The Canadian Folk Music Awards take place in Vancouver, BC, from March 31 to April 2, with two awards shows and three showcases.
One award that will be presented on night two (April 2) of 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.
CFMAs are grateful to Oliver Schroer Estate (Peter Coffman) for their continued support.
See the nominees below, and learn more here.
Mélisande [électrotrad] – Flash de mémoire
Mélisande [électrotrad] offers an energetic blend of traditional music, pop, and electro with a mix of acoustic and electric instruments, vocal harmonies, and programming. Formed by Mélisande and her husband Alexandre ‘Moulin’ de Grosbois-Garand, the duo offers a fresh artistic proposal to the folk-world-trad music scene. Greatly acknowledged by critics here and abroad, the duo won a Canadian Folk Music Award and two Independent Music Awards and was nominated for several other awards. The band performed over 250 concerts in Canada, the United States, France, Spain, and Australia.
Connect with Mélisande [électrotrad]:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok
Sultans of String – Sanctuary
3x JUNO nominees and SiriusXM winners Sultans of String create “Energetic and exciting music from a band with talent to burn!” (Maverick Magazine UK). Thrilling their audiences with their genre-hopping passport of Celtic reels, flamenco, Django-jazz, Arabic, Cuban, and South Asian rhythms, Sultans of String celebrate musical fusion and human creativity with warmth and virtuosity.
Sultans have gigged at JUNOfest, NYC’s Birdland, Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, and London’s Trafalgar Square, and have recorded/performed with Paddy Moloney & The Chieftains, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Richard Bona, Alex Cuba, Rubén Blades, Yasmin Levy, Benoit Bourque, Béla Fleck, Crystal Shawanda, and Ken Whiteley.
Connect with Sultans of String:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Zloději snů (Lenka Lichtenberg) – Thieves of Dreams
The Czech-born singer-songwriter, bandleader, and producer Lenka Lichtenberg studied at the Prague Music Conservatory, specializing in voice. Escaping the Communist regime, Lenka arrived in Vancouver, B.C. as a landed immigrant. She received her Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology at York University in 1993. Lenka co-founded the Yiddish swing group Sisters of Sheynville in 2003 and the global-roots ‘Fray’ in 2010. She has released seven solo albums and three collaborations. Her latest project, Thieves of Dreams (album, poetry book, play), is based on poems she recently discovered, written by her grandmother while imprisoned in a concentration camp during WW2.
Connect with Zloději snů (Lenka Lichtenberg):
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Oktoécho – Transcestral
Oktoécho guides the listener into a sonic world brimming with lyricism in a space between the music of the Middle East, Aboriginal, and the West. Under the artistic direction of composer Katia Makdissi-Warren, Oktoécho explores mixed music and musical sounds through its own creations.
The group has recorded soundtracks for film and expositions in Canada, France, Singapore, Korea, and Lebanon and created the music for a permanent multi-media exhibit at the Burj-Dubaï Tower in Dubai, the highest structure in the world.
Oktoecho has toured in Spain and Canada and has recently performed at the prestigious Beiteddin Festival in Lebanon.
Connect with Oktoécho:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Digging Roots – Zhawenim
Digging Roots breathe life into songs from their land, Turtle Island, to raise their voices in solidarity with the revolutionary global chorus of Indigenous artists, activists, and change-makers. For over a decade, JUNO Award winners Digging Roots have travelled the world with a joyful message of resistance, celebrating Anishinabe and Onkwehonwe traditions of round dance and interconnectedness. Zhawenim (To Love Unconditionally) is Digging Roots’ 4th album, stronger than ever, and has integrated Anishinabek Song Lines and modern production into Zhawenim with their co-producer Hill Kourkoutis. This album holds songs of love for the land, the waters, and for lovers.
Connect with Digging Roots:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram