Instructors listed alphabetically: Biographies will be added as instructors are added to the 2024 Roster.
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Michele Amy – Camp Director, Both Weeks
A classically trained musician, Michele is a traditional fiddle player who believes strongly in preserving our Canadian heritage. Michele has studied many of Canada’ s best fiddle players and teachers in her quest to find an authentic sound. Working to preserve heritage in her corner of Saskatchewan, she now teaches a large studio of students, runs the Kenosee Lake Kitchen Party ( Saskatchewan’s flagship fiddle camp ) and promotes traditional fiddling through workshops, shows, school events, teacher training and by publishing curriculum designed to preserve the tunes of the prairies. |
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Ray Bell – Guitar Week ONE
Bringing many years of camp teaching experience, and one of KLKP’s original supporters, we are thrilled to welcome Ray back to KLKP. He is a master teacher and player. His clean playing, quirky sense of humour and ability to pass on information and techniques in an accessible and playable way make him a camp favourite, and watching him onstage supporting other musicians is amazing. He runs “Music in the House,” a busy studio in Regina, Sk where he lives with his family. |
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Matt Contois – Guitar Week Two
The musical journey of Matt Cook-Contois started on his traditional territory of Misipawistik Cree Nation through the Frontier Fiddling Program. A combination of classroom learning, the tutelage of his musician Grandfather, and years of practice culminated in back-to-back finals appearances at the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship. Matt then relocated to Vancouver and set his focus on performing and becoming a sessional recording artist. He got his introduction to the Vancouver music scene by joining the Clay Ravens, a local indie rock band. He also joined The Sheets, a talented cover band which holds a residency at the legendary Blarney Stone in Gastown. These musical projects allowed Matt to further hone his skills as a performer, songwriter, and singer. |
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Chris Coole – Banjo Week Two
Since falling in love with the sound of folk and early country music at the age of seventeen, you could loosely divide Chris Coole’s 30-year career as a full-time musician into three eras – ten years as a Toronto street and subway busker; ten years playing bluegrass residencies around Toronto’s bar scene; and ten years touring internationally; both solo and with the likes of The Lonesome Ace Stringband, The David Francey Band, and The Foggy Hogtown Boys. Throughout this musical journey, Chris has perhaps become best known as being one of the leading purveyors of the modern clawhammer-style banjo. He has developed a highly personal style that has often been described as instantly recognizable. This unique voice on the instrument has not gone unnoticed by his fellow musicians and has led to playing as a collaborator (Ivan Rosenberg, Erynn Marshall, Arnie Naiman), sideman (Jim Cuddy, Natalie McMaster, Justin Rutledge, John Reischman, Sylvia Tyson), or producer (The Slocan Ramblers, David Francey) on over 200 recordings. Coole is a sought-after teacher of both banjo, guitar, and songwriting at workshops and festivals across Canada, the U.S., and Europe (Augusta Heritage Centre, Sore Fingers, Rockygrass Academy, Nimble Fingers, Midwest Banjo Camp). He has produced a popular series of online workshops as well as an instructional DVD. |
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Ryan D’Aoust – Fiddle Week Two
From Norway House MB,Ryan grew up learning the fiddle in the Frontier Fiddle program, and returned as an instructor to motivate another generation of young players. He is an amazing fiddler with a smooth and playful style, a big booming laugh and a gleeful approach to life. We love the energy he brings with him, his joyful friendship and the connections he makes with his students to nurture them along their path to exceptional playing. Ask him about bows and he shall wax poetic for far too long, so beware! Accompanying Ryan will be his sidekick pooch Coda. |
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Emily Dubois – Fiddle both weeks / Kids KLKP
She spent many years performing as part of the super-group Coastline under the direction of Ivonne Hernandez, and also served as President of the Victoria Fiddlers Association. She continued her Arts education and pursued Music Management while she taught at a busy studio in Vancouver. Now relocated to Regina, Emily’s “Flatland Fiddle Studio” is making waves and developing talent in SK. Emily brings great creativity and energy to her playing and performing, and a solid teaching style when working with students. We are pleased to see some of these musicians come full circle, and return as dedicated teachers at KLKP. |
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Mitch Dureault – Fiddle both weeks: Kids KLKP
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Will Elliott (Tech/Sound/Admin – Both Weeks)
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Tom Gammons – Week One Guitar
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Anthony Kelly – Week One Vocals
Guitarist, song-writer, side-player and lead singer: Anthony’s musical career has been steeped in inclusion. Coming from a musical family, Anthony grew up performing,playing and singing in his family band. He expanded on this to follow solo projects, mentor and nurture other young players and the next generation of musicians and performers. Anthony raised a family of musical daughters, singing harmony with them at young ages, and he has been teaching with KLKP every single year that we have been in operation! |
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Olivia Kelly – Week One Vocals Fiddler and teacher Olivia grew up singing harmony with her family, and now brings a deep knowledge of technique and strategies to her craft. Working as a music teacher with hundreds of students has helped her develop a style for bringing out the best in each vocalist. Learning to sing with solid techniques and strategies can take anyone’s music to new levels.
