Our team consists of volunteer Directors on a working Board and our Staff. We work together throughout the year to accept submissions, coordinate the jury process, announce nominees, and celebrate the finalists at our annual awards show.
Tara joined the Canadian Folk Music Awards in May 2018, bringing with her a wealth of experience in the music industry through roles at The Royal Conservatory, Young Voices Toronto, and Classical Movements. Dedicated to supporting and fostering artistic initiatives,...
April successfully orchestrated all three editions of the Montréal International Celtic Festival and countless concerts. She currently focuses her volunteer energies on organizing – both as Executive and Artistic Director – the Celtic Harmonies International Festival,...
Bob is a performing songwriter and recording artist, originally from Ottawa, ON, who relocated to the left coast in 1996, where it is much warmer. Bob teaches songwriting in Vancouver, BC, through the Moveable Music School and Georgia Strait Guitar Workshop. Bob has...
Briana is involved in many facets of the Canadian arts community. She is a marketing strategy consultant who specializes in working with cultural organizations, as well as a performing singer-songwriter and community concert & festival organizer who programs live...
Diana’s most recent history includes 22 years (and counting) with the Vancouver International Children’s Festival, Advisory Board member for VICO: the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, and “extreme vocalist” in Vancouver's Voice-Over-Mind Choir. A graduate of Studio...
Graham Lindsey brings a deep respect to the traditions that inform his inventive Celtic tunes. His energetic playing of mandolin, tenor banjo, guitar and more attract audiences and session players alike.His dynamic stage presence as a solo artist is only amplified...
Award-winning singer-songwriter, and well known bilingual Children’s performer under the alter-ego Madame Diva, Jocelyne passionately shares her French-Canadian roots with all her music projects including her solo albums as well as her project Beauséjour.Jocelyne...
Pat Chessell was born into a British Columbia-based family with deep roots in Ireland and Canada’s East Coast. A lover of Celtic traditions from a young age, he has been playing music for as long as he can remember and began performing publicly in his early teens. His...
Currently the Executive Director and founding Board Member of Music PEI, Rob Oakie has been instrumental in the current growth of PEI’s music industry. Since helping to establish the organisation in 2008 the number of PEI exporting and internationally touring artists...
A trained musician, Sarah Morasse also has a degree in Arts and Letters, theater profile. She joined the two fields to co-found the children's musical theater troupe Wimbo Théâtre, with whom she performed on stage in Quebec and France. She subsequently joined several...
Living in Sudbury, Scott was a founder of Northern Lights Festival Boréal in 1971 and its Artistic Director for 14 years. He is also a past President of Folk Music Ontario. He was a pioneer of house concerts and has been presenting 6 to 8 of them a year on average...
Shaneen Robinson-Desjarlais is a multi-award-winning journalist/broadcaster/writer who’s been on Canada’s media scene for nearly two decades. Over the years she’s spent time at CTV News, APTN and NCI FM. She was honoured to win first place for the Canadian Aboriginal...
Meet Vic Close, a self-confessed Folk Music addict. He has attended Festivals and events from Coast to Coast. Over the last 4 decades Vic has worked in the Coffeehouse / Folk Club world as an organizer and Artistic director, worked in Marketing of Folk Music Events,...
CFMA is a registered non-profit organization, and gratefully accepts donations to support our operations.
CRA Number : 827183542RC0001
The Board, Staff, and Volunteers at the Canadian Folk Music Awards acknowledge that we live, work, meet and travel on the traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples that have cared for this land, now called Canada, since time immemorial. These lands are either subject to First Nations self-government under modern treaty, unceded and un-surrendered territories, or traditional territories from which First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples have been displaced.