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| The Maryem Tollar Ensemble
is a flexible feast that incorporates up to ten of Toronto’s finest
musicians. Those listed below are core members of the ensemble.
The Instrumentalists: Ernie Tollar is Maryem’s partner, collaborating on many musical projects for over a dozen years. As the musical director of the Maryem Tollar Ensemble, Ernie is involved in arranging the group’s repertoire as well as composing music for the ensemble. Ernie was born and raised in Toronto.. Over the years Ernie has extended his musical reach from jazz through studies with Indian and Arab music teachers in North America, India, and Egypt. He plays saxes, and flutes such as bansuri (India) flute and the nay (Middle East). Jazz collaborators include Dave Restivo, Shelly Berger, Robi Botos, Yvette Tollar, Holly Cole, NOJO, Kenny Wheeler, Joe Lovano, Hugh Marsh, Don Thompson, David Piltch, and Don Byron, Rich Brown, Brian Katz, Mark Kelso, Marilyn Lerner, Geoff Young, Ted Quinlan, Daniel Barnes and Artie Roth. Alongside Michael Occhipinti’s Sicilian Jazz project, Ernie will be touring a brand new cd this summer ’08. Performing from Cairo to Kapuskasing, Ernie finds connections in world music cultures. Credits include performances with Trichy's Trio, Greek-Arabic ensembles Maza Mezé and Doula, Indo-Jazz group Tasa, Brenna MacCrimmon & the Altin Yildiz Gypsy Orkestar, Maryem Tollar, Rick Shadrach Lazar and Spare Parts, Chris Mckhool , Dhruba Ghosh, Bassam Bishara, George Sawa, Nabeel Sheheda, Doula, Brenna MacCrimmon and the Altin Yildiz Gypsy Orkestar, Rick Shadrach Lazar, Levon Ichkhanian and The Evergreen Gamelan. Ernie Tollar has been featured on roughly one hundred recordings, many sessions for TV and film, and has composed extensively for dance, film and theatre. During 2008 Ernie will continue private studies with South Indian classical music virtuoso Trichy Sankaran. He has recently studied in Mumbai with master sarangi player Dhruba Ghosh, and in Toronto with Bassam Bishara a top performer of middle eastern music. Other teachers include flute studies with N. Ramani, Arabic music with Alfred Gamil , Dr. George Sawa, and Ibrahim Kawala. While studying his three children ‘for creative ideas' Ernie has been busy producing a third CD with Maryem Tollar featuring master musicians from Egypt and Palestine. Ernie is also finishing work on the fifth Tasa album - a unique Indo - Fusion band led by Canadian tabla luminary Ravi Naimpally. Rich Brown is a gifted bass player. He has played with David Restivo, Andy Milne, Molly Johnson, The Merlin Factor, Andy Stochansky and many others. He can be heard on numerous recordings and has toured extensively in Europe, the United States, South America and Canada. Levon Ichkhanian began his professional career in music at the age of thirteen, following in his family's musical tradition. His musical experiences range from recording (three solo CDs featuring John Patitucci, Paquito D'Rivera, Alan Caron and Bernard Purdie, and playing on over 50 commercially released recordings), composing (for Nashville Chamber Orchestra as well as creating soundtracks for filmmakers including Atom Egoyan), to touring (with his own world/jazz group and with the likes of Peter Murphy). Levon is an avid explorer of improvisation, which forms the basis for his workshops, master classes and articles throughout the world. In addition to the acoustic and electric guitars Levon is an accomplished performer on World string instruments including oud and bouzouki.Debashis Sinha is a Toronto based percussionist who specializes in the drums of the Arab world, Greece, and Turkey. His teachers include Trichy Sankaran, Glen Velez, Pejman Haddadi, Yousif Sheronick, and Seido Salifoski. Part of the new generation of Canadian trans-cultural musicians, he is a founding member of Juno nominated world music ensemble Maza Mezé and IndoJazz fusion group Autorickshaw, as well as appearing with a veritable who's who of world music groups and artists. Debashis also leads his own "spontaneous compositon" group Ima Ensemble, and has released 2 solo CDs. The Vocalists: Jayne Brown is a vocalist. She performs with Maza Meze, and has performed with Causa Generis, a world/pop ensemble led by Rick Hyslop; Ilede, an Afro-Cuban drum and dance ensemble; Nazka, a Latin American folk music ensemble; and Staro Selo, a traditional Macedonian folk ensemble. Recording credits include Nazka, Staro Selo, Maza Meze, and the film soundtrack ShadowMaker, about Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen. Jayne received a Canada Council grant in 2000 to study in Egypt, Greece, and Toronto with master musicians. Yvette Tollar is a vocalist. She sings jazz and urban music in her own group, much of which she writes herself. By reaching out to embrace influences from world musics, fusion and urban sounds she creates music that is both refreshing and relevant. Yvette has toured and recorded with The Merlin Factor among many others. She has studied with jazz vocalist Sheila Jordan and jazz pianist Kenny Werner at The Banff Centre for the Arts and in NYC, with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts. Yvette scored the award-winning film "In the Wings" by Lisa Robertson. Her debut c.d. of original work, "Cactus Flowers" has won rave reviews and earned her the sobriquet of “Canada’s Cassandra Wilson”. She has performed for audiences in Europe, South America and from 'sea to shining sea' in her beautiful homeland of Canada.
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