Category: Guest Musician

Originally hailing from the industrial landscape of Hamilton, Ontario, Dana Sipos inhabited the far Canadian north – Yellowknife, Northwest Territories – for many years before going nomad.  Her captivatingly nuanced songs continue to be infused with a wild wind and a haunting, slightly hypnotic surrealism akin to the mysteries of the North.  Her 2015 release, Roll Up the Night Sky, was nominated for a Canadian folk music award in the Pushing the Boundaries category celebrating innovation in creating new folk sounds.  She has a new album, Trick of the Light, to be released soon this year.

http://www.danasipos.com/

• Sun Oct 14th: Mindful Living: The True Path to Wisdom
• Sun May 13th: Reflections of an Academic Feminist
• Sun. Oct 29 10:30am – Psychotherapy in theory and practice: how do various approaches work?

Elizabeth Block’s business card describes her songs as political, satirical, sentimental, and environmental. Elizabeth was a choral singer, and a church soloist, for decades, a folksinger since she joined Toronto Folk Song Circle in the 1980s. She learned to play the guitar, not well, but well enough to accompany herself and other people. She knows a lot of songs, has sometimes written new words to old songs, or new versions of them. She hasn’t written an entire song, but there’s still time. She is also a potter, check out:  www.elizabethblockpottery. com.

• Sunday July 30th – [Online] The Value of a Vacation
• Sun Oct 20: Relationship Models and Pitfalls
• Sun June 17th: Ethics and the Rule of Law – Racism Defined

Willow Rutherford is a troubadour balladeer of folk, jazz, Celtic and traditional standards, with deep roots in the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver indie music scene. She has composed soundtracks for documentaries and animated shorts. Willow sings in English, French and Spanish. 

• Sun Sep 29th: Introduction to Street Epistemology: A Genuine Way to Investigate Beliefs
• Sun Nov 4th: Power Within
• Sun March 4 – Mediating Conflicts of Faith within Families: Strategies and Solutions
• Sun Feb 18 – Five Ideas to House the Next Generation
• Environmental Stewardship – an Aboriginal Perspective

Lunar Bloom is an all-female indie-folk trio with voices that weave seamlessly in and out of harmony. The three ‘blooms’ are long time friends, and have been collaborating together as music makers for 2 years. Pulling inspiration from other artists, they create a sound that has the quirkiness of Regina Spektor, the sweet innocence of Dala, and the witchy appeal of Florence and the Machine. Their music features dynamic range and honest story telling. https://www.lunarbloomband.com.  

• Sun Dec 01 – Understanding, Coping With, and Harnessing Our Emotions
• Sun June 23 – The Need for Humanist Community

Vancouver born, Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist/songwriter, Jessica Stuart has spent much of the last decade touring the world with her award-winning jazz-pop trio, The Jessica Stuart Few. As an accomplished vocalist, guitarist and koto player (13-stringed traditional Japanese harp), Stuart has been praised for her on-stage charm, musical chops, and signature song writing style.   Described by The Globe & Mail as “endlessly charismatic”, Jessica has been likened to a modern-day Joni Mitchell with lyrics that describe the joys and challenges of the human experience, delivered in a catchy, but musically adventurous package. Check out her website: https://jessicastuartmusic.com/

Some of Stuart’s recent career highlights include a Top 40 single in Japan, a “Best Album” designation in the international Independent Music Awards, festival performances in Australia, Germany, China, Japan and North America, and regular rotation on airwaves around the globe, from the BBC to the CBC.

Coming off of the release of the single “Fukue’s Theme Part I” that accompanied a record-breaking viral CBC documentary about the artist herself (3 million views and counting), Stuart has released an indie-pop single this summer (June 2019) called Simple Little Song, under the new project name JESSA.

