Connie Kaldor

Kaldor was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. She graduated from Campbell Collegiate in Regina in 1972 and the University of Alberta in 1976 with a BFA degree in theatre.

Kaldor performed with various theatre groups, including Theatre Passe Muraille, The Mummers and 25th Street House Theatre, until 1979, when she gave it up to start a full-time music career. In 1981, she founded her own independent record label, Coyote Entertainment, and has released eighteen albums.{{cite web |last1=Jan Vanderhorst |first1=Jan |title=Connie Kaldor writes 'songwriter songs' in new album Keep Going |url=https://www.rootsmusic.ca/2023/10/28/connie-kaldors-new-album/ |website=Roots Music Canada |date=28 October 2023 |access-date=11 November 2023}}

Part of the Canadian Wave, Connie has performed alongside talents such as Stan Rogers, Ferron, and Valdy, and contributed to a newly emerging and distinctly Canadian sound.{{cite web |title=Juno Award-winning musician to play Vernon Jazz Club |url=https://www.vernonmorningstar.com/entertainment/juno-award-winning-musician-to-play-vernon-jazz-club-6526936 |website=Vernon Morning Star |date=25 October 2023 |publisher=Black Press Media |access-date=25 October 2023}} In the early 1980s, Kaldor opened for Stan Rogers in a tour across the United States and the two musicians played the Canadian Workshop together at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas in June 1983, after which Stan Rogers died in a plane crash returning home from the festival.{{cite web |last1=Baird |first1=Craig |title=Stan Rogers |url=https://canadaehx.com/2023/05/23/stan-rogers/ |website=Canadian History Ehx |date=23 May 2023 |access-date=11 November 2023}}

In 1997, she was featured performer in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on the last broadcast of Peter Gzowski's CBC national radio program Morningside. She was also among the first performers to play the Edmonton Folk Festival in 1980 where, alongside Sylvia Tyson and Stan Rogers, the trio was called the "nucleus of the first Edmonton Folk Music Festival.”{{cite web |last1=Duret |first1=Stefan |title=Edmonton Folk Fest: How Did We Get Here? |url=https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2015/08/05/edmonton-folk-fest-how-did-we-get-here/ |website=City Museum Edmonton |date=5 August 2015 |publisher=Edmonton City as Museum Project |access-date=5 August 2015}} That same year, she was selected by the co-founders of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Mitch Podolak and Ava Kobrinsky, to be part of The Travelling Goodtime Medicine Show, with Sylvia Tyson, Stan Rogers, and Jim Post.{{cite web |title=Travelling Goodtime Medicine Show {{!}} Home Routes Celebrates 15 Years |url=https://creativemanitoba.ca/learning-event/travelling-goodtime-medicine-show-home-routes-celebrates-15-years/ |website=Creative Manitoba |access-date=29 April 2022}}

In 1985 she received a Most Promising Female Vocalist Juno Award nomination (now called the Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year) for her album Moonlight Grocery and in the year 2000, her album Love is a Truck was nominated for a Juno in the Folk Roots category.{{cite web |title=KALDOR, CONNIE (1953-) |url=https://esask.uregina.ca/entry/kaldor_connie_1953-.html |website=Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan |publisher=University of Regina |access-date=11 November 2023}} She has won the Juno Award for best children's album three times, in 1989, 2004,{{cite web |title=CARAS Scores A Hit With 2004 Juno Awards |url=http://www.soulshine.ca/news/newsarticle.php?nid=419 |website=Soulshine.ca |date=5 April 2004|archive-date=15 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815054635/http://www.soulshine.ca/news/newsarticle.php?nid=419 }} and 2005.

