Evalyn Parry (performer/creator)

Evalyn Parry is an award-winning songwriter, theatre-maker, arts educator and leader.  Her interdisciplinary work has toured around the world; recent productions include Kiinalik:These Sharp Tools (Teatro A Mil, Chile; Edinburgh International Festival; Belfast International, Cervantino Festival, Mexico); Gertrude and Alice (a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama); The Dialysis Project by Leah Lewis, (RCAT Newfoundland), The Youth/ Elders Project (Buddies). Evalyn has released five albums of music and spoken word; the SPIN album was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award, and she has been  the recipient of the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award (Ontario Arts Council), The KM Hunter Award for Theatre and the Ken McDougall Award for Directing. From 2015 to 2020, Evalyn served as Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in T’karonto / Toronto. She was the 2022/23 Walker Cultural Leader at Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts, and she completed her MA in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University in 2023. She currently lives in farm country outside of Kingston, where she rides a lovely orange Kona road bike. www.evalynparry.com

Brad Hart (bicycle percussion /vocals)

Brad Hart is a multi-instrumentalist, actor, writer and singer. His first ever solo album, NOTES LIKE GHOSTS, was released just last month. His one-person show, Oh God - The Drums received 5NNNNNs from Now magazine and won the Best New Play Contest at the Hamilton Fringe. As a musician, Brad has played with such artists as Treasa Levasseur, Amélie & Les Singes Bleus, Garth Hudson of The Band and of course Evalyn Parry. Along with Parry and Don Kerr, Brad co-produced the CFMA-nominated soundtrack album for SPIN.  He rides his Linus 3-speed Roadster wherever and whenever he can.www.bradhart.ca

Kathleen Kajioka (violin, string leader)

Praised for her "fire and chamber music smarts" (Globe and Mail), Toronto-born Kathleen Kajioka maintains a varied career, moving easily between the concert stage and the broadcast booth. She is violist with the acclaimed Baroque chamber group Ensemble Masques, with whom she has performed across the globe from New York to St. Petersburg to London’s Wigmore Hall. Masques’ recordings for ALPHA have won the Diapason d’Or and the Gramophone Award. Closer to home, she has performed with nearly all of Toronto’s venerable classical music institutions, including Tafelmusik and the TSO, and in Montreal with Arion Baroque.

Kathleen studied at the Eastman School of Music under Martha Strongin-Katz. She later pursued studies in Middle Eastern music in New York with Simon Shaheen and in Cairo with Alfred Gamil, and Baroque Performance Practice in California with Elizabeth Blumenstock. A passionate communicator, Kathleen shares her insider’s knowledge on The New Classical FM where she is nightly host of “A Little Night Music.” She has been a featured speaker at Moses Znaimer’s ideacity Conference, and is host of “The Concert Series,” airing across Canada on Vision TV. Her long-time love of storytelling was recently engaged for readings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (St. Andrew’s Church), Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death (Trio Arkel) and The Von Meck Letters (Toronto Summer Music). She is on faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School where she teaches Historical Performance. Kathleen rides a handsome teal green Simcoe, which she refers to as “the sedan.”

Angela Rudden (Viola)

Angela started playing the violin at the age of 5 in Cornwall Ontario. At age 14, she switched to viola because it sounded so much nicer. She and her viola have travelled all over the world, playing in Europe, the U.S. Japan, China, and New Zealand. In 1993 she finally settled in Toronto where she has been performing with the National Ballet Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Orchestra as well as teaching privately.  Viola has always been Angela’s voice and music is her language.

Ruth Elund Madoc-Jones (director)

Ruth has worked as a professional theatre performer, dramaturge, writer and director in Canada for over 25 years. Throughout her career, Ruth has had the privilege of working with a diverse range of artists and companies across the country, such as Outspoke Productions, which have informed her practice and to whom she continues to be grateful. In addition to working as a theatre artist, Ruth has taught performance, direction, and writing at The National Theatre School of Canada, Bishop’s University, and the Toronto Metropolitan University. Ruth received the K.M. Hunter Award, the John Hirsch Director’s Award and has been nominated for two Dora awards. Ruth is a graduate of the acting section of the National Theatre School of Canada, the television writers’ program at the Canadian Film Centre, and completed her Masters at the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. She rides a dashing white fixie bicycle.

Michael Holt (string arrangements)

Michael Holt has written orchestrations for several artists' pop albums, for a live review of Nick Drake's music, and for "chamber pop" performances of his own songs. He's scored two feature-length films, co-written and co-starred in a touring musical comedy, composed a collection of twenty-four classical piano preludes, and writes for the environmentalist dance band Woof Woof Meow. 

Beyond composition, he has co-mounted three seasons of the Toronto Festival of House Culture (a smorgasbord of arts events in people's homes), has produced the podcast Rehumanizing Music, and is writing a book that advocates applying the principles of the Slow Food movement to our music consumption. Outside the arts, he works as a climate activist and the caregiver for his ninety year-old mom. He lives in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. michaelholtmusic.com