MUSICTOGETHER: SEE NORTHERN ONTARIO LIVE IN YOUR HOME

We’re all struggling to get used to social distancing measures in and effort to keep our communities safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. While times are uncertain for us all some of the hardest hit are our local artists who depend on public gatherings to perform. As venues, festivals and other gigs are postponed many are concerned about how they’ll be able to make an income. It is important now more than ever to make sure that you’re a vocal supporter of your favourite artists to help them get by until we can all play again.

In order to offer a platform for Ontario musicians to perform Ontario Live has organized MusicTogether. This is an ongoing live-streaming concert series featuring artists across Ontario. Through this volunteer effort $300,000 have already been raised to support working artists effected by the COVID-19 crisis. Fifteen regional music and culture groups were selected to curate a line up to showcase their area. Representing Northern Ontario is CION (Cultural Industries Ontario North) with a curated line up of artists from Thunder Bay to North Bay!

Catch a stellar live stream of Northern talent April 30^th starting at 10am going all the way until 9PM at www.musictogether.ca!

MATT FOY (SUDBURY) @10AM

Matt has been a professional musician for the last 30+ years. He has 10 of his own albums and has played, toured and recorded with countless bands. On one side, driven by 50’s and 60’s instrumental music Matt Foy will take you on a cinematic journey through dust bowls, dive bars and speedways. On another side is Matt’s love for old school reggae and ska music. Influenced by the greats (Toots & The Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley). Recently Matt has been scoring for film and television again expanding on his love for instrumental music. Along with tv placements Matt scored the soundtrack for award winning Dancing Is Meaningless.

JESSE MARINEAU (SAULT STE MARIE) @12PM

Jesse Merineau is a Canadian singer/songwriter, from Sault Ste Marie. Alt indie pop-rock. He is releasing an EP in 2018, with some of the best session musicians, producers, and other industry leaders taking part in the project. Jesse is currently signed to local indie label, Tidal Records.

JENNIFER HOLUB (SUDBURY) @2PM

Jennifer Holub’s songs are about the things that torment us. Her new album “The Reckoning” is a hawkish condemnation of society’s place for women, and an urgent call to rouse from it. The album is a collaboration with sonic experimenters Jon Danyliw and Matthew Wiewel and captures the quintessence of her home in northern Ontario—pastoral, tired, cold, and resilient.

CÉLESTE LÉVIS (TIMMINS) @3PM

After cutting her chops competing in several regional music competitions, Céleste released her first album “CÉLESTE” in 2015. Since then, she has continued her ascent by accumulating shows with her tour across Canada. Keeping her momentum going, Céleste has self-produced her second album “Donne-moi le temps” which was released in September 2018 and quickly accumulated 4 nominations at the Gala des Prix Trille Or, 2019 including Album of the Year. She hopes to continue to amaze audiences across Canada with her songs.

ROSE-ERIN STOKES (NORTH BAY) @4

When listening to the hauntingly beautiful melodies on Wherever I Go, the debut full-length album by Rose-Erin Stokes, you can’t help but be transfixed by every lilting note, every phrase and every plucked string. There is a quiet stillness to some songs, and within others one can sense an emotional tumult just rippling under the surface. What is undeniable is the deeply honest approach to her musical storytelling, a wide-open emotional tableau that is representative of the silence of the vast forests, and big open skies of the northern Ontario city of North Bay where Stokes was born and raised.

MCLEAN (SUDBURY) @5PM

Mclean is a multi-instrumentalist and writer from Sudbury. He spent his childhood walking the corridors of an abandoned mine, guided by the ghost voices of his ancestors. During his stay at the Mclean Psychiatric Institute, he formed friendships with poet Sylvia Plath, mathematician John Nash and musician James Taylor, who taught him to play the guitar. In his big artistic heart he has great ambitions and hopes to one day die in Sudbury.

EDOUARD LANDRY (SUDBURY) @ 6PM

Edouard Landry shapes through his songs, a folk universe with pop, reggae or rock accents and catchy melodies. His sense of melody and his ease of navigating through musical styles are seductive. He was nominated in the Best Male Performer category at the Trille Or Awards Gala (2017), and his albums Pomme plastique II and escalade; were nominated Best Album by a French-speaking artist at the Prix de musique et Ontario Film Festival (2017 and 2019). A fourth album, Pomme Plastique III, was released in October 2019.

MELODY MCKIVER (SIOUX LOOKOUT) @7PM

An Anishinaabe violist and composer, Melody McKiver is “changing the way we think about the viola” (CBC). Praised for their “unique and captivating world of sound” (Exclaim!), Melody is a compelling solo performer based in Sioux Lookout (Northwestern Ontario) within their homelands of Obishikokaang Lac Seul First Nation. Their work integrates electronics with Western classical music to shape a new genre of Anishinaabe compositions. Their debut EP “Reckoning” was nominated for an Indigenous Music Award, and they were a participant in the Banff Centre for the Arts’ inaugural Indigenous Classical Music Gathering. Melody was a finalist for the inaugural Johanna Metcalfe Performing Arts Prize and is nominated for the 2020 Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award. Most recently, Melody was invited to the Berlinale Talents Sound Studio as a music and composition mentor for the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival.

JEAN-PAUL DE ROOVER (THUNDER BAY) @7:30PM

De Roover’s early career was defined by his innovative approach to music using live looping, where he used his voice and a wide range of musical instruments to construct his songs piece by piece in front of an audience. But his constantly evolving palate has seen him exploring his earnest acoustic singer-songwriter side on “Love” (2019) as well as his passion for emotionally and aurally heavy alternative and progressive rock on “Loss” (2020), the two of which are sister albums. De Roover continues to push his own musical limits both in form and substance, daring others to try and categorize him. When he’s not performing live or parenting his toddler, De Roover can be found in his studio, Blueprints, where he not only recorded his latest two albums but also works with the music, film, and television industries as a producer, composer and engineer.

KUTCH (THUNDER BAY) @ 9PM

Kutch is Colin Kutchyera, a 9-to-5 Anaylst, Graduate Student and Dad from Thunder Bay, Canada, but don’t let that fool you: He still manages to find time to bust out hits. His 2018 collaboration with multi-platinum Toronto producer/recording artist La+ch (of Coleman Hell) brought the debut album “Notionside,” an eclectic mix of modern pop to rock electronic sounds fused with thoughtful lyrics and themes and oh-so-catchy falsetto hooks.  Kutch’s previous touring history has seen him travel over 10,000 miles from coast to coast of Canada and into Minnesota. With sophomore album plans in late 2020, Kutch is a perfect up-and-coming act to excite fans of all ages and genres.