In 2000, She co-wrote the theme song for the animated television series based on the comic strip For Better or For Worse.{{cite web |title=Connie Kaldor |url=https://esask.uregina.ca/entry/kaldor_connie_1953-.html |website=Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan |publisher=University of Regina |access-date=11 November 2023}}

Her song "Wanderlust" was covered by Cosy Sheridan.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In 2003, her television show @ Wood River Hall debuted on VisionTV.{{cite web|url=http://www.visiontv.ca/Media/Archives/Kaldor2004.html |title=Folked up – VisionTV's Connie Kaldor @ Wood River Hall showcases the best of Canadian folk music |date=4 December 2003 |publisher=VisionTV |accessdate=30 November 2010 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050221211536/http://www.visiontv.ca/Media/Archives/Kaldor2004.html |archive-date=21 February 2005 }}

In 2005, she was invited to perform at the Saskatchewan Centennial for Joni Mitchell as well as the Queen of England.{{cite web |title=Connie Kaldor |url=https://ottawagrassrootsfestival.com/performer/connie-kaldor/ |website=Ottawa Grass Roots Festival |publisher=Wavelength Media}} In 2006, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.{{cite web | url=http://www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=10696&t=12 | title=Order of Canada: Connie Kaldor, C.M., B.F.A. | publisher=Governor General of Canada | accessdate=30 November 2010 }} In 2009, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Regina.{{cite journal |title=Release: Anne Luke, Connie Kaldor and Craig Oliver to Receive Honorary Degrees at U of R Spring Convocation |url=https://ourspace.uregina.ca/items/61b2f24e-1a9a-45ae-b560-164edb2cfc9a |website=University of Regina|date=22 May 2009 }} She also received an Alumni Association Honour Award from the University of Alberta.{{cite news |title=Class Notes: Connie Kaldor |url=https://issuu.com/ualbertaalumni/docs/ntwinter2010 |access-date=11 November 2023 |agency=New Trail |issue=Winter 2010 |publisher=The University of Alberta Alumni Magazine |date=5 January 2010 |ref=page 50}} In 2014, she became the first songwriter to receive a Western Literature Association Distinguished Achievement Award.{{cite web |title=WLA Distinguished Achievement Award |url=https://www.westernlit.org/wlas-distinguished-achievement-award/ |website=Western Literature Association |access-date=12 November 2023 |archive-date=12 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231112020137/https://www.westernlit.org/wlas-distinguished-achievement-award/ |url-status=dead }} In 2020, her song, Seed in the Ground, was selected as one of 20 songs for the Canadian Music Class Challenge in honour of the Juno Awards 50th anniversary.{{cite web |title=Here are the songs for the 2020 Canadian Music Class Challenge |url=https://www.cbc.ca/music/events/canadian-music-class-challenge/here-are-the-songs-for-the-2020-canadian-music-class-challenge-1.5692762 |website=CBC/Radio Canada |publisher=CBC Music |access-date=8 September 2023}}

Kaldor and her husband, music producer and Hart-Rouge member Paul Campagne, have two sons and live in Montreal.{{Cite news |last=Pacholik |first=Barb |date=19 January 2017 |title=Prairie songstress Connie Kaldor dancing to her own tune |work=Regina Leader Post |url=https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/prairie-songstress-connie-kaldor-dancing-to-her-own-tune |access-date=3 October 2023}}{{Cite news |last=Fuller |first=Cam |date=23 March 2017 |title=Performing with sons special thrill for Connie Kaldor |work=Saskatoon Star Phoenix |url=https://thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/local-arts/performing-with-sons-special-thrill-for-connie-kaldor |access-date=3 October 2023}} She now performs with her husband and two adult children, Aleksi Campagne and Gabriel Campagne.{{cite web |last1=Small |first1=Alan |title=Folk music veteran Connie Kaldor keeps it in the family |url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/2023/11/09/folk-music-veteran-connie-kaldor-keeps-it-in-the-family |website=Winnipeg Free Press |date=9 November 2023 |access-date=9 November 2023}} She jokes that, "Shari Ulrich and I, I think we’re the only two people in the Canadian music scene that actually gave birth to their backup bands.”{{cite web |last1=Small |first1=Alan |title=Folk music veteran Connie Kaldor keeps it in the family |url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/2023/11/09/folk-music-veteran-connie-kaldor-keeps-it-in-the-family |website=Winnipeg Free Press |date=9 November 2023 |access-date=9 November 2023}}

