For Connie Kaldor, the stage is a canvas and, without exception, her every performance paints a passionate, magical, musical masterpiece.
“I come alive when I’m on a stage,” Kaldor says. “And the audience is what makes it happen. The electricity and the magic of what you do live can’t be duplicated in a studio. On stage you can laugh with the audience … or you can cry or dream.”
Kaldor’s love of the stage didn’t start with her musical career. She initially pursued a professional career in the theatre, studying dramatic arts at the University of Alberta, performing at the Théâtre Passe Muraille in Toronto and the 25th Street House in Saskatoon, and appearing on radio and TV.
“I did some wonderful work on stage but in the back of my mind I was always thinking of music. There came a point where I had to decide whether I was going to be a theatre person or a musician,” Kaldor reflects.
“I chose to go with music, but I had learned that, on stage, I could come with something a little different. Theatre was a wonderful training ground for me and has influenced my approach to performing my whole life.”
Still, the choice to dedicate her life to music has made us all a bit richer as Kaldor’s music has touched countless fans in a way that many musicians can only dream.
The recognition began when Kaldor became part of the Canadian Wave – a musical movement that defined a newly emerging Canadian sound in the early 1980s. She performed alongside Valdy, Ferron and Stan Rogers and in 1984 Kaldor was nominated for the Most Promising Female Vocalist Juno award.
Since that time, she has been nominated and won more awards than we have time to list, been invested with an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Regina, and, in 2006 was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
In the past year alone Kaldor has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Woodstock Folk Festival and was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award and for Song of the Year at the Folk Alliance International Folk Music Awards.
Yet, despite all of her success, Kaldor is not slowing down. Her latest album, Wide Open Spaces, is another triumph, born out of Kaldor’s love of her roots. Her current tour, in fact, marks the official launch of that album.
“This is a Western prairie album and every song on that album is there for a reason. Everything has a personal western connection and it’s a celebration of a part of the world that I love,” Kaldor says.
“Of course, every next song is the one I love the most. Every song has a life and its place and has a meaning, and that’s the magic of music. Often times someone will request a song and it’s obvious that that song means something for them. It was a song they had at a wedding or a funeral or some other important time in their life.
"Those songs give me a chance to connect … when it's become meaningful to the audience and you can feel them respond,” Kaldor says. “Feeling the audience respond…that’s the gig.”
Connie Kaldor will perform in Duncan at the Duncan Showroom on Sept. 17, at the Nanaimo Yacht Club Marina on Sept. 19, and in Victoria at the St Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Sept. 20.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit conniekaldor.com/tour.
