The Royal Conservatory of Music, branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher as The Toronto Conservatory of Music. In 1947, King George VI incorporated the organization through royal charter. Its Toronto home was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1995, in recognition of the institution's influence on music education in Canada. Tim Price is the current Chair of the Board, and Peter Simon is the President.
Daniel Edward Lapp is a Canadian folk musician based in Victoria, British Columbia and Pender Island.
Mark O'Connor is an American fiddle player, composer, guitarist, and mandolinist whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Musician Of The Year awards and was a member of three influential musical ensembles: the David Grisman Quintet, The Dregs, and Strength in Numbers.
Walter Prystawski, CM is a Canadian classical violinist, conductor and teacher. For many years he was the concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.
Peter Appleyard, was a British–Canadian jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and composer.
Quartetto Gelato is a Canadian classical crossover quartet with current members Colin Maier, Matti Pulkki, Kirk Starkey, and Tino Popovic, and based in Hamilton, Ontario. Their musical repertoire consists of a mix of classical masterworks with tangos, gypsy, klezmer, jazz, and folk songs from around the world. They usually play without musical scores and their performances include elements of humour and dance.
George Gao is a Chinese-born erhu player and composer.
Lenny Solomon is a Canadian jazz, pop, and classical violinist and composer. An active studio musician, he has performed on hundreds of recordings and soundtracks, He has also recorded two of his own jazz albums: After You've Gone and The Gershwin Sessions. He has appeared as a guest soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and has served as concertmaster for a variety of theatrical entertainments. He was awarded The Jazz Report 's Violinist of the Year award three times.
Beyond the Pale is a Toronto-based Canadian world/roots fusion band. Their style is rooted in klezmer, Balkan and Romanian music but heavily accented with contemporary and North American styles including bluegrass, jazz, reggae, funk and classical chamber music. They are known for unique songcraft, virtuosic musicianship, meticulous dynamics, and exuberant live performances. They are widely regarded as one of Canada's most accomplished and innovative acoustic ensembles. Some have described their sound as being in the same spirit as "New Acoustic Music" and David Grisman's "Dawg" music, but tinged more heavily with an east European accent. The name of the band is a reference to the Eastern-European Jewish Pale of Settlement, from where their music is partially inspired.
Friends of Fiddler's Green is a Canadian folk music group based in Toronto founded in 1971 and still active as of 2018. The members of the group at the time of its first recording, 1981's This Side of the Ocean, were Alistair Brown, Tam Kearney, Grit Laskin, David Parry, Ian Robb, Laurence Stevenson, and Jim Strickland. Another half-dozen former members from the band's first 10 years are listed on the back of the album.
Judy Kang is a Canadian violinist, model, producer, singer, and composer. Born in Canada to a single mother, she began playing the violin at four years of age in her native Edmonton, Alberta, and has since toured worldwide as soloist with a number of orchestras and ensembles.
The Conservatory String Quartet (CSQ) was a Canadian string quartet in residence at The Royal Conservatory of Music during the first half of the 20th century. The group actively performed in the Toronto area and regularly toured throughout the Province of Ontario. The quartet also notably toured to Montreal in 1942 and 1943. The ensemble performed not only the standard string quartet repertoire but also performed new works by contemporary Canadian composers like Patricia Blomfield Holt, Walter MacNutt, and John Weinzweig. The ensemble was also heard many times on CBC Radio but never produced any recordings.
The Toronto String Quartette (TSQ) was the name of three un-related professional Canadian string quartets based in Toronto, Ontario.
Chris McKhool is a Canadian violinist, producer, guitarist, composer, and singer-songwriter. He has received numerous awards for his work, including four JUNO Award nominations and four Canadian Folk Music Awards for his various recordings.
Lynne Hanson is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Ottawa, Ontario who has released eight solo albums and has toured internationally.
The Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto is one of several professional faculties at the University of Toronto. The Faculty of Music is located at the Edward Johnson Building, just south of the Royal Ontario Museum and north of Queen's Park, west of Museum Subway Station. MacMillan Theatre and Walter Hall are located in the Edward Johnson Building. The Faculty of Music South building contains rehearsal rooms and offices, and the Upper Jazz Studio performance space is located at 90 Wellesley Street West. In January 2021, the Faculty announced Dr. Ellie Hisama as the new Dean starting July 1, 2021.
Randy Sabien is an American jazz violinist, composer, and music educator known for his live performances and numerous recordings, many of them on Flying Fish Records and Red House Records. At the age of 21 he founded and chaired the Jazz Strings department at Boston's Berklee College of Music and since 2009 has been the chair of the Strings department of McNally Smith College of Music.
Ray Legere is a Canadian bluegrass fiddler, mandolinist, guitarist and band leader from Sackville, New Brunswick.
Shane Ken Cook is a Canadian violinist. He is a long-time member of the celtic fusion ensemble Bowfire, and is a past Canadian Grand Master fiddler and U.S. National Fiddle Champion. His musical career has taken him to tour across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Germany, England, China and Taiwan.
Billy Contreras is an American jazz violinist and bluegrass fiddler, multi-instrumentalist, session player and educator.
