Tamar Ilana is a versatile singer and powerful flamenco dancer of Jewish-Indigenous descent, renowned for singing in multiple languages and collaborating with artists from around the world. Tamar has released 3 albums and received 4 CFMA nominations with Ventanas, and co-founded FabCollab.ca, focusing on BIPOC, women and minority voices.

Tamar Ilana is an internationally renowned award-winning vocalist in over 20 languages and a mesmerizing flamenco dancer and choreographer. Tamar grew up on stage and on the road as the daughter of a travelling ethnomusicologist and is of Jewish, Indigenous, Romanian and Scottish descent. She has released three Canadian Folk Music Awards nominated albums with her world music project Ventanas with whom she has also toured across North America, including a sold-out show at the Skirball Centre in Los Angeles in 2019. Tamar is the lead singer of Jaffa Road, the flamenco dancer with Sultans of String, cantaora with the Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company and producer for her own solo electro acoustic sets. Sought after for her artistry and versatility, Tamar has been featured in award-winning musicals in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, the UK and Germany and has recorded with Jesse Cook, Briga, Aline Morales and the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, among others. Tamar has lived in Barcelona, Seville, Paris and Ibiza, and is currently based in her hometown of Toronto, Canada.

A pivotal presence in the Canadian music community and beyond, Tamar has also been producing events for over a decade. She was one of the first Toronto-based artists to pivot to live-streaming during the COVID-19 pandemic, successfully making the transition to online as a presenter, performer and teacher and co-founding the presenting arts organization FabCollab, which focuses on BIPOC, female-identifying and minority voices.

Website – tamarilana.com

Instagram – @tamarilana

Bandcamp – ventanas.bandcamp.com

Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/5pJv6qSU0xDncvHANxHHz6?si=yKCfOy3WSvqSQZ6u5zOttA

Anton Apostolov

Born in 1968, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, Anton Apostolov was exposed to music at a very early age. His father was a carpenter and a guitar crafter, as well as an amateur guitar player. At six Anton began playing musical instruments – mandolin, tambura (Bulgarian traditional string instrument) and guitar – all made by his father. He was self- taught from the beginning and learned by ear Bulgarian folk music, and, at the same time, learned the music of The Beatles.

At the age of twelve Anton studied classical guitar at the Varosha Art Center in Blagoevgrad. He was accepted to study guitar with the most prestigious orchestra in town, the Guitar-Mandolin Orchestra, Pirinski Zvutzi where he became a soloist. He participated in numerous projects and collaborations, performances, and six recordings of music – all that mixed traditional Bulgarian folk genres with modern and classical music styles. In 1994, Anton attended South-West University, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria where he took master classical guitar classes from maestro Dimitur Doichinov.

In 1995, Anton settled in Atlantic City, New Jersey where he taught guitar, performed regularly as a solo guitarist, and became a member of the American Federation of Musicians.

A Toronto resident since 1998, Anton composes, performs and teaches guitar in the Greater Toronto Area. His students have won top prizes at the Kiwanis Music Festival in Toronto.

Anton Apostolov had collaborated with such notable international artist musicians as Valeri Dimchev, Theodosii Spassov, Stoyan Yankulov, Dennis De Souza, Karsh Kale, Erdal Akaya. Anton was recently awarded two Canada Council grants for both writing and recording original compositions that drew from his Bulgarian roots and other forms of world music.

Website – antonapostolov.com

Watch their performance here…