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Daniel Koulack – Both Weeks: Banjo / guitar
Daniel Koulack, whose music includes a broad range of genres, is a respected multi-instrumentalist and teacher on the Canadian music scene. At eleven years of age he bought a banjo with money saved up from his paper route, and a year later he made his professional debut at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Twice-nominated for the Junos, Daniel has released three solo albums and regularly collaborates with Canada’s best musicians across genres. Daniel has been a beloved teacher at KLKP for many years, and his bass playing is a constant on our concert stage. |
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Patti Kusturok – Week One: fiddle
Patti is known across the country in the fiddle music world and with her humble demeanour and personable stage presence allows the audience to soak in the music and connect with her in a special way. Patti has a razor sharp wit and when she starts playing her fiddle the musical spirits instantly come alive in whatever room she’s playing!! After being one of the most sought after old time dance players in her home province of Manitoba, Patti has taken that amazing feel and drive, mixed it up with a little humour, and put together a fun and entertaining show that will have you laughing and stomping your feet, with maybe even a tear or two as you allow yourself to remember the good old days of having a kitchen party until the wee hours. https://www.pattikusturok.com/
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Alex Kusturok – Week One: Fiddle
Alex Kusturok is a dynamic player whose drive and rhythm keep audiences on their toes. He has emerged as a formidable force in the workd of traditional and contemporary fiddle music. Immersed in the rich Metis culture since childhood, his journey in music begam in the lively old-time dances of Manitoba where he accompanied his mother, Patti Kusturok. By age 7 his deep-seated passion for music was unmistakable, a passion that has since evolved into a flourishing career as both a performer and an educator.
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Brii LaPlante |
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Karson McKeown – Week One: Fiddle
On top of playing with Inn Echo, Karson’s passion for music literacy is put to use teaching fiddle and violin on PEI. Lessons at his music school are in high demand across the island, seeing him win Music PEI’s Music Educator of the Year in 2021. On and off stage, Karson devotes his energy to the world of traditional fiddle music. |
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Shamma Sabir – Week Two: Fiddle
Shamma has been a passionate abassador of fiddle music from the time she heard the first strains of Faded Love. She still remembers it. She was 11-years old and she knew she had to learn music that made her heart ache and her feet tap all at the same time. Since then she has played and taught her way through much of the Canadian landscape while completing a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology. Through this blend of passions, she has been able to learn and develop effective teaching techniques that take into acount how learning happens. This journey has formed her mission: to spread the love of fidel music, paired with an understanding of how people learn, supported by fundamental technique, to ensure that you love the way you sound. |
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Fergal Scahill – Week Two fiddle
At one point he toured widely with Wee Banjo Three,which is on hiatus at the moment, but he can be found DAILY as he records a tune a day for all to enjoy and to learn from . His generosity extends to players he meets along the way, as he includes them in his massive social presence. We are so lucky to spend some time with Fergal at KLKP2024. |
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John Showman – Week Two:Fiddle
Over a 20 year career spanning 4,500 shows across North America and Europe,he has become well known as an exciting and innovative live musician, and is in high demand as a session player,sideman and teacher. He brings a hard-earned professional understanding of the music he loves to play. From his start as a professional in Montreal in 1996 playing 5 nights per week in Irish pubs and folk clubs across Eastern Canada, he fell in love with the sound of traditional fiddle playing, absorbing the playing of reats as Tommy Peoples, Kevin burke, Frankie Gavin, Vassar Clements, Scotty stoneman, Kenny Baker, Buddy Thomas, Eck Robertson and many others. Though careful study of written transcriptions and od recordings and a relentless pursuit of accurate reproduction, he has build his repertoire of tunes, chops, styles and technique. He has developed a sound and an approach that is unique, one that he can command and relat to many genres of music. He has also learned to teach this approach to others through many seminars and camps |
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Rob Skeet – Week Two: Vocals/ accompany self
He leads the best vocal jams, rocking out to any genre of music, always favouring a little of Cyril TenJohn along the way. His concerts are always camp favourites, and include hordes of thousands! If you get a chance to work with Rob, it will be one you won’t forget. |
