Connie Kaldor

One of Canada's foremost contemporary folk performers, Connie Kaldor channels her songwriting and stage skills into expressing an expansive emotional palette. Although her flair for comic material prompted a critic to liken her to a blend of Woody Allen and Woody Guthrie, she has proven equally adept at addressing weightier themes. Produced by her husband Paul Campagne of Hart-Rouge, her 1996 release Small Cafe contemplates the loss of a friend in "Down to a River" while confronting the repercussions of child abuse in "He's Running in His Sleep."

Raised by a Lutheran church choir director, Kaldor absorbed the sounds of the Beatles, Laura Nyro, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell. After childhood piano lessons she took up guitar during high school, then performed in hometown folk venues before shifting focus to theater studies at the University of Alberta. Upon earning her degree in 1975 she relocated to Toronto to join the experimental company Theater Passe Maraille, yet soon resumed her musical path and established herself across the Canadian folk scene. Launching her independent Coyote imprint, she issued her first recording, One of These Days, in 1981. Her follow-up, Moonlight Grocery (1984), earned a Juno Award nomination for Most Promising Female Vocalist.

Her initial collection of children's material, Lullaby Berceuse, appeared in 1988 and captured both a Juno and a Parent's Choice honor; she later received two further Junos for Best Children's Album in 2004 and 2005. Subsequent Coyote titles encompass Gentle of Heart (1989), Wood River (1992), Out of the Blue (1994), Love Is a Truck (2000), the paired 2005 sets Vinyl Songbook and Sky with Nothing to Get in the Way, and Postcards from the Road (2009). In the same period she also released the children's projects A Duck in New York City (2005) and A Poodle in Paris (2006), both issued by Secret Mountain.

Kaldor has additionally traveled to China, India, and Europe as a Canadian cultural envoy and appeared in a holiday special aired by the Global Television Network. Residing in Montreal with her two sons, Gabriel and Aleski, she continues her work as a mother and artist.