Canadian icon Stan Rogers, at the historic Aeolian Hall. Stan was one of Canada’s most celebrated and most prolific songwriters, and he tragically lost his life in an airplane fire in 1983 at the young age of 33.

Stan’s music endures to this day and is known around the world.  This concert will feature six performers singing some of Stan’s best-known songs and maybe a few you may not have heard before. The performers will include members of the Rogers family – his wife, Ariel and two of his children, Nathan and Beth. Also featured will be Stan’s record producer and guitar player, Paul Mills, well-known singer-songwriter, David Bradstreet and the wonderful Dayna Manning best know lately for her work with the group Trent Severn. Backing up the singers will be a remarkable band consisting of Stan’s former bass player, David Woodhead, keyboard and accordion player, Tom Leighton and fiddler Lindsay Schindler.

There will also be a silent auction to raise money in support of the Ken Palmer Bursary which is awarded to a graduating high school student pursuing music education at a post secondary level in Ontario.

This promises to be a wonderful evening so save the date and spread the word! The first show sold out quickly, so get your tickets now!

Join us for our first concert of 2019!

Enjoy energetic performances from our choirs, beautiful renditions of old and new favourites from our string orchestras, and a rousing finale from our full symphonic orchestra, featuring our historic Cassavant Organ and the debut of our newly acquired Oboe and Bassoon!

Admission is free, donations gratefully accepted at the door!

Join us for our first concert of 2020!

Enjoy energetic performances from our choirs, beautiful renditions of old and new favourites from our string orchestras!

Admission is free, donations gratefully accepted at the door!

Mandy returns to the stage for an engaging and enlightening evening with her extraordinary band, ORIGINS. A wonderfully creative group of Juno Award winning musicians will be presenting their innovative program of Joni Mitchell songs, along with some original compositions. These  arrangements are fun, compelling and imaginative.

About Mandy Lagan:

Ms. Lagan grew up in Ridgetown, a small town in southwestern Ontario. She left Ridgetown to attend Mohawk College in Hamilton in 1981.

Mandy began taking herself seriously as a singer in 1990 when she moved from Hamilton to Toronto and formed a band in order to play songs of Joni Mitchell’s as well as her own writing. In 2002 she released her first CD, “I Thought About You”, a collection of jazz standards and two originals. In 2003 she released her second CD,  “You See Me”, a selection of five jazz standards and five originals. In 2007 she released her third CD, “Verses”, a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry which she collaboratively set to music.

Mandy has been performing around Ontario at various venues and festivals, working with some of Canada’s finest jazz artists; David Braid, Nancy Walker, Dave Restivo, Keiran Overs, Jim Vivian, Barry Romberg, Kevin Dempsey, David Occhipinti, Andrew Downing, Kevin Turcotte and Ted Quinlan. The “Verses” project awarded her financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts and The Ontario Arts Council.

Mandy now lives in Toronto with her family, teaching, writing, recording and performing.

About The Joni Book:

This is a unique and stunning tribute to one of Canada’s most iconic singer/songwriters.

After ten years of being amazed and profoundly touched by the music of Joni Mitchell, I started a Joni Mitchell cover band in 1989, based loosely on her Shadows and Light touring band. We had a few gigs and then it fizzled. I came to realize that I could not find my own voice as long as I was focused on singing like Joni Mitchell. So I put away all my Joni albums and turned my attention towards writing and developing myself as an artist and singer. 25 years later the project returned only this time I have held on to my identity. I have focused mainly on music from Blue, Court and Spark and Hejira, and chosen songs with a positive message. I have amassed a huge catalogue of Joni's songs, covering most of her albums but this seemed the sensible place to start.

I reached out to a handful of musicians in the city who I have enjoyed working with over the past two decades. It was important to me that they had an appreciation and love for Joni Mitchell’s music. The result is ORIGINS, a band of Juno Award winning musicians who have developed the arrangements and taken me to new heights as a singer and performer.

Dave Restivo, Ted Quinlan, Jim Vivian, Andrew Downing, Kevin Turcotte and Blair Mackay continue to contribute their creativity, intuition and mastery as we move forward with this project, following it’s natural creative, expansive course of evolution.

I hope that I can share this music with people who have also been touched by Joni Mitchell. The arrangements are fun, inventive and full of great musicianship. This is a very cathartic experience for me, extremely personal and an incredible musical ride.

