Heads up guitar aficionados! The Carleton is pleased to welcome masters of the instrument – Don Ross (singing!) & Julie Malia – back to our stage on Sunday, October 11th. Prepare to be knocked out at 7 PM and tickets are $30 + HST.
2026 sees Don Ross release his new all-vocal album, SONGS THAT FOUND ME, his 19th solo album, and his 26th including collaborations. Like his 2023 release WATER, Don financed the recording independently by means of a Kickstarter campaign. He recorded the bulk of the album at his studio in his home base of Windsor, Nova Scotia, with additional recording in Toronto and Dresden, Germany. A multi-instrumentalist, Don performed almost all the instrumental tracks himself. Collaborators on select tracks this time include drummer Marito Marques on three tunes, singer Julie Malía, guitarist Alan Macpherson, keyboardist Norman Wolfson and bassist Bill Cooper. Cover art is by long-time collaborator Kurt Swinghammer. The first single from the album, Did I Fool You, was released February 23, 2026
Don was born and raised in Montreal and has lived in various parts of Canada over the course of his life. The son of a Mi’kmaw Indigenous mother and a Scottish immigrant father, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music) degree from Toronto’s York University and started working full-time as a musician in 1988. That year he won the US National Fingerpick Guitar Championship for the first time, and also played with his quartet Eye Music at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
Concentrating his touring primarily in Canada at the start of his career, Don went on to sign with Sony Music/Columbia Records (Canada) in 1994, releasing three CDs for the label. US-based Narada Records also licensed two pieces for the Masters of Acoustic Guitar CD in 1997. Meanwhile, Don won the US National Fingerpick Guitar Championship for the second time in 1996. To this day, he is still the competition’s only two-time winner. Don began touring more internationally at this point in his career, concentrating especially on Germany and other central European countries.
In 2021, Don won the prestigious Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Don currently lives in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Hi, I’m Julie Malia (Jule Malischke): guitarist, singer, songwriter, lecturer at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music Dresden, as well as the organizer and artistic director of the Giengen Guitar Festival.
With my music and in my concerts, I aim to create moments that bring about true encounters and moving experiences and memories. When I sing and play the guitar, I hope to offer my listeners moments of pause, of consciously stepping out of the hustle and bustle of daily life. How often do the days pass by like an assembly line, and we do everything to meet all demands, yet still don’t truly get to what is important to us? And how often do we long for the opportunity to have quality time for ourselves or to spend it with important people?
That’s why it’s important for me to make music that opens new channels to the soul and puts us into special connections with one another, from which meaningful life stories arise. The greatest gift after a concert is when someone touches their heart and says, “That moved me!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBy_TjCeRHY