A full afternoon of outdoor concerts in Toronto's historic Distillery District, featuring a wide variety of vocal music from 12:00pm to 4:30pm.

This event is free. No ticket is required to attend, but you can register for a ticket if you'd like to receive news related to this event.

Schedule:
12pm Peterborough Pop ensemble
12:35pm Lala Noel
1:10pm Quayside Voices
1:45pm FreePlay
2:15pm Lala Noel
2:50pm Quayside Voices
3:25pm FreePlay
4pm Pressgang Mutiny

Artist Bios and links:

The Peterborough Pop Ensemble, founded in 2000 by the late Barbara Monahan, has been performing and touching lives in Peterborough and the surrounding area for many years. Striving to present the highest level of musical excellence while creating energetic and infectious concert experiences for audiences, their diverse musical style and clear love of singing have allowed the Pop Ensemble to develop a remarkable reputation. They perform a broad spectrum of music, including jazz, pop, gospel, and Broadway. With a fundamental belief in supporting local charities and the community, the Pop Ensemble proudly participates in many local events such as the annual Dragon Boat Festival and Remembrance Day ceremonies. In recognition of these contributions, the Pop Ensemble was presented with a Civic Award for Community Betterment in June 2012, and has been named Peterborough's Musical Ambassadors; honours which they are proud to carry. 

www.popensemble.com

Using nothing but their voices and innovative live-looping techniques, genre-bending FreePlay takes you from the concert halls of Europe, to the jazz clubs of Manhattan, to the temples of India, and back to their native Toronto, Canada… all without you leaving your seat. From Bach to Bird to the Beatles to Bollywood, Dylan and Suba effortlessly cross musical boundaries, continually combining and recombining sounds to create a concert of endless variety, with the intimate delivery of two people. Imagine Simon and Garfunkel crossed with a Bach 2-part invention… or an acrobatic jazz melody combined with ancient Indian beats… or a 16-part vocal arrangement created by two singers… and you’ll get a glimpse of what FreePlay has to offer. FreePlay’s diverse concert program has taken them across Canada and around the world, with performances at major music festivals at over twenty-five countries across six continents. They have three albums: FreePlay (2009), Go Back Forward (2018), and Talk To Me (2022). Partners offstage as well as onstage, Dylan and Suba delight in exploring music together, bringing this joy to audiences worldwide. ‘Beyond Incredible!’ (Mark Kibble, Take 6) ‘Brilliant!’ (Janis Siegel, The Manhattan Transfer) ‘Mesmerizing’ (Lauren Kinhan, New York Voices)

www.freeplayduo.com
FB, IG, Twitter, YouTube: @Freeplayduo

Blending her soulful vocals with elevated harmony, Kyla Charter has lent her voice, and rhythm guitar playing to a number of both local and international acts, including the likes of Aysanabee, Patrick Watson, Alessia Cara, July Talk, Zaki Ibrahim, Rich Aucoin, The Queer Songbook Orchestra and Melbourne based rock band Kingswood.The young artist’s debut solo album “Edible Flowers” was released in the Spring of 2022 with support from the Ontario Arts Council and was welcomed with open arms into rotation nationally on CBC Radio. In addition to being a featured artist at the Toronto International Jazz Festival, Mariposa Folk Festival, Hillside and more, Charter also found time to perform and arrange vocals on Shakura Saida’s 2023 Juno award nominated “Hold On To Love”, Aysanabee’s 2023 Juno award nominated “Watin”, and has most recently co-written and co-produced on his 2024 Juno award winning record “Here and Now”.While embarking on a Canada Council funded project documenting the lives of her grandmothers, the Toronto native was thrust into the rich and heavy soil of her lineage. Determined to honour the women of her family tree, she has emerged as Lala Noel; a new bud on a familiar branch.

instagram.com/lalanoelmusic

Since 2014, Canadian Vocal Band Quayside has been entertaining audiences with their energizing a cappella take on their favourite pop hits. They’ve been voted "favourite local band", won the People’s Choice at Vancouver’s Yule Duel, and have been recipients of various grants and artist residencies. Quayside is celebrating their 10th birthday in 2024, and you can follow their adventures on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok at @QuaysideV. Be sure to stream their content on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube. 

Pressgang Mutiny are Toronto's Shantymen, dedicated to traveling the globe to discover shanties, works songs and the people who sing them. A quartet of dynamic musicians and tall ship sailors, they have performed extensively in Canada and the US and recently returned from a festival tour of France, Poland, the UK and the Netherlands. They were most recently selected as an Official Showcase artist at the 2023 Folk Music Ontario Conference. With their dedication to showcasing and sharing the full breadth of one of the world's first truly multicultural music, Pressgang Mutiny have collaborated with and learned from sea shanty singers from around the globe. They are currently producing a record and Bear Away Yankee, Bear Away Boys, an accompanying documentary film with traditional shanty singers and whalermen from the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Whether performing a rollicking set of shanties from around the world, leading educational workshops for new and experienced shanty audiences, or interviewing other artists as part of their ongoing podcast The Shanty Show, the lads of Pressgang Mutiny are guaranteed to entertain, educate, and delight. Pressgang Mutiny are Richard Kott, James McKie, Tim Pyron, and Stefan Read.

www.pressgangmutiny.com www.facebook.com/pressgangmutiny
Youtube
Instagram @pressgangmutiny