David Restivo is one of Canada’s most respected and influential jazz artists. He is a 3-time winner of the National Jazz Awards’ Pianist of the Year. He received a Juno Award for his work on the 2001 recording The Rob McConnell Tentet (Justin Time). and can be heard on numerous recordings, including the Grammy-winning Mel Tormé/Rob McConnell collaboration Velvet and Brass (Concord Jazz), Mike Murley’s Conversation Piece (Cornerstone), Marc Jordan’s This is How Men Cry (Blue Note/EMI), and his own lauded debut Prayer for Humankind(ness) (Radioland/Universal). He has performed/recorded with Dave Holland, Jon Hendricks, Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie, Jerry Bergonzi, Mel Tormé, John Pizarelli, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Pat LaBarbera, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Randy Bachman (BTO/Guess Who), David Clayton Thomas and Molly Johnson. David has served on the music faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts, St. Francis Xavier University and Humber College. He currently teaches at the University of Toronto.

Andrew Downing is a Toronto based double bass player, cellist, composer and bandleader. He plays primarily in the creative jazz scene in Canada, but also performs classical chamber music, improvised music, folk and roots music, and world music. His projects include MELODEON, a 7-piece chamber ensemble that performs live music to silent films and ANAHTAR, a Turkish-Canadian project inspired by his yearly visits to İstanbul, Turkey and OTTERVILLE, a quiet jazz ensemble. He has composed music for The Vancouver Bach Choir, the Prince George Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra London, and he has arranged music for The Gryphon Trio, the Art of Time Ensemble and Patricia O’Callaghan. He has won two Juno awards for work with his group The Great Uncles of the Revolution and Zubot and Dawson.

Jim Vivian has been at the forefront of music making in Canada for nearly 30 years, and has performed and/or recorded with most of the well known jazz artists working in the country today. Jim has long-standing associations with many musicians in Toronto and across the country such as Mike Murley, Jeff Johnston, Don Thompson, Brian Dickinson, and John MacLeod, to name a few. He appears on over 100 recordings, 29 of which have been nominated for Juno awards in as many years. He has also performed and recorded with many internationally esteemed artists such as John Abercrombie, Jerry Bergonzi, Mick Goodrick, David Leibman, John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler, and Norma Winstone. Jim is currently on faculty at the University of Toronto and York University.

Ted Quinlan is regarded as one of the most versatile guitar players in Canada. His skills are highly in demand as a jazz player, session musician, writer and educator. Ted is the Head of the Guitar Department at Humber College's Music Program in Toronto. As a sideman Ted has performed with Chet Baker, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Michael Brecker, Dave Holland, Maria Schneider and Dave Liebman. His debut CD " As If" received a Juno nomination for Contemporary Jazz. He has also released “Streetscape”, 2009, “Around the Bend”, 2010 and will soon release his newest recording, “Absolutely Dreaming” Ted has also recorded on Mike Downes’ Juno winning CD “Ripple Effect”, Doug Riley's "Con Alma", Radioland Records' " Tribute to Wes Montgomery", Phil Dwyer's " Road Stories", Dave Restivo's " Prayer for Humankindness", Ted Warren's " First Time Caller", David Clayton-Thomas’ “Combo” and Nancy Walker’s “New Heiroglyphics” and “ ‘Til Now Is Secret”. Ted is the recipient of the 1998 Jazz Report Award for Guitarist of the Year.

Kevin Turcotte has been playing trumpet on the Canadian music scene for over two decades. He is a busy recording artist who has played on over 175 albums from many different genres. His warm sound and melodic tones have graced recordings by folk Legend Bruce Cockburn, opera star Measha Bruegergossman, jazz icon Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass, Michael Occhipinti’s Sicilian Project, Rich Brown’s Abeng. He has played on over 20 Juno nominated albums, winning Junos with Occhipinti’s NOJO, Andrew Downing’s Great Uncles of the Revolution and banjo player Jayme Stone. Kevin has been featured in many performances alongside players like Dave Holland, Brian Blade, Sam Rivers, Branford Marsalis and Joe Lovano. He has been named Trumpeter of the year on 12 different occasions by the Canadian jazz magazine The Jazz Report. This past fall Kevin recorded all the trumpet parts for the feature film called Born To Be Blue based on the life of Chet Baker starring American actor Ethan Hawke. Kevin also teaches in the music department of York University.

Blair Mackay has been performing and recording on percussion and drumset in a variety of contemporary, instrumental contexts since 1976. He has performed and recorded with Arraymusic ensemble, Serena Ryder and toured with April Wine. Blair toured and recorded with the Dangerous Kitchen Ensemble, performing the music of Frank Zappa in Europe, United States and Canada and has been a frequent performer with The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and the Canadian Opera Company. As well, Blair was the principal percussionist with the Esprit Orchestra. Blair has been artistic director of the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan since 1992. Under Blair’s direction, Evergreen Club has produced 10 critically acclaimed CDs. He recently received a Hall of Fame Juno award, and in 2009 Blair was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. In 2007 Blair, with his wife Lynda Clouette, founded the Hudson Music Festival (HMF).

Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida need no introduction to most Canadians. As individual singer/songwriters—and in Raine’s case his additional body of work with Our Lady Peace—they have earned nearly every accolade their country can bestow, including a joint appointment to the Order of Canada for their efforts benefitting humanitarian causes. But ask them what their greatest success has been and they’ll tell you it’s their 20-year marriage and three sons.

They will also tell you that, like almost everyone in a long-term relationship, maintaining that bond has been a struggle at times. Their advantage is the musical bond they also share, which from the beginning produced songs for their own projects, and hits for other artists such as Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson. However, it wasn’t until 2014 that they decided to embark on an entirely new creative path that would see them fully collaborate for the first time. As they seamlessly blended their musical identities, the pair dubbed the project MOON VS SUN and slowly amassed a cache of songs that expressed their thoughts and feelings in a uniquely honest and intimate way.

Live shows followed, and by 2018 the time had finally come to gather everything together and put it all in perspective. The results are an 11-track album - I’m Going To Break Your Heart: Music From the Motion Picture – along with a documentary film and more, which presents Raine and Chantal as no one has ever seen or heard before. “This is such a personal project that we deliberately wanted to do as much of it ourselves and not have any outside forces influence it,” Raine says.

Chantal adds, “That’s basically why it took so long. We didn’t even tell a lot of our industry friends and associates about it until it was pretty much finished. That helped to keep the process feeling natural, which was really refreshing for both us, not having to talk about what we were doing with other people.”

However, she quickly notes with a laugh that they still had to talk to each other. After several years of recording under their own roof, the pressures and distractions brought on by that prompted the couple to temporarily get as far away from their normal lives as they could. Their destination was the French island of Saint Pierre et Miquelon off the south coast of Newfoundland where they completed the bulk of the album and film, and also ultimately reconnected under the extremely isolated conditions.

Raine and Chantal are obviously aware of the risks inherent to opening themselves up as much as they do on I’m Going To Break Your Heart: Music From the Motion Picture, but whatever tension existed is now confined to the songs on the album, such as “Who’s To Say,” “Under The Stars,” and “I Love It When You Make Me Beg,” the last actually being one of their first true collaborations, written long before the idea of MOON VS SUN crystallized.

“Our relationship dynamic is a part of the music, you can’t have one without the other,” Raine says. “I think we surprised ourselves when we wrote ‘I Love It When You Make Me Beg’ because it captured a part of that dynamic without us really trying. That might have put us off doing more for a while because we knew we’d have to keep writing at that level.”

With that thought in mind, the album’s nuances come into sharper focus, particularly on the celebratory first single “Lowlight.” Its opening line, “You said we’re too young for dying, but we’re not kids anymore,” can be interpreted almost as a mission statement—trying to figure out which direction to take next on life’s journey. However, both Raine and Chantal see the song as a bridge between the album’s darker aspects to the hope that arose out of surviving those periods.

Describing “Lowlight”’s conception, Chantal says, “I was half asleep on the sofa when I heard Raine working on this beautiful melody. It made me hop up and get to the piano, and start adding this chant that immediately popped into my head. As the song developed, it became, for me, a metaphor of our creative partnership. We like to bounce off each other’s light—which I suppose is the best way to describe the meaning behind MOON VS SUN.”

A key track for Raine is “I Can Change,” which he says is also the key to the film. “You can see that song being conceived, written and recorded all in a little hotel room on the screen. I still can’t believe that happened. It’s what every artist strives for, and that’s why we do this, to capture some kind of magic. And to have it all on film makes it even more incredible.”

The knowledge of that elusive magic being within their grasp at any given moment is really what is driving the couple right now, and they’re hoping to generate a lot more of it for audiences during their upcoming tour. Chantal understands how fortunate they are to have this additional dimension to their relationship, and both want to see how far they can go within it. “I think every couple has to have that special thing that connects them, which of course doesn’t have to be music,” she says. “If they don’t have it, then the pressures of daily life and kids makes things really hard. I hope that people might get inspired in that way by what we’re doing, because I think when Raine and I play music together, we’re at our best.”

This doesn’t mean that either of them will abandon their individual musical pursuits, but they do acknowledge that the experience of making I’m Going To Break Your Heart has brought about a fundamental change moving forward, one they are more than happy to embrace. “For five years, all of this was just a fantasy for us,” Raine says. “Now it’s tangible, and when we write songs together, we know there can be a purpose to it. And part of that is also having something for our kids that can give them a better understanding of who we are. That’s a good feeling.”

Chantal agrees, saying, “I do think that this has set us up for the rest of our lives, as people and musicians, and that’s the best part,” she says. “Whenever I might find myself on stage again without Raine, I know it’s going to feel weird.”

Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida need no introduction to most Canadians. As individual singer/songwriters—and in Raine’s case his additional body of work with Our Lady Peace—they have earned nearly every accolade their country can bestow, including a joint appointment to the Order of Canada for their efforts benefitting humanitarian causes. But ask them what their greatest success has been and they’ll tell you it’s their 20-year marriage and three sons.

They will also tell you that, like almost everyone in a long-term relationship, maintaining that bond has been a struggle at times. Their advantage is the musical bond they also share, which from the beginning produced songs for their own projects, and hits for other artists such as Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson. However, it wasn’t until 2014 that they decided to embark on an entirely new creative path that would see them fully collaborate for the first time. As they seamlessly blended their musical identities, the pair dubbed the project MOON VS SUN and slowly amassed a cache of songs that expressed their thoughts and feelings in a uniquely honest and intimate way.

Live shows followed, and by 2018 the time had finally come to gather everything together and put it all in perspective. The results are an 11-track album - I’m Going To Break Your Heart: Music From the Motion Picture – along with a documentary film and more, which presents Raine and Chantal as no one has ever seen or heard before. “This is such a personal project that we deliberately wanted to do as much of it ourselves and not have any outside forces influence it,” Raine says.

Chantal adds, “That’s basically why it took so long. We didn’t even tell a lot of our industry friends and associates about it until it was pretty much finished. That helped to keep the process feeling natural, which was really refreshing for both us, not having to talk about what we were doing with other people.”

However, she quickly notes with a laugh that they still had to talk to each other. After several years of recording under their own roof, the pressures and distractions brought on by that prompted the couple to temporarily get as far away from their normal lives as they could. Their destination was the French island of Saint Pierre et Miquelon off the south coast of Newfoundland where they completed the bulk of the album and film, and also ultimately reconnected under the extremely isolated conditions.

Raine and Chantal are obviously aware of the risks inherent to opening themselves up as much as they do on I’m Going To Break Your Heart: Music From the Motion Picture, but whatever tension existed is now confined to the songs on the album, such as “Who’s To Say,” “Under The Stars,” and “I Love It When You Make Me Beg,” the last actually being one of their first true collaborations, written long before the idea of MOON VS SUN crystallized.

“Our relationship dynamic is a part of the music, you can’t have one without the other,” Raine says. “I think we surprised ourselves when we wrote ‘I Love It When You Make Me Beg’ because it captured a part of that dynamic without us really trying. That might have put us off doing more for a while because we knew we’d have to keep writing at that level.”

With that thought in mind, the album’s nuances come into sharper focus, particularly on the celebratory first single “Lowlight.” Its opening line, “You said we’re too young for dying, but we’re not kids anymore,” can be interpreted almost as a mission statement—trying to figure out which direction to take next on life’s journey. However, both Raine and Chantal see the song as a bridge between the album’s darker aspects to the hope that arose out of surviving those periods.

Describing “Lowlight”’s conception, Chantal says, “I was half asleep on the sofa when I heard Raine working on this beautiful melody. It made me hop up and get to the piano, and start adding this chant that immediately popped into my head. As the song developed, it became, for me, a metaphor of our creative partnership. We like to bounce off each other’s light—which I suppose is the best way to describe the meaning behind MOON VS SUN.”

A key track for Raine is “I Can Change,” which he says is also the key to the film. “You can see that song being conceived, written and recorded all in a little hotel room on the screen. I still can’t believe that happened. It’s what every artist strives for, and that’s why we do this, to capture some kind of magic. And to have it all on film makes it even more incredible.”

The knowledge of that elusive magic being within their grasp at any given moment is really what is driving the couple right now, and they’re hoping to generate a lot more of it for audiences during their upcoming tour. Chantal understands how fortunate they are to have this additional dimension to their relationship, and both want to see how far they can go within it. “I think every couple has to have that special thing that connects them, which of course doesn’t have to be music,” she says. “If they don’t have it, then the pressures of daily life and kids makes things really hard. I hope that people might get inspired in that way by what we’re doing, because I think when Raine and I play music together, we’re at our best.”

This doesn’t mean that either of them will abandon their individual musical pursuits, but they do acknowledge that the experience of making I’m Going To Break Your Heart has brought about a fundamental change moving forward, one they are more than happy to embrace. “For five years, all of this was just a fantasy for us,” Raine says. “Now it’s tangible, and when we write songs together, we know there can be a purpose to it. And part of that is also having something for our kids that can give them a better understanding of who we are. That’s a good feeling.”

Chantal agrees, saying, “I do think that this has set us up for the rest of our lives, as people and musicians, and that’s the best part,” she says. “Whenever I might find myself on stage again without Raine, I know it’s going to feel weird.”