Chris White

Chris White loves connecting people with music and with one another.  He co-founded the Ottawa Folk Festival with Max Wallace in 1993 and spent the next 16 years creating an atmosphere of celebration, inclusion and participation in the role of Artistic Director.  He hosts ‘Canadian Spaces’, the Saturday morning folk show on CKCU FM, and ‘Canadian Faces’, a live Sunday evening gathering of artists on Facebook.  Chris has led singing groups for home-schooled children (‘The Sparrows’), for people with dementia (‘Turquoise’), for seniors (‘The Merry Songsters’) and for men (‘Brothers Aloud’).  He organizes concerts and community events through Folkzone, a company he co-founded with long-time Grassroots Festival contributor, Mark Delorme.  Chris has released three albums of his songs – ‘Inner Voice’, ‘Music All Around’, and ‘I’m A Poet… And I’m Aware Of It’ – and is currently working on a memoir.

Live broadcast of ‘Canadian Spaces’ from the Ottawa Grassroots Festival – Saturday, April 22 from 10 to noon

‘Canadian Spaces’ on CKCU FM is Canada’s longest-running folk/roots radio show, founded in 1980 by the late Chopper McKinnon (1946-2013). The show is now produced and hosted by Chris White and a Canadian Spaces Collective consisting of Anne-Marie Brugger, Arthur McGregor, Carolyn Sutherland, Gord Peeling, Ian Tamblyn, Kate Greenland, Ray Harris and Teresa Bandrowska.

‘Canadian Spaces’ will be broadcast live from the Ottawa Grassroots Festival at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (82 Kent at Wellington) on Saturday morning, April 22 from 10:00 am to noon. The broadcast will include live interviews and performances featuring festival musicians, as well as interviews with Grassroots organizers, volunteers and attendees.  The show will be broadcast on CKCU FM 93.1 and streamed on www.ckcufm.com. The show will also be *videostreamed* live to the Canadian Spaces Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/canadianspaces/videos.

Thank you to CKCU production manager Dylan Hunter and program director Dave Aardvark for supporting this exciting initiative!