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Ruth Smith – Both Weeks: Fiddle/ Kids KLKP
She is a body-worker (rooted in traditions of yoga and menstrual cycle facilitation) who has traveled the world both training, teaching, learning from and appreciating the cultural traditions and truths found around the globe. She regularly leads projects involving groups of children whose parents are marginalized, has composed and created song cycles and has delivered programming to wide circles. Her gentle spirit, her kind nature and her stunning teaching and facilitation abilities will leave us better musically and personally. |
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Emilyn Stam – Both weeks Piano
Emilyn Stam is an Ontario-based fiddler, pianist and accordionist who creates, performs, records and teaches in folk, trad, and neo-trad styles from Europe and Canada. Her unique style is largely influenced by her mentor, the late Oliver Schroer, but also by her 4 years touring with Eastern European party-punk-super-band Lemon Bucket Orkestra, playing for “Balfolk” social dancing events with the Dutch band Té, classical piano training, and as a member of trio “Eh?! with Canadian fiddlers Anne Lederman and James Stephens
She has toured throughout Canada, Eastern and Western Europe with The Lemon Bucket Orkestra, The Shoeless, Eh?!, Filippo Gambetta (IT), John David Williams, and Té (NL). She co-founded Balfolk Toronto, a new movement of social folk dancing in Toronto which hosts weekly drop-in dance evenings with live music. She regularly crosses over into other art forms, collaborating with improvising clowns, theatre groups, contemporary dancers and poets. In 2015 she completed the 2.5 week intensive Baby Clown course led by John Turner on Manitoulin Island, and in 2014 choreographer Suzette Sherman created a 3 movement dance piece to 3 of Emilyn’s compositions.
Emilyn has taught at various fiddle camps (Castlegar, BC Fiddle Camp, Goderich Celtic College, AlgomaTrad) across Canada, teaching both her unique piano accompaniment style and fiddle classes in ensemble playing, fiddle composition, Canadian fiddling, and Oliver Schroer tunes.
Emilyn has performed festivals (Montreal Jazz, Vancouver Folk Festival, etc), house concerts (Home Routes), venues large and small throughout Canada, Western and Eastern Europe in various musical projects. She has released 8 albums and appears on at least 30 other recordings, including David Woodhead’s “Confabulation”, Oliver Schroer’s “Smithers” and Jaron Freeman-Fox’s “Manic Almanac, Slow Mobius”.
She has 4 Canadian Folk Music Award Nominations, (The Shoeless, Eh?!, Lemon Bucket Orkestra) and 2 Juno Award Nominations (Lemon Bucket Orkestra). Emilyn performed in both seasons of the TV show Galala (UNIS TV), as a member of the house band (synths, organ, piano, accordion, violin), co-arranger and co-composer. |
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Rowan Teasdale – Both weeks: Ukulele Kids KLKP
She has encapsulated KLKP jam tunes into book format, has published several ukulele songbooks to help her students, as well as violin technique made simple. She loves to call dances, create community and believes in a barrier-free acceptance of all. |
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Donna Turk – Both Weeks Fiddle
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Morgan Turk – Both Weeks Guitar
He teaches guitar in S.E. Sasktachewan including running a school guitar program at White Bear Education Complex and Pheasant Rump school, so his teaching skills are exceptional. He composes, practises, anchors the Teagan Littlechief band as well as playing as side-man for several other local groups. Regardless of your style, he can show you how to elevate your playing to wherever you’d like to go. |
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L.J. Tyson – Both Weeks guitar/ Kids KLKP
Identity has become a major part of LJ’s work because he feels representation is important in music for minority groups. LJ has shared his songwriting and performance across Canadian radio and venues. Performing his signature blend of folk/pop with his band The Locals, LJ Tyson is moving forward. L.J.’s gentle personality and teaching style helps kids of all ages to find their voice. At Kids KLKP he uses all his skills to keep children engaged and creative: making music videos, composing their own work, telling their own stories and validating their experiences. |
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Ted View ART |
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Jacquie Walbaum – Both Weeks / vocals Kids KLKP
Jacquie Walbaum is a highly regarded teacher and performer in Southeast Saskatchewan. Newly minted with her Bachelor’s of Education, Jacquie combines her adept musicianship with deep pedagogical knowledge. Her innovative approach to music combines traditional along with fun modern music. She performs with her husband Aaron Walbaum as Wooltree Grove, a duo with passionate lyrics and tight harmonies. As a solo act, Jacquie is described as a folk/indie style that speaks to your soul.
