FOLK MUSIC ONTARIO

Since 2013, Dylan Menzie has been steadily building a catalog of critically acclaimed, award winning music.  A combination of folk, rock, and pop elements Menzie’s style is best described as Indie Pop Americana. His dynamic vocals and compelling songwriting have allowed him to play at iconic events like the Cambridge Folk & Edmonton Folk Festival and tour countries all over the world. 

Throughout his career as a songwriter, Menzie has also worked intermittently with non-profit organizations like Music PEI and the East Coast Music Association in all aspects of event and conference planning.

In August of 2022, Menzie was hired to the FMO team. Using his knowledge of the industry, as both an artist & event organizer - and connections made over the past decade - to bring together industry professionals and artists from across Canada and beyond through FMO’s Export Development Program.

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Joel joined Folk Music Ontario in January of 2020. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at The Conference Board of Canada, planning, marketing, and delivering upwards of 20 conferences and 100 webinars per year.

Joel is active in the Ottawa Music scene. He and his partner are the former co-hosts of The Monday Special Blend, a weekly show on 93.1 CKCU FM. He is the former host of The Ottawa Music Video Showcase and Live! On Elgin Open Mic on Rogers Cable 22. He is a former board member of the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition, and continues to sit on the programming committee, where he helped to organize and deliver the 3rd Annual Capital Music Awards in May of 2022.

Joel is also a singer, composer, and entertainer who has performed with various bands and theatre productions over the course of 20 years. He is the Bandmaster of The Magic Machine, who released their first EP in 2018. In 2017, Joel wrote the score and acted as Musical Director for Phantom of the Opry, a play which ran for 5 sold-out shows at Ottawa’s Gladstone Theatre.

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Erica is a new addition to the FMO team, working as the Registration Coordinator for the Folk Music Ontario Conference 2023. With a dynamic background in education and community outreach, Erica brings with her a wealth of skills and hands-on experience; the heart of her work always being a love of connecting with people and nurturing warm, genuine relationships.

Her life-long love for the performing arts, and vibrant spirit for sharing stories, has taken her all over the world, including: Toronto (Bachelor of Arts with Honours, in Theatre), New York (The American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Northern Italy (Associazione Culturale Linguistica Educational); and locally with Orpheus Musical Theatre Society (The Producers), the Ottawa Storytellers (Finding Her Way and The Ottawa Children’s Storytelling Festival), the Ottawa Grassroots Festival 2022 (poet), and the Ottawa Fringe Festival 2023 (Stars, Stones, and Shadows: A Heroine’s Tale).

Most recently, Irish folk music (specifically the call of the uilleann pipes) inspired her to connect more deeply with her Irish ancestry through folklore, mythology, and a desire to learn how to traditionally play her bodhrán.

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