The Canadian Aradia Ensemble is one of the most exciting period instrument ensembles to emerge in recent years. Under the direction of Kevin Mallon, Aradia presents an innovative concert series in Toronto that incorporates old-world artistry and modern-day relevance. Projects often include dancers, actors, singers or world music collaborations. Recently Aradia has paired baroque with Balinese Gamelan, Irish musicians and First Nations Musicians. Aradia has made music videos and film sound tracks (most recently appearing on the soundtrack for Jim Carey’s Yes Man) and has produced 50 CDs for Naxos several have won awards including a Juno nomination. Tours have taken the ensemble across Canada and internationally to New Zealand, the USA. The ensemble was for four years Orchestra in Residence for COSI (The Centre for Opera Studies in Italy) in Sulmona, Italy. This past summer Aradia completed a residency at the Halifax Summer Opera Festival. According to Robert Graves, Aradia was the daughter of Apollo’s twin sisters, who was sent by the gods to teach humankind to order the music of the natural world into song.