Singer and bandleader Aviva Chernick reimagines traditional Judeo-Spanish folk music with intimacy and emotional range. Aviva and her band bring this musical legacy into the present.

Aviva’s soaring vocals in Ladino, as well as Hebrew, Yiddish and English, combine with the musical talents and vocals of her amazing band: the textural, reverberant guitar, oud and keys of Demetri Petselakis (Greece), the deep grooves of Waleed Abdulhamid (Sudan) on bass, the virtuosic Persian hand percussion of Naghmeh Farahmand (Iran), the sublime vocal and horn textures of Sundar Viswanathan (India) and the lush partnering vocals of Maryem Tollar (Egypt).

Aviva was the first Canadian to be awarded a Virginia Folk Life apprenticeship to study with ‘American National Treasure’ and Sephardic musician Flory Jagoda whose music she celebrates in her most recent album, La Serena. As a leader of her own ensembles, Aviva has toured internationally, and as a guest of the Canadian Ambassador to the UAE at Expo in Dubai.

As well as making music, Aviva is a Spiritual Leader at Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto and the founder and leader of the Jewish Mindfulness Community, neySHEV. In her spare time, Aviva dances Gaga, and lives in Toronto with her Chihuahua Luz.