According to the Garnette Report, Kaldor is "considered one of Canada's finest writers."{{Cite news |last=Bagdady |first=Mariam |date=8 March 2023 |title=International Women's Day With Connie Kaldor |work=The Garnette Report |url=https://thegarnettereport.com/art/music/connie-kaldor/ |access-date=3 October 2023}}

Connie Kaldor is recognized as a feminist performer alongside artists like k.d. lang, Ferron, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Pauline Julien.{{cite web |title=Women's Movements in Canada: 1960–85 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/womens-movements-in-canada-196085 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=Historica Canada |access-date=12 September 2016}} From the very start of her career, Kaldor's lyrics have showcased the perspectives and experiences of women, "often using humour to disarm her audience."{{cite web |last1=Bagdady |first1=Mariam |title=International Women's Day With Connie Kaldor |url=https://thegarnettereport.com/art/music/connie-kaldor/ |website=Garnette Report |date=8 March 2023 |access-date=8 March 2023}} One of her earliest successes, the song Jerks called out cat-calling jerks in its lyrics, singing, "there are jerks in cars/jerks in trucks/some want to bug you/some want to f…f… find out what you’re really like… jerks!" According to Gary Cristall, who helped book the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in the 1980s, "The squeals of delight from the audience give a sense of the impact [of its lyrics]."{{cite web |last1=Cristall |first1=Gary |title=40 Years and Counting: A Visual History of Forty Years of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival |url=https://thebcreview.ca/2018/10/03/209-gary-cristalls-ball/ |website=The British Columbia Review |date=3 October 2018 |access-date=12 November 2023}}

Kaldor began her career in the 1980s, a time when it was difficult to be booked as a female artist in Canada at festivals and venues.{{cite web |last1=Cristall |first1=Gary |title=40 Years and Counting: A Visual History of Forty Years of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival |url=https://thebcreview.ca/2018/10/03/209-gary-cristalls-ball/ |website=British Columbia Review |date=3 October 2018 |access-date=12 November 2023}} According to a recent interview with Kaldor herself, at the beginning, festival directors would tell her, “Sorry, we already have our women's act this year.”{{cite web |title=Keep Going : le nouvel album de l'infatigable Connie Kaldor |url=https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2021541/keep-going-connie-kaldor-musique-folk-darke-hall-regina-45-ans |website=ICI Saskatchewan |date=26 October 2023 |publisher=CBC Radio Canada |access-date=11 November 2023}} Nonetheless, Kaldor persevered and became a feature at folk festivals, thanks in part to the women in her audience who often "lobbied to have her included on folk festival rosters."{{cite book |last1=Schwartz |first1=Ellen |title=Born a woman : seven Canadian women singer-songwriters |date=1988 |publisher=Polestar |location=Winlaw, B.C. |pages=32 |isbn=978-0-919591-25-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/bornwomansevenca0000schw/page/32/mode/2up?q=feminist |access-date=12 November 2023}} She was hired at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, which for the first time was highlighting a genre then called women's music (devoting space in the program to answer the question, ‘what is women’s music?').{{cite web |last1=Cristall |first1=Gary |title=40 Years and Counting: A Visual History of Forty Years of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival |url=https://thebcreview.ca/2018/10/03/209-gary-cristalls-ball/ |website=British Columbia Review |date=3 October 2018 |access-date=12 November 2023}}

