FIVE OF TORONTO’S TOP PERFORMING ARTISTS 
WILL GATHER TO CELEBRATE WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD

TUNE IN HERE ON MARCH 28 FROM 8:00 P.M. TO 9:45 P.M. EST

Toronto, ON – March 11, 2021 – On Sunday March 28, FabCollab will present the second edition of its hit livestream festival, Women In Song. The festival is presented in partnership with the Musicians’ Performance Trust Fund, producing partners, Lula Lounge and Small World Music in Toronto, and with support from Canadian Heritage. Hosted by world music singer and dancer, Tamar Ilana, Women In Song: A Celebration of International Women’s Day features five of Toronto’s top world music frontwomen: Amanda Martinez (Latin/Jazz/Pop) accompanied by two of Canada’s Ballet Jörgen dancers, Jessica Hana Deutsch (Indie Pop), Maryem Tollar (Arabic/Global), Tamar Ilana (Global Flamenco) and Indigenous Fancy Shawl dancer, Cotee Harper. The performers will be backed by some of the city’s most sought-after musicians and will take the stage in four 20-minute live-stream sets throughout the evening, all completely free-of-charge.

The entire event will be live streamed only once and will never be rebroadcast. Viewers must tune in live from 8:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. EST at either fabcollab.ca, FabCollab on Facebook, MPTF on Facebook, Small World Music on Facebook, or Lula Lounge on Facebook, to catch these incredible performances live. For a recap of the 2020 festival, watch the performances here, and learn more about the artists below.

“We’re celebrating International Women’s Day by gathering five of Toronto’s most electrifying women artists and sharing their performances with the world,” says organizer and musician, Tamar Ilana. “It’s been a tough year for many of us, and women so often do the heavy lifting when it comes time to carry a community through troubled times. With our music, we honour the women who have held us, healed us, called us, sung to us, made us laugh, and challenged us throughout this unprecedented year. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and we hope that audiences around the world will tune in and celebrate women with us.”

All of the artists will be accompanied by the world musical ensemble, Ventanas. The award-winning Toronto-based world music ensemble recently released their third album, MISTRĀL, and features the city’s finest world musicians. Sunday’s event will be the first of four Women In Song live streamed festivals that FabCollab will present this year. 

Women In Song: A Celebration of International Women’s Day is presented by FabCollab, a new Toronto-based music and arts platform. Founded by five of Toronto’s key performing artists and arts advocates, FabCollab fosters artistic creation and collaboration with a focus on amplifying minority and underrepresented voices at a time when unprecedented circumstances are keeping us physically apart. In addition to Women in Song, FabCollab also produces a weekly IGTV interview series called Curtain Call featuring conversations with powerful women in the arts, and regularly hosts and supports community events and performances. 

WOMEN IN SONG: A CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Sunday, March 28 – 8:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. EST

Live streamed at: fabcollab.ca  and FabCollab on Facebook
as well as Small World Music on Facebook, MPTF on Facebook, and Lula Lounge on Facebook

8:00 p.m. — Amanda Martinez (Latin/Jazz/Pop) feat. Canada’s Ballet Jörgen Dancers Adrián Ramírez Juárez and Akari Fujiwara

8:25 p.m. — Jessica Hana Deutsch (Indie Pop)

8:50 p.m. — Maryem Tollar (Arabic/Global)

9:15 p.m. — Tamar Ilana (Global Flamenco) feat. Indigneous fancy shawl dancer Cotee Harper

For more interviews, high-res photos, links to music, or any further information on the festival and FabCollab, please contact:  FabCollab Communications Director Lia Grainger: lia@fabcollab.ca

DOWNLOAD – Women In Song Event Poster | DOWNLOAD – Social Media Assets

Follow FabCollab: 
    

#fabcollab #fabcollablive #womeninsong

About the artists:

