Al Qahwa Has Been Named As One Of The Five Nominees For The Oliver Schroer Pushing the Boundaries Award
Al Qahwa is Maryem Tollar on vocals, riqq (Arabic tambourine), and qanun (Arabic table harp); Ernie Tollar on wind instruments; Demetri Petsalakis on oud; Naghmeh Fahrahmand on percussion; Waleed Abdulhamid on bass and vocals; and Lauren Barnett on b.up vocals and sax. Al Qahwa performs original compositions, as well as popular traditional Arabic repertoire – from Sufi Devotional Love songs from the Arab World to popular folk songs, to classic Egyptian songs made famous by the stars of Egypt (the Hollywood of the Middle East).
One award that will be presented at the awards is the Oliver Schroer Pushing the Boundaries Award. This award recognizes a solo artist, duo, or group taking creative risks to create folk-based music that is innovative, original, and imaginative. The award has been there since the beginning. Its namesake died in 2008, and he was the recipient that year. It was named after him in 2014.
Al Qahwa’s album, Weyn Allah is one of the nominees for this prestigious award at the Canadian Folk Music Awards this year.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Maryem Tollar and I am a Toronto-based musician involved in a few different musical projects including my band “Al Qahwa” which means “The Coffee House”. That name came about because that used to be a place in the Middle East where people would go to be entertained – hearing stories, music, poetry, and news of the day. Three of the core band members (including myself) were invited to be in a project about coffee houses in Baroque times in both Leipzig, Germany, and Damascus, Syria collaborating with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and that was the birth of this band.
Congratulations on being nominated for the Canadian Folk Music Awards. How does it feel to be recognized among such a talented pool of Canadian folk musicians?
It is really wonderful to be nominated for the Oliver Schroer – Pushing The Boundaries Award for our latest CD “Weyn Allah” – which means “Where Is God”. I wasn’t expecting to be nominated in this category – so it was a surprise – I would normally be in the world music category. But when I think about it, most of the songs on our latest recording are original collaborations by various members of the band – and the songs are quite diverse – our oud/guitar player who is originally from Greece wrote a couple of songs where you really hear the Greek influence – but I added Arabic lyrics to one of them; our bass player who is originally from Sudan contributed a song that sounds North African with Nubian lyrics; My husband wrote a melody that uses qanun, nay flute, guitar, bass and I added English and Arabic lyrics to that one; and I contributed a song that uses ukulele, guitar, bass, sax and is in English – so I have to agree that we are pushing a lot of boundaries with this Album.
What inspired your latest works or albums that brought you to be nominated for the CFMAs?
A lot of the songs that are on this latest recording are inspired by what is happening in the world – and the last few years leading up to this point. Some of the songs were composed shortly after the pandemic started – in fact, we were supposed to attend the CFMAs in 2020 for our CD “Cairo Moon” in PEI – but we all know what happened … You can get an idea of some of the themes just with the titles of the songs – Where Is God; Share The Beauty; Humanity; The Sky Is Falling; Duniya Farewell (Farewell World) – to name a few.
CFMA president Graham Lindsey mentioned that the CFMAs are an important moment for Canada’s folk music community to celebrate outstanding talent. How has the folk music community shaped your journey as musicians, and what does this recognition mean to you in that context?
The folk community has really opened up since I started as a professional musician over 2 decades ago. Even though I started out in the music business doing folk and pop music, I found my way to world music. Living in Toronto, once you got involved in the world music scene, you were exposed to many different genres of music. But at the beginning, world music was thought of as just one thing – no matter what kind of world music you were doing or what genre you were exploring. Folk festivals used to only program 1 world music act and they filled their quota. I feel like things are much more open now and the folk music community is not only programming much more diverse folk music from different parts of the world, it is really supporting the diverse artists in Canada. It feels like a much more inclusive and welcoming community and I am very grateful for all of the support that I have received. Being recognized at the Canadian Folk Music Awards is a great honour and my group is very excited to attend the award ceremonies and to perform at the Sunday night gala on April 7, 2024, in St. John’s. We are very fortunate to have some support for this from Factor Canada and The Ontario Arts Council.
With the CFMA Awards Weekend taking place in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, what are you most looking forward to during this celebration of folk music?
I’m most looking forward to performing with my full band at the Awards Ceremony and spending time in one of my favourite places to visit – St. John’s, Newfoundland. I have been very fortunate and have attended an amazing festival there at least 3 different times over the years – The Sound Symposium. I hope to get to that festival one day with Al Qahwa.
Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring folk musicians who hope to one day be recognized on a platform like the Canadian Folk Music Awards?
My advice to aspiring folk musicians is to keep doing what you are doing – make music and share it wherever you can and do it because you love it.