As her career progressed, Kaldor continued to write songs from a feminist perspective.{{cite book |last1=Schwartz |first1=Ellen |title=Born a woman : seven Canadian women singer-songwriters |date=1988 |publisher=Polestar |location=Winlaw, B.C. |pages=31 |isbn=978-0-919591-25-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/bornwomansevenca0000schw/page/30/mode/2up?q=feminist&view=theater |access-date=12 November 2023}} Her song 'Strength, Love and Laughter' is recognized as, "important song in Canadian feminist music."{{cite web |title=Connie Kaldor |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/connie-kaldor-emc |website=Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=Historica Canada |access-date=12 November 2023}} In 1988, Kaldor wrote the lyrics for Svetlana Zylin's musical The Destruction of Eve, a feminist interpretation of the Bible. The musical premiered in 1998 in Toronto with Company of Sirens.{{Cite web|url=https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/the-destruction-of-eve-by-svetlana-zylin |title=The Destruction of Eve by Svetlana Zylin |access-date=11 July 2020|website=Canadian Play Outlet}}{{Cite news |date=7 May 1998|title=[Stage]: [1 Edition]|page=1|work=Toronto Star|issn=0319-0781}}

Kaldor has been particularly vocal about the issues of domestic abuse and gender based violence. In 1988, the National Film Board produced a short film for her song “Get Back the Night” as a “statement against senseless violence.”{{cite web |title=Get Back the Night |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0236253/ |website=IMDB |access-date=12 November 2023}} In 1997, the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women selected her song, “One Hit” to create pedagogical materials for Canadian classrooms addressing the topic of domestic violence against women.{{cite book |last1=Nonesuch |first1=Kate |title=Making Connections: Literacy and EAL Curriculum from a Feminist Perspective |date=September 1997 |publisher=The Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women |location=Toronto |isbn=0-921283-18-0 |pages=256 |url=https://www.literacyresourcesri.org/makingconnections.pdf |access-date=12 November 2023}} In 2019, Kaldor wrote Missing and Gone, "which addresses the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women and children".{{cite web |last1=Small |first1=Alan |title=Folk music veteran Connie Kaldor keeps it in the family |url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/2023/11/09/folk-music-veteran-connie-kaldor-keeps-it-in-the-family |website=Winnipeg Free Press |date=9 November 2023 |access-date=9 November 2023}} Most recently, Kaldor wrote the song, "Woman Who Pays," which responds to the series of 8 femicides in 8 weeks in Montreal in 2021 which resulted in the death of a friend of her daughter-in-law.{{cite web |last1=Small |first1=Alan |title=Folk music veteran Connie Kaldor keeps it in the family |url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/2023/11/09/folk-music-veteran-connie-kaldor-keeps-it-in-the-family |website=Winnipeg Free Press |date=9 November 2023 |access-date=12 November 2023}} In 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 Kaldor hosted virtual international Women's Day Concerts on March 8 to raise money for Chez Doris, a Women's shelter in Montreal.{{cite web |last1=Bagdady |first1=Mariam |title=International Women's Day With Connie Kaldor |url=https://thegarnettereport.com/art/music/connie-kaldor/ |website=The Garnette Report |date=8 March 2023 |access-date=12 November 2023}}{{cite web |title=5th Annual International Women's Day Livestream Concert |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKUIolaR4G4 |website=Youtube |access-date=9 March 2025}}