Amanda Martinez
Amanda Martinez is an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter whose music is an original blend of influences from her Mexican and South African roots. She has released four albums and her latest recording Libre is her most eclectic creation to date. Her songs have been selected for four Putumayo world music collections. Career highlights include headlining the Blue Note jazz club in NYC, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the Pan American Games in Mexico and Canada. She has also been a guest recording and touring artist of award winning guitarist Jesse Cook. She has sold out Toronto’s Koerner Hall multiple times and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre and Winter Garden Theatre. www.amandamartinez.ca

Jessica Hana Deutsch
Jessica Hana Deutsch is an in-demand violinist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer in Toronto's music scene. She is incredibly versatile, sounding equally comfortable in Afro Cuban, Klezmer, Brazilian, classical, and Arabic music.  Classically-trained from the age of 3 and a three-time national finalist in the Canadian Music Competition, Deutsch studied with Mark Skazinetsky (assistant concertmaster of the TSO). She has a new project with Tyler Emond called Hush, in which she sings and co-writes adventurous indie pop music.  She also leads and composes the music for her band Ozere, which mixes classical chamber music with world folk styles.   She works with many artists, including Leif Vollebekk, Tyler Shaw, Sarah Slean, Jayme Stone, and Beyond the Pale.  She also plays fiddle in the hit Mirvish musical Come From Away. www.jessicadeutsch.com

Maryem Tollar
Maryem Tollar is a renowned Egyptian-Canadian vocalist, known for her world music performances. Her voice has been heard on the theme of CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie and A.R. Rahman’s Bollywood hit, Mayya Mayya. Tollar was the featured vocalist in Tafelmusik’s production of “Tales of Two Cities: The Leipzig-Damascus Coffee Houses” and narrated and sang in "Safe Haven". She performed Christos Hatzis’ piece “Syn-Phonia – Migration Patterns” with The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Inuit throat singer Tiffany Ayalik and his multi-media piece "Constantinople". She performs with several Toronto musical groups including Al Qahwa Ensemble (Traditional Arabic Music and Original compositions); and Turkwaz (vocal repertoire from Turkey, Greece, the Balkans and the Middle East); Odessa Havana (original Jewish/Cuban music). www.turkwaz.ca

Tamar Ilana
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. www.tamarilana.com  

Cotee Harper
Born and raised in Toronto, Cotee Harper’s roots stem from the Cree Shawnee Potawatomi Nation and she is also a member of the Mistawasis First Nation in Saskatchewan. As the youngest daughter of the late urban elder Vern Harper, she merges her heritage as an Indigenous dance artist with a contemporary dance style. For 25 years, she studied classical ballet and contemporary dance at Anna McCowan Johnson’s Interplay School of Dance. Harper is also a traditional dancer of fancy shawl and jingle dress and has performed for dignitaries, in schools, and festivals throughout Ontario, as well as in the music video of tenor and composer Jeremy Dutcher. She was featured in the opening performance of the 2017 Indspire Awards as well as in the Canada 150 “Our Home on Native Land” celebrations at Toronto’s Harbourfront with the ensemble Meegwetch. 

About Ventanas (House Band)
Ventanas has released three albums (2013, 2015, 2019) and been nominated for four Canadian Folk Music Awards, including Best Traditional Singer and Best Ensemble. Featuring some of the city’s finest musicians from across the globe, Ventanas has received multiple grants from the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts and have showcased at APAP, Pacific Contact, Mundial Montréal, and CINARS, resulting in cross-Canada tours as well as tours on both coasts of the US: In 2019 they performed at a sold-out show at the Skirball Centre in Los Angeles.  ventanasmusic.com

Ballet Jörgen
Canada’s Ballet Jörgen delivers programming in all 10 of Canada’s provinces as well as into the United States. Every year the Company tours from coast to coast travelling over 50,000 km to reach underserved communities. Canada’s Ballet Jörgen enriches our lives by bringing professional ballet to communities — large and small, urban and rural. Accomplished Ballet Jorgen dancers Adrián Ramírez Juárez and Akari Fujiwara were featured in Amanda Martinez's music video, "Estaba Cayendo," and will join Amanda onstage on March 28. www.canadasballetjorgen.ca