Cd Isle...CDs by BC island recording artists

As one of Canada’s hottest young performers, Ivonne has performed with or opened for Alan Jackson, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, The Paperboys, Barachois, Natalie MacMaster, Jann Arden, Julian Austin, Ben Heppner and Oscar Lopez. Her talent, passion and charm have taken her all over North America.

A consummate entertainer, she is constantly in motion, whether dancing, fiddling or singing...an energy that is passed on to the audience wherever she performs.

About Ivonne's debut cd 'Playing With Fire'

Guests include Scott Henderson on saxophone and Daniel Lapp on keyboard and guitar. As Daniel writes in the liner notes, " Enjoy this album, the first from a young fiddler whose splendid technique commands attention and deserves accolades but which never interferes with a spirited and soulful performance, which is at the heart of all great fiddling."

Jaime RT hails from the Kootenay’s where she began her performing career at 12-years-old with family band “The Huscroft Family Fiddlers”. She took her love of music and created a career after university with teaching, establishing the Salt Spring Fiddle Workshop that draws fiddle lovers from all over the globe to the founding of Fiddleworks, a teaching series of music books and CDs.

Performing with numerous players over the years such as Kettle of Fish, Song of the Isles and The Billy Goats Gruff, Jaime has honed her dynamic live performance and has established herself as one of the top fiddlers in the country. Summers find Jaime teaching and performing at fiddle camps across Canada and the US, sharing the stage with fiddlers such as Oliver Schroer, Pierre Schryer, Jerry Holland, Gordon Stobbe, Ian Fraser, & Catriona MacDonald. Sharing her talents in Canada’s arctic and northern communities with Andrea Hanson and Strings Across the Sky, an organization committed to restoring the historic fiddle legacy among youth, is another one of Jaime’s passions.

At home on Salt Spring Island Jaime can be found performing at community events and teaching fiddle, violin, piano, theory and composition in her unique straw bale music studio.

Reach is a rich combination of sounds, a merging of the classical with a folk soul that takes listeners on a journey of melodic pathways. Imaginative, joyous, and rich with stylistic mergings, this album establishes Jaime RT as an innovative artist willing to bring fiddle music to new palates. A contemporary folk album, Reach blends new and old music, celtic and Jazz, classic and Acadian to create a uniquely west-coast inspired world approach to the fiddle. Woven with the support of mandolin, guitar, accordion, bass, cello and tabla, Jaime’s violin and viola take us on a journey that keeps us wanting more. Reach brings a stellar line-up of some of the best talent in folk music today such as the prodigious, cutting-edge fiddle composer Oliver Schroer on violin, Canada’s top mandolin player John Reischman along with Juno-nominated musicians Glen Manders and Andrian Dolan of The Bills. Reach is a fresh new canvas that has allowed Jaime RT to create a picture of fiddle music that is both new and familiar, a sound that is “out-of-the-box” and ultimately captivating.

recorded live in concert at the Alix Goolden Hall in 2001. Includes original compositions, jazz standards, traditional folk tunes, and the blues.

A native of Leiden, Holland, Karel was raised in Calgary, Canada. After studying piano, guitar, and percussion in his school years, Karel toured the British Isles with the Calgary Youth Orchestra and became a professional musician on his return in 1970. He toured North America with several groups and became vocal director/keyboardist of the show group "Stratus Faction", making his television debut on CTV with the group's own pilot program. In 1973, Karel studied jazz arranging and composition at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and completed a degree in secondary music and mathematics education at the University of Victoria in 1981. He has taught both privately and in public schools for students of all ages, and has been a featured specialist at numerous jazz workshops.

