NICHOLAS WILLIAMS
Nicholas plays wooden flutes, piano accordion, and piano. Originally from Ottawa, Nicholas studied world music, composition, and improvisation at York University in Toronto. Since then, his passion for the musical traditions of Québec, Scandinavia, Scotland, and Ireland have led him to perform, play for dances, and teach across North America and the UK as a memeber of the groups Genticorum, Crowfoot, and with fiddler Laura Risk. His appreciation for musical traditions is accompanied by a tendancy towards innovation, creation and musical exploration, and he has earned a reputation as a prolific composer and arranger. Nicholas has had the chance to study with such diverse flute players as Loretto Reid, Jonas Simonson, and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia. He now lives and teaches in Waterville, in the Eastern Townships of Québec.
ALEX KEHLER
Canadian-American Alex Kehler plays fiddle, violin, nyckelharpa, and cittern. Growing up in Nova Scotia, he now lives in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and enjoys a busy career somewhere between the folk and classical worlds. He is best known for his work as a versatile crossover specialist with La Nef and Skye Consort and more recently, Suzie LeBlanc. Alex studied baroque violin with Chantal Rémillard in the late 1990s at McGill University, and has played with groups such as Toronto’s Aradia Ensemble and Montreal’s Studio de musique ancienne under the late Christopher Jackson. He is also a mainstay of the Québecois and New England traditional music scène, touring with bands Kehler-Williams Duo, Soulwood, Les Siffleurs de nuits, and Jeremiah McLane & Timmothy Cummings. Since 2011 he has been pursuing his passion for Scandinavian music, playing nyckleharpa and studing with renowned Swedish teachers, Torbjörn Näsböm, Magnus Holmstöm and David Eriksson.
Alex Kehler and Nicholas Williams share a passion for Scandinavian musical traditions, an impulse to explore new acoustic textures and sonorities, and a tendency of accumulating excessive numbers of instruments. Equally at home playing music music for a hall of dancers, for an intimate audience, or on a large concert stage, they are always happy to share their knowledge, and to invite listeners to come with them on an engaging musical ride.