• Sun Feb 02 – Capitalism 101
• Sun Sep 22 – Losing My Innocence: What I Wish I Knew About the Justice System
• Sun June 09 – The Twilight of a Law-Based International Order

Emilyn Stam and John Williams merge the melodic voices of violin and clarinet, creating a modern sound steeped in tradition. Not limited to original music, their repertoire often has a strong connection to traditional dance, and explores a wide palette of sound through various combinations of violin, clarinet, accordion, harmonica and piano. They first started playing music together as members of the Lemon Bucket Orkestra. Currently John also leads the 6-piece old-time jazz band The Boxcar Boys and Emilyn tours with Italian diatonic accordion virtuoso Filippo Gambetta. Their website is https://emilynandjohn.com/

• Sun Mar 01 – Cuddle Party Rules
• Sun Feb 24 – Freedom of Expression and “Islamophobia”
• Sun Jan 21: Tell Me the Old, Old Story
• Creating Communities and Spaces for Everyone

Citizen Jane is a Toronto-based folk-pop duo that evocatively weaves powerful vocal harmonies with innovative string textures to create an emotionally charged soundscape.

The duo consists of married couple Reenie Perkovic (vocals, guitar, mandolin) and Lea Kirstein (viola, fiddle, cello, vocals), who met while studying classical music on the west coast of Canada. The ladies have since made a home in Toronto’s vibrant music scene.

Reenie grew up in the Toronto area, after her family escaped the civil war in her birthplace, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Reenie was a semi-finalist in the 2016 UK Songwriting Contest, and has released 3 solo albums. She has opened for Juno-nominated Alysha Brilla, and Annabelle Chvostek (Wailin’ Jennys).

Lea is an acclaimed violist and fiddler, who grew up in Victoria, BC, where she studied viola and music education at UVic. Classical musician by day and fiddler by night, Lea discovered new ways of melding the two styles into one. Her passion for these genres took her across Canada & the U.S. with the Folk Arts Quartet. She has recorded with Juno-nominated artists Oliver Schroer and Teresa Doyle. 

Check out their website https://www.citizenjanemusic.com/

• Sun Mar 15 – Charter City Status: A Solution for What Ails Toronto?
• Sun Oct 21st: Religious Freedom v. Human Rights – the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada et al.
• Sun June 24: Did you hear the one about the two atheists who went to Sunday School?
• Sun March 18 – Housing First as a Successful Means to End Chronic Homelessness

The Pickle Juice Trio is an exploration of rhythms, structures and melodies derived from the blues, gospel and swing music of the mid twentieth century by three musicians who crossed paths in the improvised music scene in Toronto.  All three are eclectic musicians who’s playing and influences cross many stylistic boundaries. Arnd Jurgensen has been a prominent contributor to TO’s improvised music scene but here channels influences ranging from Blind Blake to Blood Ulmer with his finger style guitar playing and baritone vocals. Percussionist Bob Vespaziani, also a staple on the improvised music scene, demonstrates his years of experience backing numerous blues and swing performers around town. Last but not least, violinist Cassie Norton with influences from folk, jazz and classical music adds an unusual and intriguing colour to this not so conventional blues trio.  Cassie Norton is also the music director of Toronto Oasis.

• Sun Apr 07- The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts
• Sun June 10th: The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline: Controversy & Politics

At 21 years old, Julia Fedec has kicked off her music career with works that have been carried with her for years. For Julia, music has been the outlet through which she explores herself and the world around her – the only outlet that seemed apt to express the beauties and pains of vulnerability, finding inner strength and the complexities of life.  Julia only started performing publicly in 2018, and is in the process of writing and recording new music to release.

• Sun Nov 03 – Rainbow Railroad: Helping Persecuted LGBQTI People Find a Pathway to Safety
• Sun Jan 27 – The Bruce Trail Conservancy: Preserving a Ribbon of Wilderness, for Everyone, Forever

Phil ‘Philosofree’ Cheney is a Corporate, Executive and Life coach, author, consultant, poet and writer, composer, musician and builder. He has published 8 books and 5 CDs of original music. You can check out his music at https://philosofree.bandcamp.com and https://www.philcheney.com/music/.

• Sun Nov 10 – Extinction Events and the Demise of the Dinosaurs
• Sun May 26 – How Can Citizens Safeguard Democracy