Presented in partnership with the 50/50 Performing Arts Collective, Tkaronto Music Festival and Lula Music and Arts Centre.

TKMF Winter Solstice will celebrate the excellence, artistic voice, and legacy of Indigenous musicians from coast to coast.

We are excited to bring you an incredible line-up featuring: Lacey Hill, Brothers Wilde, New Tradition Music, Nick Sherman and Diyet.

Lacey Hill is Oneida/Mohawk of Six Nations of the Grand River Reservation, Wolf Clan. She is a singer/songwriter and inspirational speaker. Lacey went solo launching her debut album titled 528, independently, in 2013, which put her in the music scene and opened up the stage to perform her original songs. 2018-19 Lacey traveled to New Zealand, Australia and UK, stage managing and providing original compositions for Tara Beagans’ theatre production DeerWoman. 2020, Lacey released and premiered “The Shiner” as a single for APTN’s Amplify series. In October 2021, she released ‘Little Sister’ which is from DeerWoman Production.

Always chasing their dreams, Ethan and Nolan Wilde are brothers who have been playing their own unique brand of Country Fried-Roots Rock for the past 2 years and they’re beginning to pick up steam. After winning 2019 International New Country Duo of the year in Pigeon Forge Tennessee, Lead Singer Nolan and Lead Guitarist Ethan have been burning up the local music scene. From backyard bbq’s to legitimate rock venues, including Sarnia’s Borderfest and Ottawa’s Westfest, they are quickly becoming well-known.

Ruben “Beny” Esguerra arrived as a child to Tkaronto from Bacatá (Bogotá, Colombia) as a political refugee with his parents, who were receiving threats for their human rights activism. Today, he is a JUNO nominated multi-instrumentalist/producer, spoken-word poet, arts educator and community worker. In 2021, he was chosen as the laureate of the 2020 Ontario Arts Foundation Arts Educator Award and was nominated and chosen as a finalist for the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Community Arts Award. As a musician/producer and spoken-word poet, he leads New Tradition Music, performing regularly in national and international festivals.

When he was young, Thunder Bay based singer-songwriter and guitarist Nick Sherman’s grandfather would pick him up in the wee hours from his parents’ place in Sioux Lookout, and drive up the winter highway to North Caribou Lake First Nation. Fast forward nearly three decades and countless kilometres later, Sherman has a partner and two boys of his own but a similar spirit still drives his music. Sherman’s music has taken him across the country where he has performed at various events and festivals such as Ottawa Bluesfest, Vancouver Folk Festival, Luminato Festival, and more. He worked in radio for nine years, and now spends part of the year in remote Indigenous communities bringing music programming into schools.

Diyet was born in a tent and spent her childhood on the ancestral lands of the Kluane First Nation people in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Coming from a family rooted in traditions but tempered with a good sense of adventurous hippie attitudes, Diyet has created a musical presence that is as diverse as her Southern Tutchone, Tlingit, Japanese and Scottish heritage.
Diyet has had international collaborations, extensive touring and two acclaimed albums (The Breaking Point & When You Were King,) with the third album: Diyet & The Love Soldiers released in 2018 which received nominations for: “Folk Album Of The Year” at “The Indigenous Music Awards”, “Indigenous Artist Of The Year” at the “Western Canadian Music Awards” and “Indigenous Songwriter Of The Year” at the “Canadian Folk Music Awards.”

Presented as a part of 25 for 25 - Small World Music's 25th Anniversary Program