Some people are born to play music. By the age of three, Ivonne Hernandez was playing violin by ear, everything from her mother’s favourite Maritime reels to her father’s Chilean folk music roots. A child prodigy, she soon was playing guitar, piano, cello, flute, and percussion before joining Daniel Lapp’s BC Fiddle Orchestra. While still in her pre-teens, Ivonne played on the Orchestra’s Fiddleharmonic CD and before 60,000 at a Commonwealth Games performance with the Crash Test Dummies.

At 13, Ivonne was the youngest member of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and formed Fiddlemania, a dual-violin band with her younger sister, Kalissa. She was the Merritt Old Time Fiddlers’ Provincial Champion for two years running before becoming a judge at the event as a 15 year old. Ivonne is the reigning 5 time Grand North American Fiddle Champion, and has performed with Mark O'Connor, Alan Jackson, Gloria Estefan, Jann Arden, U2's the Edge, Natalie MacMaster, Earth Wind and Fire, Steve Winwood, Burt Bacharach, Juan Louis Guerra, Rosa Pasos, Ben Hepner and legendary film composer Howard Shore.

The young musician has been featured on television and radio, at folk music and fiddle festivals around the world, and played for the Governor General of Canada. Her debut recording, Playing With Fire, garnered critical raves, and in 2006 Ivonne released In Time (Warner Music Canada). She has most recently recorded and produced a twin fiddle album with her sister, Kalissa Hernandez fittingly called 'Sisters' as well as Kalissa's debut album 'Later than Last' both released in 2009. Ivonne is now a sought after session player and lends her talents on many critically acclaimed recordings and film scores from artists in both Canada and the US.

With her band, Ivonne has been performing many educational and entertaining school shows across Canada and the US to high acclaim. She has toured and taught all over North America, the Caribbean and Europe, and if that wasn't enough, Ivonne was offered a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music and graduated in 3 years at the top of her class with a dual major in Violin Performance and Music Business & Management.

Ivonne Hernandez has mastered Canada’s traditional fiddle music. She embodies the country’s 21st century multiculturalism, and her music reflects the new century’s marriage of cultural influences. The young fiddler transforms her folk music roots into an exciting and dynamic new form. Looking for something new in folk music? This is it!

 A brilliant young violinist, Ben Powell has already lived a couple of musical lifetimes during his 24 years, and in some ways he is just getting started. His recent debut CD Light shows just what a creative and swinging jazz violinist he is at this early stage. 

Ben was born in Cheltenham, England into a musical family. His mother is a Suzuki violin teacher and his father is a cellist in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Ben eagerly started the violin at the age of two, learning from his mother. His talent was eminent from a very young age resulting in an invitation to solo at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan as part of an International Suzuki celebration. In 1999 he traveled to the United States with the National Isis Strings Academy of Great Britain, performing at the Kennedy Center and on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building. The following year at 14, Ben was a guest soloist on a European Suzuki tour that traveled to Germany, Belgium, Holland and France. Ben’s first major orchestral experience soon followed with his successful placement into the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at age 16. In his three years as an orchestral member, Ben played under many internationally renown conductors such as Yan Pascal Tortelier, Sir Roger Norrington and Marin Alsop to name a few. Ben toured the major concert halls of the UK with the National Youth Orchestra, each year culminating with a televised Prom from London’s Royal Albert Hall. In his third and final year in the orchestra, Ben was awarded the position of principle second violinist.

Unlike most classical musicians, Ben not only developed a strong interest in jazz but the versatility to be able to play swinging improvisations. As a young teenager, he was introduced to Stephane Grappelli’s music. “I had solid oral training on the violin for six or seven years, so I was open to jazz and improvising. I was able to relate to Stephane’s playing quite quickly. Classical music gave me the technique in order to express myself in jazz and improvisation. In jazz, whatever I feel comes out. I did not have to change my sound or my approach at all.”

From his 2001 invitation to play for jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker as part of the Cheltenham International Jazz festival, Ben has since shared the stage with greats such as Herbie Hancock, Steve Gadd, Gary Burton, Joe Lovano, Gloria Estefan, Paul Simon, Abe Laboriel, Stevie Winwood and Philip Bailey to name a few. In 2005 Ben was awarded a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he graduated three years later with a degree in jazz composition. During his three years as a student in Boson, Ben also enjoyed playing in the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. 

‘Light’. is Ben’s recording debut, and it features him already as a mature jazz soloist. “I’m a big believer in getting a beautiful sound, good intonation and clear articulation. There is no excuse for sacrificing the essential components to good violin playing just because one plays jazz.” Ben recently performed much of this repertoire at the 2009 Tanglewood Jazz Festival to high acclaim – “With a lovely tone, sophisticated lyricism, and a wonderful sense of swing on classics like “Opportunity,” “Tournesol”, “I Won’t Dance” and “Light”, from his CD of the same name, Ben Powell plays swing through modern ears, relishing the genre he “self-discovered” after solid training in classical violin.” jazz.com

Recent performances have seen Ben at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, San Francisco, with Dr. Magpie, an acoustic string sextet he founded while at Berklee. The Ben Powell Quartet performed at the 2009 ‘Toast of the Nation’ New Years Eve Concert, held at the Berklee Performance Center, Boston MA. Recent festival appearances include the Hubbardson, Salem, Victoria and Vancouver Jazz Festivals. An utterly unique performer, Ben’s musicianship, technical brilliance, mature, intuitive style and delivery inevitably brings audiences to their feet. The violinist-composer-bandleader is a significant new voice in the jazz world and stands in the midst of a select few jazz stars of the future.