Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and informally in the jazz community as "the King of inside swing".
John Zorn is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, contemporary, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and world music.
Dion Francis DiMucci, better known as Dion, is an American singer and songwriter. His music incorporates elements of doo-wop, pop, rock, R&B, folk and blues. Initially the lead singer of the vocal group Dion and the Belmonts, Dion embarked on a solo career, and was one of the most prominent rock and roll performers of the pre-British Invasion era. He had 39 Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a solo performer, or with the Belmonts and the Del-Satins. He is best remembered for his signature hit songs "Runaround Sue", "The Wanderer", "Ruby Baby" and "Lovers Who Wander", among others.
Kevin Roosevelt Moore, known as Keb' Mo', is an American blues musician and five-time Grammy Award winner. He is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, living in Nashville, Tennessee. He has been described as "a living link to the seminal Delta blues that travelled up the Mississippi River and across the expanse of America." His post-modern blues style is influenced by many eras and genres, including folk, rock, jazz, pop and country. The moniker "Keb Mo" was coined by his original drummer, Quentin Dennard, and picked up by his record label as a "street talk" abbreviation of his given name.
Anthony Housefather is a Canadian Member of Parliament representing the riding of Mount Royal on the island of Montreal. From 2015 to 2019, Housefather served as the Chair of the Justice and Human Rights Committee. Following the 2019 election, he was named the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour. Following the 2021 federal election, Housefather was named Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement.
Bedouin Soundclash is a Canadian band based in Toronto and consisting of vocalist and guitarist Jay Malinowski, bass player Eon Sinclair and drummer Chuck Treece. Their sound has been described as a combination of reggae and ska. Bedouin Soundclash was formed in 2001, and has released six studio albums, most recently in 2022.
Garland Jeffreys is an American singer and songwriter in rock and roll, reggae, blues, and soul music.
Taylor Reuben Hicks is an American singer who won the fifth season of American Idol in May 2006. Hicks got his start as a professional musician in his late teens and performed around the Southeastern United States for well over the span of a decade, during which he also released two independent albums. Upon winning Idol, he was signed to Arista Records, under which his self-titled major label debut was released on December 12, 2006.
Charles Wayne Sexton is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Sexton is best known for his years as a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band, though also has become well known as a music producer. Sexton co-founded the Arc Angels and created the Charlie Sexton Sextet. He was still a teenager when he gained fame for his 1985 hit, "Beat's So Lonely", from his debut album, Pictures for Pleasure.
George Bowser and Rick Red, better known as Bowser and Blue, are a musical duo from Montreal who write and perform comedic songs. Their material ranges from absurdist humor to pointed political and cultural satire.
Angel City Chorale (ACC) is a Los Angeles choir conducted by founder and artistic director Sue Fink.
Eric San, aka Kid Koala, is a Canadian scratch DJ, music producer, theatre producer, film composer, multimedia-performer and visual artist. His career began as a scratch DJ in 1994. Kid Koala works with genres as eclectic as hip hop, ambient, alternative, contemporary classical, blues, classic rock and traditional jazz. He has released 5 solo albums on Ninja Tune, and 3 albums on Arts & Crafts Records, the most recent being Music To Draw To: IO featuring Trixie Whitley. He has also released two award-winning graphic novels: Nufonia Must Fall and Space Cadet. He has collaborated with artists such as Gorillaz, The Slew, Lovage, The Afiara String Quartet, and Deltron 3030.
Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, social and political conflict, and sexual and romantic love, desire, regret, and loss. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.
Quartet San Francisco is a non-traditional and eclectic string quartet led by violinist Jeremy Cohen. The group played their first concert in 2001 and has recorded five albums. Playing a wide range of music genres including jazz, blues, tango, swing, funk, and pop, the group challenges the traditional classical music foundation of the string quartet.
The Barr Brothers is an indie folk band founded in Montreal, Quebec in 2006, consisting of two American brothers Andrew and Brad Barr, as well as bassist Morgan Moore, pedal steel guitarist Brett Lanier, and harpist Eveline Gregoire-Rousseau.
Nomadic Massive is an independent Canadian hip hop supergroup based in Montreal, active since 2004. They have achieved fame in Canada, the United States, Brazil, and France, among other international venues. The membership of the band varies with each song, but their ensemble includes rappers, singers, keyboardists, saxophonists, trumpeters, trombonists, guitarists, bass players, and drummers. Many of the musicians are multi-instrumentalists and trade spots onstage. The group's official members are vocalists Waahli, Taliwah, Meryem Saci, and Lou Piensa, as well as musicians Butta Beats and Ali Sepu. With lyrics in diverse languages, including English, French, Creole, Spanish, and Arabic, Nomadic Massive celebrates global music interpreted through an Afro-Latin twist with hip hop as the main medium of expression. They have been a staple of the Montreal International Jazz Festival for several years.
The Jewish People's Schools and Peretz Schools, along with its secondary school Bialik High School, is a private co-educational Jewish day school system. It is located in Côte Saint-Luc, an on-island suburb of Montreal, Quebec.
The boroughs of Montreal, like the rest of Canada and the world, have been individually impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shlomo Simcha Sufrin, better known as Shlomo Simcha is a UK-born Canadian Hasidic Jewish cantor and singer. Shlomo Simcha began his career in a small kollel in Montreal, where he was discovered by a local wedding band leader who brought him onto a project recording a series for children in the Satmar community called Besof Umachol. His work on the series caught the attention of Mendy Werdyger at Aderet Records, who introduced him to artist Sheya Mendlowitz, with whom he would create his first commercial album.
