Don Ross

Don Ross has just released his new CD/LP, WATER. It is his 18th solo album, and his 21st including collaborations. For this new recording, Don decided to launch a Kickstarter fundraising campaign and do the release 100% independently. He managed to raise his financial goal in 28 hours, and was able to make many musical concepts come true as a result. The album features collaborations with legendary guitarist/songwriter Bruce Cockburn, fretless bass wizard Michael Manring, Washington State-based guitarist/composer Sean Hall, singer/guitarist Brooke Miller, Prince Edward Island-based quintet The Atlantic String Machine, and even one track with the 70-piece City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The album features cover art by luminary Mi’kmaw visual artist Alan Syliboy of Millbrook First Nation in Nova Scotia.

Don Ross was born and raised in Montreal and has lived in various parts of Canada over the course of his life. The son of a Mi’kmaw Indigenous mother and a Scottish immigrant father, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music) degree from Toronto’s York University and started working full-time as a musician in 1988. That year he also won the US National Fingerpick Guitar Championship, and became the first two-time winner in 1996. Don has released recordings on various labels throughout his career, including Duke Street Records, Sony/Columbia, Narada, and CandyRat Records. He has also toured collaboratively with Andy McKee, Brooke Miller, Calum Graham, Jule Malischke, and his own jazz quartet, Don Ross Louder Than Usual. Over the course of his career, Don’s touring base has included trips to Australia, India, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, and a dozen European countries.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Don went back to university, completing a Master of Arts degree in Orchestration through the University of Chichester (UK) and ThinkSpace Education, and graduating in early 2021. He immediately started working extensively in the world of scoring orchestral and electronic music for video games, films and television.

In 2021, Don won the prestigious Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Don currently lives in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Jule Malischke

Jule Malischke (pronounced YOO-la Mal-ISH-ka) is one of the most exciting discoveries on the current guitar and singer-songwriter scene in her native Germany. As a solo artist and with various musical duo projects, she not only performs across Europe, but is also a popular artist at renowned international guitar festivals. She tours year-round and has also worked as a lecturer in Guitar Studies at the Carl Maria von Weber Music University in Dresden, Germany since 2015.

Jule’s musical influences and repertoire are diverse. With her brilliant guitar playing, she moves effortlessly between virtuoso concert guitar literature, complex fingerstyle arrangements and her own songs. In 2024 she released her latest solo album Seagull, featuring both solo performances as well as collaborations with Don Ross and other fine
musicians.