CKUA has introduced millions of listeners to new music for close to 100 years. Local and Canadian artists regularly fill the station’s weekly playlists. In 2022, CKUA’s Top 10 albums included two by musicians from Edmonton—R&B/soul singer Tanika Charles’ Papillon du Nuit and multi-instrumentalist Mitch Davis’ soul/funk/jazz debut, The Haunt.
The station, which boasts a music library of more than 1.5 million albums (and other formats), is now funded by listeners. CKUA broadcasts across Alberta on various FM frequencies and around the world via its online stream.
Every August, the grassy slopes of Gallagher Park welcome tens of thousands of revelers to the Folk Fest, one of the city’s oldest and most beloved musical celebrations. It’s also considered one of the world’s top folk festivals.
The four-day event features an eclectic mix of 50-plus artists and genres from around the world—including Irish folk bands, African and South Asian artists, indie rock groups from the U.S., and up and coming acts from Edmonton.
Terry Wickham has guided the Folk Fest since 1989. It launched in 1980 with 350 volunteers. It now has more than 2,500.
Music venues seem to come and go, sadly, in every city, but some are able to stand the test of time—including Edmonton’s Yardbird Suite in Old Strathcona.
Opened in 1957, the jazz club is one of the oldest in Canada, showcasing international stars and local luminaries such as saxophonist P.J. Perry, trombonist Audrey Ochoa, and pianists Mboya Nicholson and Chris Andrew. MacEwan University’s music students and grads also regularly perform at the Yardbird.
Cook County Saloon and The Starlite Room are also local stalwarts. Scores of country artists such as Keith Urban, George Strait, Lindsay Ell, and Edmonton’s Julia Vos have played Cook County since 1981.
The Starlite Room, previously known as The Bronx and The Rev, celebrated 30 years and thousands of gigs in 2019. Nirvana, Imagine Dragons, Questlove, Run The Jewels, Feist and some of the city’s finest, including the smalls, Striker and Cadence Weapon, have performed in the heritage brick building in downtown Edmonton.
Jasper Avenue and Churchill Square burst with the sounds and stories of the Caribbean as part of Cariwest’s annual festival in downtown Edmonton.
Thousands of costumed masqueraders parade through the streets, grooving to the uplifting rhythms of soca music, during the three-day carnival in August. Launched in 1984, Cariwest is now the largest of its kind in Western Canada.
Not only is the festival one of the city’s most exuberant parties, it also gives Edmontonians the chance to learn about and celebrate Caribbean culture, cuisine and history. Mas (or masquerade) carnivals were organized by slaves in Trinidad and Tobago to mock plantation owners in the late 1700s.
Tommy Banks is an institution’s institution. The late jazz pianist and former senator worked with thousands of musicians over his 67-year career.
He was a band leader, teacher, TV host, musical director and city builder. He chaired MacEwan University’s music department. He performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and raised money to build its home, the Winspear Centre, in downtown’s Arts District. He played regularly at the Yardbird Suite. (Its address is 11 Tommy Banks Way.)
| Banks also won the city’s first JUNO Award in 1979, sharing it with vocalist Clarence “Big” Miller for their live album, Jazz Canada Montreux 1978. A bust of the late singer now stands in Big Miller Park, next to the Yardbird Suite. |
For more than 70 years, the ESO has entertained fans, educated aspiring musicians, and expanded the boundaries of classical music.
In 1971, the ESO recorded a live album with British prog-rock band, Procol Harum. Since then, the orchestra has worked with singers such as k.d. lang, Jann Arden and Tom Jones, as well as local composers including Alan Gilliland, John Estacio and the late Malcolm Forsyth, a two-time JUNO winner.
From 2005 to 2017, the ESO was one of the only orchestras to be led by a Black music director and conductor, William Eddins. Cuban pianist Cosette Justo Valdés is now the ESO’s resident conductor.
The ESO runs the Tommy Banks Centre for Music Creativity, which offers music lessons for toddlers, children and adults.
Much like the ESO, the Edmonton Opera is in the accessibility business—putting a modern spin on a 17th-century art form and making it more inclusive to new generations of fans and performers.
The company celebrated its 60th season in 2023/2024. Productions included Mozart’s classic Don Giovanni, with a new English libretto, and Identity, a new work about the real-life struggles of a bi-racial baritone.
In 2022, Edmonton Opera launched the Rumbold Vocal Prize for emerging opera singers, thanks to longtime patrons Grace and Arnold Rumbold.
As the city’s largest theatre company, The Citadel has produced its share of musicals—from The Three-Penny Opera in 1966 to 9 to 5: The Musical in 2022—and taught aspiring actors and singers through its Foote Theatre School.
Two of those productions, Hadestown and SIX, went on to Broadway after appearing at The Citadel, which is located in the Arts District in downtown Edmonton.
Edmonton boasts some of the best music education programs in the world.
Tens of thousands of students have graduated from the U of A’s music department since 1945. Two of Canada’s most important composers, Violet Archer and Malcom Forysth, taught at the university. Its faculty now includes opera tenor and JUNO winner John Tessier and soprano/JUNO nominee Miriam Khalil, who regularly perform with Edmonton Opera and companies around the world.
The U of A’s music department is also home to the Sound Studies Institute and the Canadian Centre of Ethnomusicology. The former maintains a collection of 2,000-plus Folkways Records, which features folk music around the world—from ballads of the War of 1812 to Haitian piano songs to Japanese imperial court music. The latter features an archive of instruments and recordings.
Read about life in Edmonton—stories of business, innovation and the people who make it happen.
Read about life in Edmonton—stories of business, innovation and the people who make it happen.
Read about life in Edmonton—stories of business, innovation and the people who make it happen.