Karel has been a composer for film, television and video projects as a partner in Legacy Music Ltd. since 1985. He wrote the source music for the film In the Company of Men, which won the Filmmakers' Trophy at the 1997 Sundance Festival, and was an official selection for the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. He has also co-written music with Ken Williams for several internationally televised series, among them Police Academy - the series(Fox Network in USA, and networks in ninety countries), Undersea Explorer(Outdoor Living Network et al), Safari - Ocean Adventures, (on Discovery Canada, NHK Japan and others), Take Off children's series (on Family Channel, CTV et al), and The New Body Moves, an aerobics series (Canada-wide, also shown internationally), along with innumerable educational, corporate and travel videos, receiving national and international awards such as the Peabody Award, the ITVA world-wide award, and many others. Television credits also include a great many themes and scores for documentaries, news, drama and children's programs broadcast world-wide.


Karel has been keyboardist and/or musical director for a great number of musicals, stage presentations, and concerts, and his playing talents have led to engagements all over the world. His first solo album Keys, recorded in 1988 and distributed by Midsummer Music, has received wide critical acclaim. An album of Christmas carols entitled Do You Hear What I Hear? followed in 1991. Since then, on the Midsummer label (internationally distributed by Tandem Music), Karel has written, performed, and recorded four music and nature sounds albums, solo piano albums Piano by the Sea and Orca Suite, and orchestrations Classics for Relaxation (with Mark Bracken), and Wings of Summer. An orchestral suite co-written with Kenneth G. Williams for the Butchart Gardens was released in 1993 on the Holborne label. Another piano solo CD, Thinking of You - Themes of Friendship has been released by Midsummer in 1996. A jazz trio CD of original tunes entitled Cat Fud was also completed early in 1996.

In the field of children's music, Karel was musical director and keyboardist on Birds, Beasts and Babes by Pat Carfra (the lullaby lady), chosen by the Ladies' Home Journal as one of the six all-time best children's bedtime albums, keyboardist and arranger on John Demers' My Backyard, and George Dixon's series of children's musical stories. He has toured with Norman Foote and played regularly at Victoria's Glendale Lodge and the Queen Alexandra Children's Hospital with recording artist Mahri Sherlock.

Outside of his musical career, Karel was elected to be mayor in his home municipality, the District of Highlands , in December of 1999.

In his spare time, Karel still loves to play the piano and plays in clubs, concert halls and in the studio whenever possible. He writes jazz tunes for his own and other groups, and has played with jazz greats such as Bud Shank, Ian MacDougall, Pat LaBarbera, Don Clark, Floyd Standifer, Roy Reynolds and many well-known vocalists. He's regularly asked to play at jazz festivals as both leader and sideman, and leads his own trio and quintet regularly at the Victoria International Jazz Festival.

Look out Deep Forest!! The songs listed are some of the creations Keith's made using his piano, computer, and synthesizer.

Science and technology has finally caught up with me and has given me the tools I needed to generate a full, rich and inventive music style. (Keith Van)

In the Mosaic, Louise shares her complex and soulful compositions - music that was inspired by many moving experiences over the last few years. Louise has not only composed the music for Mosaic but has written the instrumentation as well.

“I hope you may choose this album to be among your favorite CD’s; to listen to while spending some quiet time with yourself or loved ones; in front of a fire, reading a book, sailing on calm seas or in your special warm retreat. Find your favorite place, close your eyes, relax and absorb the strong emotions that are woven into my reflective compilation”. Louise Eldridge

Musicians: S. Stoikva, violin – Ms. Stoikva has performed for numerous symphonies throughout Europe. Her exquisite weaving of melody and harmony enhance the quiet passages of this album. Paula Kiffner, cello - Her supple motions of the bow denote her artistic ability. This Salt Spring, B.C. resident has been a member of many symphonies, including Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. She is currently the head cellist for the Victoria Conservatory. Paula’s cello may be found on Celine Dion’s latest Christmas album. Alan Cottell, flute - Alan has given this album a unique sound, creating a style reminiscent of light jazz accompaniment. Alan is a resident of Victoria and is a teacher of music, voice and film.

Produced by TC Eldridge Productions