Tamar Ilana has been called Canada’s own pan-global diva and it’s no wonder. As well as singing in over 20 languages – a “powerhouse vocalist,” says Downbeat magazine – she’s a flamenco dancer having studied the art in Seville, Spain. Her heritage is itself an ethnic and oh-so-Canadian mosaic. She’s Ashkenazi Jewish and a member of Pasqua First Nation (Treaty 4) with some Scottish and Roma-Romanian mixed in. Ilana didn’t just inherit her mish-mash ethnicity from her parents, she was enveloped in global music via her mother’s status as a leading ethnomusicologist. When Ilana moved back to Canada from Spain in 2011, she formed Ventanas, a whirlwind of a band that performs original and traditional multiethnic, multilingual melodies weaving in and out of fiery flamenco, Greek, Turkish and Sephardic love songs, and upbeat Bulgarian dance tunes, along with music that’s culturally indefinable and original. As you might suspect, the band’s arsenal of international instruments reflects the diversity of its repertoire. On stage, you can expect Ventanas to unpack stringed instruments like oud, lyra and saz, along with percussion: Tibetan singing bowls, djembe, cajon and darbuka. Flamenco guitar, violin and bass round out the sound. Ventanas is Spanish for windows, a name chosen purposefully because to experience this band is to look through a window on a world full of music.

–Eric Rosenbaum