Cultural Industries Ontario North (CION) has announced the second edition of the Indigenous Music Mentorship Program.
The program provides one-on-one, personalized mentorships to musicians who identify as First Nations, Métis, and Inuit, and who are based in Northern Ontario.
Applications are open now for this program, which runs March to September.
Mentors for this year’s program include G.R Gritt from Sudbury and Nick Sherman from Thunder Bay.
Following a round table conversation with mentors, mentees and mentor facilitator Pandora Topp, selected participants will participate in monthly two-hour meetings directly with mentors remotely (phone, Zoom, etc.) for a total of six months beginning in March.
Participants will also be invited to attend the Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards (NOMFA) conference in November 2023, including a paid showcase featuring the mentors and mentees during the NOMFA conference.
All interested in participation can apply online here. The application deadline is Feb. 24.
Mentor biographies:
- G.R. Gritt pulls effortlessly from the past to create soulful futurisms. With their new sound that elegantly weaves the melodies using vocals, guitar and electronic elements, they create both intimate and anthemic music that would fit in a folk club, a dance club and anywhere in between. G.R. Gritt is a Two-Spirit, Transgender, Francophone, Anishinaabe and Métis artist. They are a Juno Award winner for Indigenous Album of the Year (for Quantum Tangle’s Tiny Hands in 2017).
- Nick Sherman is a Thunder Bay-based artist confronting issues that affect Indigenous youth in isolated communities, because they mirror those he faced growing up. After nine years of working in broadcasting, Sherman shifted his focus towards playing and teaching music. In 2017 he participated in Banff’s Singer/Songwriter Residency, played Sudbury’s Northern Lights Festival Boréal, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and Toronto’s Luminato. He spends part of the year in remote Indigenous communities bringing music programming into schools.
