Georgian Bay & The O’Pears | Folk Music Ontario 2018 | Stingray Rising Stars
Folk Music Ontario's 2018 conference and Awards took place from September 27-30 in Mississauga Ontario. The event is a yearly gathering of the roots music clans not just from Ontario but from across Canada who come together for showcases and panels. Many US and European delegates participated under the Export Development Program (EDP), potentially offering performance and music release opportunities in their territories. There were also EDP one-on-one sessions where delegate artists had face-to-face meetings with visiting event and venue buyers, festival artistic directors, agents, and more.
Folk Music Ontario is a not-for-profit organization that has supported the growth and development of the folk music community and industry for the last 30 years. Today, Folk Music Ontario is the largest folk and roots music organization in Canada and serves its members as a recognized arts service organization.
Stingray Music is proud to be the annual presenter of the Stingray Rising Stars Award as part of the FMO Awards brunch, and to have the opportunity to support many up and coming artists, many of whom have later gone onto international touring and signings. Simply witness one of last year's winners, AHI, whose album is now climbing the US Americana and Folk charts.
This year, Greg Torrington, Stingray's Roots Music Programmer, presented prizes of $1,000 each to The O'Pears for their English language song " Quite Now" and to Franco-Ontarian duo Georgian Bay for its song "Roi", which they also beautifully performed acapella at the Gala Awards.
“We wanted to thank you once again for the Stingray Rising Stars award. The financial support, along with the recognition that comes with the award is so appreciated, and we feel so fortunate and supported by our music community. Please pass on our gratitude to your team.”
About the winners
The O’Pears
The O’Pears are a Toronto-based contemporary folk trio made up of Lydia Persaud, Jill Harris and Meg Contini, three songwriters who weave stories that stir the spirit and capture the timeless character of folk music. They recently performed to high acclaim at festivals such as Summerfolk, Great Heart Festival, Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival and have been featured live with Royal Wood, Good Lovelies, Michelle Willis, and Coco Love Alcorn. Each band member a distinctly talented musician with a stand-alone voice, style, and stage presence, when these three come together it is breathtaking. The O’Pears continue to bring a strong, honest voice to the modern female perspective.
Georgian Bay
The 2016 Polaris prize nominated bilingual duo Georgian Bay features the soaring vocal harmonies of multi-instrumentalists Joëlle Westman and Kelly Lefaive. Fearlessly fusing elements of electronic, jazz, chamber music, and pop to their folk roots, Georgian Bay’s music is uniquely Canadian, intertwining lyrics in English and French. Georgian Bay just released the second volume of “Courage”, a two-volume album which fuses elements of electronic, jazz and chamber music to their folk roots and explores the human experience in shadow and light.
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