Tamar Ilana & Ventanas is a Toronto-based band that performs original and traditional material in over 20 languages, weaving in and out of fiery Flamenco dance and music, Greek, Turkish and Sephardic love songs, upbeat Bulgarian dance tunes, and lyrical original melodies, while leading captive audiences through windows into other lands, times and cultures. Lead singer Tamar Ilana’s powerful vocals, honed through a lifetime of performing internationally, evoke deep emotions. Add to this the intensity of Flamenco guitar and dance, the excitement of Middle Eastern darbuka, the soulful sounds of Greek oud and baglama, the haunting sounds of classical violin and contrabass, and the flare of Jazz improvisation and you have one unforgettable show full of music, dance and inspiration.
Tamar Ilana is Ashkenazi Jewish and a member of Pasqua First Nation (Treaty 4 Territory, SK) with some Scottish and Roma-Romanian ancestry mixed in. She grew up on the road performing and traveling with her ethnomusicologist mother, Dr. Judith Cohen, which deeply influenced her life and career. The members of Ventanas are from various backgrounds (including Greek, Italian, French Canadian, Indian) and all grew up playing music and performing since they were children. The project originally formed in 2011 when Tamar moved back to Toronto from Seville, where she had been living and studying Flamenco. Ventanas, meaning “windows” in Spanish, merges the members’ musical and cultural backgrounds together, creating their own sound which in turn reflects the sound of their city, Toronto.
During the pandemic, Ventanas helped found FabCollab, a not-for-profit performing arts organization that showcases BIPOC women and gender diverse minority voices. They are the resident house band for FabCollab’s signature series, Women in Song, which has led them to collaborate with internationally renowned artists such as Meesha Shafi, Measha Bruggergosman-Lee, Tia Wood, Zeb Bangash, Eliana Cuevas, Amanda Martinez, Joanna Majoko, OKAN, Sintayehu “Mimi” Zenebe, Rosary Spence, Cotee Harper, Seanna Bailey, Ooldouz Pouri, Athina Malli, Leen Hamo, Tara Moneka, Suba Sankaran, and Paromita Kar among others. These shows have been livestreamed by the National Arts Centre to international audiences of up to 43,000.
Tamar Ilana & Ventanas have toured throughout Canada and the US, as well as in Ireland, Colombia, Spain, and Portugal and they have been featured in venues and festivals such as Koerner Hall, the National Arts Centre, the Skirball Centre Los Angeles, Vancouver Folk Music Fest, the Aga Khan Museum, Carmel Bach Fest, Yerba Buena Centre San Francisco, the Mississauga Living Arts Centre, Calgary Folk Music Festival, Niagara Jazz Fest, Shambhala, Montreal’s Palais Montcalm, the Wales International Storytelling Fest, La Media Torta Bogotá, a horse ranch in Ibiza, and the Festival Internacional Folk Plasencia in Spain.
For more information, visit their site and follow them at
www.ventanasmusic.com | @ventanasmusic
