Presented by Small World Music and The Bentway

We are so excited to partner with our friends at The Bentway for an evening of musical performances and storytelling to warm your heart in the cold winter months. Together we’ll transform The Bentway Studio at Canoe Landing into an intimate concert space and showcase the talents and stories of the newcomer artistic community here in the city. We are thrilled to announce that alumni from our Music Incubator program will be performing live at the Midwinter Concert! Featured artists include Roa Lee, Paula Sofia, and Fethi Nadjem.

Registration is required and currently full. Click here to join the waitlist.

What to Expect:
• An evening of music, performance, and storytelling.
• This event will take place indoors.
• The audience will be invited to sit on cushions, blankets, and pillows, with limited seating available.
• The Bentway Studio at Canoe Landing Campus is physically accessible.

About the Artists:

Roa (HyunYoung) Lee is a composer, arranger and gayageum musician from Korea. She began playing when she was 7 years old and received formal training in high school and university for traditional performing arts. Her interest in collaboration and incorporating the gayageum with various music genres led her to study in Toronto, where, as a fearless musical challenger she creates music rooted in traditional Korean ideas while integrating elements from a variety of other genres.

Paula Sofía is a Guatemalan singer-songwriter based in Toronto. Most of her work is in Spanish, which makes her music and live performances very dynamic where she forms playful connections with the audience from the stage. She is able to convey universal themes through storytelling, imagery, and quirky songwriting. Her first solo project, Quinto de Hora (which translates into “A Fifth of an Hour”), produced by Alysha Brilla, is an album of 12 one-minute songs.

Fethi Nadjem was born in Algeria where he grew up in a family of musicians. He began playing the guitar and oud at the age of 13, and developed his skills within the Fine Arts Association in Algiers, learning Andalusian music, and playing violin and mandole. At the age of 21, he co-founded Djmawi Africa, a fusion band that still, over a dozen years later, performs around the world, and in which he began playing the kora. Soon after arriving in Toronto, he began playing with several bands and musicians, including Moskitto Bar, Moneka Arabic Jazz, Jessie Cook, Maryem Tollar, and more.

The 2023 Small World Music Series is generously supported by TD Bank of Canada, the Government of Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.