A Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal recipient for his work creating community through music, bandleader Chris McKhool’s “lush, lyrical” violin playing is inventive and rich. McKhool produces, composes and plays violin with BILLBOARD charting SULTANS OF STRING, who’s CDs have hit #1 across Canada in the Top Ten World radio charts, and earned 3 JUNO Award Nominations for Instrumental and World Album of the Year.
"As a child of immigrants from the Middle East, (McKhool would have been pronounced Makhoul in ancestral Kfirmishki Lebanon) I realize that by telling our stories, we help shape our own understanding of what it means to be Canadian"
With Sultans of String, McKhool also won the SiriusXM World Music Award, Festivals & Events Ontario’s Best Variety Act, two Ontario Independent Music Awards, and six Canadian Folk Music Awards out of ten nominations. Sultans of String have performed at the legendary club Birdland in New York, the renowned Celtic Connections Festival in the U.K. and the San Jose Jazz Festival. They have performed with symphonies across Canada and the U.S., and played live on BBC TV, Irish National Radio, World Cafe and SiriusXM in Washington DC.
McKhool was also a National Jazz Awards nominee with the band Club Django, and has recorded/performed with several jazz, world, folk and pop artists including Béla Fleck, Jesse Cook, the Chieftains, Pavlo, Richard Bona, Ruben Blades, and Yasmin Levy. As producer he received a nomination for Producer of the Year for the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Awards, and a win for Producer of the Year for the 2020 Independent Music Awards with his album Refuge.
ALSO
Hailed as a “Children’s musical star” (National Post) and “Canada’s greatest eco-troubadour for young people” (Mississauga Living Arts Centre), Chris is also one of Canada’s hottest musicians for young people. Chris has been touring the world with his children’s concerts for two decades, reaching over 1 million children live in concert, and has appeared on Mr. Dressup, YTV’s Treehouse, TVOntario’s Crawlspace and the CBC.
His JUNO Award nominated “FiddleFire!” CD won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Children’s Album of the Year, a Parents’ Choice Award, an iParenting Media Award and was picked for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre ‘Best of’ list.
A champion of environmental issues, Chris created the world’s largest bicycle bell orchestra in 2008, at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto with over 800 bell ringers! Chris won a Green Toronto Award of Excellence and was a finalist for the Environment Canada Action Award for his work in schools and communities across Canada with his CD and concert “Earth, Seas & Air”. He has also won a Parent’s Choice Award in the U.S. for his CD of the same name, produced by Ken Whiteley (Raffi). He has been the recipient of Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, FACTOR and PromoFact Awards