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Camp Director Super woman. Organizer Extraordinaire. Community Builder. Lover of small joys, creator of large joys. 
Hailing originally from Langbank, Emily grew up at KLKP, returned and taught at the first Kids’ camp, completed her internship program, and went on to study fiddle/ music at University of Victoria under the direction of Daniel Lapp (among others).
Originally from Wolsley and now making his home in Saskatoon, Mitch is also a KLKP student come full circle. He began attending KLKP at an early age, continued his fiddle/ violin education and now serves as both the President of the C.A.M.P. program in Northern Saskatchewan, working to ensure quality music education for students in the Northern regions of the province, as well as serving as the Executive director of the Montremart “All Folked Up” Festival. Mitch is passionate about traditional music and passing on the tunes of our predecessors. His skills at teaching have been honed over years of practise.
Where there is a Will there is a way… he does the stuff around camp: set up, sound, fixing, trouble shooting, recording, wiring, hauling… you name it, he’s the guy to look for before KLKP and during. There are always unsung heroes in any festival or volunteer situation, and this is one of our backbones. 
Another full circle KLKP participant, Tom originally attended KLKP as a student, learning from such guitar masters as Jake Charron, Ken Hamm, Ben Knorr . He continued his education at the Holland College School of Performing Arts in P.E.I. where he currently makes his home. Now playing with the group Inn Echo, who is becoming a high-demand group in festivals world-wide; they spent the winter playing festivals in Australia, and plan to tour many major festivals in Canada in the summer of 2023. They were recently featured at the Ottawa’s celebration of the coronation of King Charles. Tom actively pursues diverse education to further his own playing, but has also become the Island’s go-to guitarist for trad musicians, leading sessions, playing dances when not touring his own material. We are so pleased that Tom still makes time for KLKP each year. 
At the age of four, Patti began to learn playing the fiddle, and has a resume that reads like that of an Olympic champion. A few to her credit includes the Canadian Junior Champion (1985), 3-time Champion at the famous Pembroke, ON competition, 6 time Manitoba Champion, 3 time Grand North American Champion, and in 1994, 1995 and again in 1996, Patti won the prestigious Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship in Ottawa, ON. Patti was the first woman in the history of Canada to ever win and was the very first person from Western Canada to attain the crown.
Karson McKeown got his start on the fiddle at the age of 10, after hearing many of his elders play traditional music at family parties and on old tapes. He grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, surrounded by the intricate, fast-paced sound of Ottawa Valley fiddling, but he always stayed connected to his family roots, spending summers on Prince Edward Island and immersing himself in the East-Coast style. Since graduating from Arts Canterbury High School in Ottawa and completing the music performance degree at the Holland College School of Performing Arts, Karson has developed a bright, energetic and driving style. He has garnered solo recognition from the competitions of Eastern Ontario to the sessions of maritimes, performed extensively with The Trousers and Anna Ludlow, and now provides electrifying melodies and soaring harmonies to Inn Echo’s powerful sound. 
One of Ireland’s finest players, Fergal is equally proficient on the fiddle and the bodhran, while also playing a mean DADGAB guitar style. But the best part ofFergal is not his music, but his incredibly kind and thoughful presence, and a smile which transcends!
John Showman has made his mark as “one of the best an dmost influential fiddel players in Canada” (Steve pritchard, CIUT 89.5 FM.
Multi-instrumentalist Rob Skeet brings the party to KLKP each year. His boundless energy, his huge laugh and his genuine desire to help each student become the very best that they can be is a gift to all.
A force of nature- Ruth is a multi-instrumentalist, a stunning vocalist and harmonizer, and is one who is in touch with her native rooted landscape. 
Rowan is a technically trained musician, who has traveled widely honing her skills in both music, language, cultural appreciation and folk dance. She is an educator with many years of classroom experience, and now teaches music full time out of her private studio in Balcarres.
A long time KLKP instructor, Donna Turk is passionate about making fiddle music accessible for all ages and backgrounds. She led the acclaimed Bow Valley Fiddlers of Calgary for many years and taught in several Northern communities before moving to Forget, SK where she has an active studio and co-directs the fiddle/vocal ensemble Focal Point. Specializing in the Old Time fiddle style, Donna has toured around the world and her 2012 album combines spirited original tunes with historic favourites.
Electric, Blues, Rock, you name it. This is your ultimate guitar man- he just plays everything. 
LJ Tyson is Folk/Pop artist from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Blending themes of identity and social movement, LJ has put his own unique stamp on the music scene. LJ Tyson is an Indigenous person who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community. 
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