• Nominated for Most Promising Female Vocalist at the 1984 Juno Awards for her album Moonlight Grocery.
• Won a Juno Award for Best Children’s Album for her album Lullaby Berceuse in 1989.
• Won a 1990 U.S. Parents' Choice Award for Lullaby Berceuse.
• Nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Awards in Independent Theatre for Outstanding Sound or Music alongside David Sereda for the Company of Sirens production of The Destruction of Eve by Svetlana Zylin in 1998.
• Nominated for a Juno in the Folk Roots category for her album Love is a Truck in 2000.
• Recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002.{{cite web |last1=Loretta |first1=Thorleifson |title=Connie Kaldor to Return to Manitou Opera House |url=https://www.sherwoodparknews.com/news/local-news/connie-kaldor-to-return-to-manitou-opera-house |publisher=Sherwood Park News |access-date=28 March 2019}}
• Nominated for a Gemini Award for "Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series" for her Wood River Hall TV Series (VisionTV) at the 19th Gemini Awards in 2004.
• Won a Juno Award for Best Children’s Album for A Duck in New York City in 2004.
• Won a Juno Award for Best Children’s Album for A Poodle in Paris in 2005
• Made a Member of the Order of Canada (Awarded on: October 5, 2006; Invested on: October 26, 2007).{{cite web |title=Ms. Connie Kaldor |url=https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-8741 |website=The Governor General of Canada |publisher=Government of Canada |access-date=11 November 2023}}
• Hosted the very 1st Canadian Folk Music Awards.
• Nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award for her album Sky with Nothing to Get in the Way for both 'Best Songwriter - English" and "Best Singer - Contemporary" in 2005 at the 1st Canadian Folk Music Awards.
• Hosted the 2nd Canadian Folk Music Awards.
• Nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award for her children's album Poodle in Paris at the 2nd Canadian Folk Music Awards.
• Nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award alongside Geneviève Bilodeau for the French translation of her children's album Un Canard à New York at the 3rd Canadian Folk Music Awards.
• Received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Regina in 2009.{{cite journal |title=Release: Anne Luke, Connie Kaldor and Craig Oliver to Receive Honorary Degrees at U of R Spring Convocation |url=https://ourspace.uregina.ca/items/61b2f24e-1a9a-45ae-b560-164edb2cfc9a |website=University of Regina|date=22 May 2009 }}
• Received an Alumni Association Honour Award from the University of Alberta.{{cite news |title=Class Notes: Connie Kaldor |url=https://issuu.com/ualbertaalumni/docs/ntwinter2010 |access-date=11 November 2023 |agency=New Trail |issue=Winter 2010 |publisher=The University of Alberta Alumni Magazine |date=5 January 2010 |ref=page 50}}
• Won a Western Literature Association Distinguished Achievement Award in 2014 (the first songwriter to receive this distinction).{{cite web |title=WLA Distinguished Achievement Award |url=https://www.westernlit.org/wlas-distinguished-achievement-award/ |website=Western Literature Association |access-date=12 November 2023 |archive-date=12 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231112020137/https://www.westernlit.org/wlas-distinguished-achievement-award/ |url-status=dead }}
• Received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Woodstock Folk Festival in August 2024.
• Nominated for "Best Original Score" at the 7th Indie Series Awards for her work on the web-series Nikola Tesla and the End of the World.
• Nominated for Solo Artist of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards for her album Keep Going (April 2025).
• Nominated for Song of the Year at the International Folk Music Awards (February 2025).

• One Of These Days (1981)
• Moonlight Grocery (1984)
• New Songs for an Old Celebration (1986) (with Roy Forbes)
• Lullaby Berceuse (1988) (with Carmen Campagne)
• Gentle of Heart (1989)
• Wood River (1992)
• Out of the Blue (1994)
• Small Café (1996)
• Love is a Truck (2000)
• A Duck in New York City (2003)
• A Poodle in Paris (2004)
• Sky With Nothing to Get in the Way (2005)
• Vinyl Songbook (2005)
• Postcards from the Road (2009)
• Love Sask (2014)
• Everyday Moments (2019)
• Prairie Christmas (2020)
• Keep Going (2023)

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.conniekaldor.com}}
• [http://www.canadianbands.com/Connie%20Kaldor.html CanadianBands.com entry – Connie Kaldor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927203006/http://www.canadianbands.com/Connie%20Kaldor.html |date=27 September 2015 }}
• [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/connie-kaldor-emc The Canadian Encyclopedia: Connie Kaldor]

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Category:1953 births

Category:Living people

Category:Canadian women singer-songwriters

Category:Canadian folk singer-songwriters

Category:Canadian feminist musicians

Category:Members of the Order of Canada

Category:Musicians from Regina, Saskatchewan

Category:Juno Award for Children's Album of the Year winners

Category:20th-century Canadian women singers

Category:21st-century Canadian women singers

Category:20th-century Canadian singer-songwriters

Category:21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters

Category:Singers from Saskatchewan