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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 in every sense. In addition to their delightful daughter Omneya, they have collaborated on many musical projects for over a decade including Maza Meze and Mernie! As the musical director of the Maryem Tollar Ensemble, Ernie is involved in arranging the group’s repertoire as well as composing musicv for the ensemble. Ernie was born and raised in Toronto. A musical omnivore, Ernie’s roots are deeply embedded in jazz. He began his saxophone studies with Paul Brodie and continued with Ron Allen, both Toronto players and teachers of note. Starting with the classic jazz of Parker, Young, and Coltrane, Ernie began to follow the music east. Over the years Ernie has extended his musical reach through studies with Indian and Arab music teachers in North America, India, and Egypt. He plays a wide range of saxophones and an equally diverse assembly of wind instruments including Indian bamboo flutes, the Arabic ney, whistle flutes, and silver flutes. As a performer Ernie Tollar has worked with most of Toronto’s jazz, world, and contemporary music leaders. His artistry has brightened the performances of Dave Restivo, Trichy Sankaran, Evergreen Club Gamelan, N.O.J.O., and many more. He is in demand as a composer for a number of music ensembles, dance companies, and filmmakers. 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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