thurs april 28 | noon

free

Maryem Tollar

Zion United Church
32 Weber Street West

Maryem Tollar is an extraordinary singer, composer and songwriter. She is Egyptian-Canadian and lives in Toronto.

Since the mid-nineties she has been an integral part of Canadian music. She helped forge the acceptance of music from diverse cultures in groups like Maza Meze and Doula. She has become the favourite singer of composer Christos Hatzis, lending her voice to such highly received works as Constantinople and Sepulcher of Life, and toured with rumba flamenco guitarist, Jesse Cook. She has lent her voice to the cause of peace in the Middle East and has composed and sung for theatre, dance, film and television. She has recorded three of her own CDs and was featured with Patricia O’Callahan and the Gryphon Trio on the JUNO award winning recording of Constantinople.

From concert hall to club to festival site Maryem has won rave reviews for her performances in an encyclopedic array of contexts. What Maryem likes to do most is combine all the music she loves best and sing it with her own ensemble. With a repertoire that runs from traditional Arabic songs, hundreds of years old, to settings of the work of Egyptian-Canadian poet Ehab Lotayef, to her own and husband Ernie Tollar’s creations, Maryem Tollar opens up a world of wonderful music.