Folk Canada Announces Estelle Klein Award and Culture in Climate Award Recipients
The 2026 Ontario Folk Music Awards will be presented Wednesday, October 14, 2026 in Hamilton, Ontario, in a gala event that will kick off the 2026 Folk Canada Conference.
Folk Canada is very pleased to announce the recipients of the following awards:
2026 Estelle Klein Lifetime Achievement Award - Chris White
2026 Estelle Klein Community Builder Award - Coco Love Alcorn
2026 Culture in Climate Award - Logan Staats
Estelle Klein Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient - Chris White
Based in Ottawa, Chris White was born in Toronto into a musical family with Nova Scotian roots that combine Black, White and Indigenous heritage. As a child, he sang in a sibling vocal quartet and participated in a neighbourhood choir led by his father. His mother played the piano and was a major fan of Canadian folk songs. A songwriter and guitar player, Chris has released three albums of original songs that are sometimes humorous and sometimes touching. He is known for his engaging stage presence and his ability to get audiences to sing along enthusiastically! He is a member of a musical collective called the Afro-Métis Nation, and also performs with his banjo-playing wife, Mary Gick.
Chris's contributions to the folk music community extend to musical event planning and organizing. He revived the Writer's Bloc songwriting group in 1989, and brought Karen Leslie Hall's Song-Along songwriting challenge to the Ottawa area in 1994. He co-founded the Ottawa Folk Festival in 1993 and served as its artistic director for 16 years, placing an ever-increasing emphasis on participatory experiences such as weekend choirs, ukulele-building workshops, dance tents and collaborative murals. Chris has helped to create many other community-oriented festivals and events over the years, including the Ottawa Grassroots Festival, Gil's Hootenanny, Folkbooth, Tree Songs, and a live national video show called Canadian Faces. Chris is a founding member of the Home Routes national house concert network and has also served on the board of CKCU and OCFF (now Folk Canada).
He has designed large-scale musical events for the National Arts Centre, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and Public Services International, as well as smaller-scale singing, songwriting and performance workshops in schools, colleges and camps. Following in his father's footsteps, Chris has created community singing groups for people of all ages and abilities, including children, seniors, newcomers, and people with dementia. Since 2013, Chris has been involved in producing and hosting 'Canadian Spaces' on CKCU FM, Canada's longest-running folk/roots radio show. He also helps high school students develop radio and video skills during co-op placements.
Estelle Klein Community Builder Award Recipient - Coco Love Alcorn
Over the past 30 years, Coco has carved out a remarkable and multifaceted career. She has performed at major festivals and theatres across Canada and beyond, released a dozen albums, and explored an array of genres, from her early jazz beginnings to rock tours, electronic projects, pop, folk, soul, gospel, and more. Her willingness to experiment and her playful, genuine stage presence have made her a beloved and enduring figure on the Canadian music scene.
In recent years, Coco’s music has found a profound home in the community choir world. Her original songs, known for their simplicity, accessibility, and heartfelt messages, have been taken up by choirs around the globe. Her song “The River” has become a grassroots anthem, sung in over 1000 choirs worldwide, as well as in living rooms, yoga retreats, song circles, climate rallies, and campfire gatherings.
Closer to home, Coco leads her own community choir in Owen Sound, Ontario, and has shared her passion for singing and creativity through workshops across Canada. This chapter of her career was recognized nationally when she won the 2021 Canadian Folk Music Award for Best Contemporary Singer, an honour that underscored her ability to bridge artistry and community, and to create music that people truly want to sing together.
Whether performing solo, collaborating with other artists, or raising voices in song with a choir, Coco Love Alcorn continues to inspire joy, connection, and courage through music. She is, at her core, a connector - of people, of genres, of hearts.
Culture in Climate Award Recipient - Logan Staats
Mohawk rocker turned folk and soul musician Logan Staats has turned the itinerant life of a touring musician into a tool for land defence. Rather than flying home between dates, he anchors his touring schedule around frontline action, using a handful of shows on Vancouver Island as the reason to stay for weeks at a time — turning what might have been a four-day trip into a month on the land. Throughout 2025, this brought him to the Fairy Creek action camps for extended stretches, work he sees as inseparable from his music: the same commitment to reclamation and healing that drives his songwriting. In December, he was arrested during a land defence action; his court case is ongoing. His wife and tour manager, Hannah Staats, shares in this work, providing supply runs and rides for land defenders while also keeping his tour and social media running from the edge of the frontline.
Staats performs the Mohawk water song as an interactive piece, guiding audiences into conversations about water rights and a cultural teaching in its own right. Whenever possible, he shares the stage with frontline voices: in 2025, Fairy Creek land defenders Grandma Losah and Rainbow Eyes, and Wet'suwet'en Chief Namoks, speaking on resource extraction in his territory in northern B.C., all appeared at his shows. Staats uses his public platform to bring visibility to old-growth protection efforts, visibility that has translated into more donations, more public pressure, and more people showing up at camp. Between tour dates, he also runs songwriting workshops for youth grounded in Indigenous culture and in music as a way of connecting to the land.
From Folk Canada Executive Director, Rosalyn Dennett:
"Each of these recipients embodies the spirit of leadership in Canadian folk music. From Chris White's decades of work through festivals, radio and songwriting circles, to Coco Love Alcorn's gift for turning music into connection through choirs and shared song, to Logan Staats' powerful voice for land protection - putting himself on the frontlines of environmental action and healing through his art. They have each made a profound and lasting impact on our folk community - an impact felt throughout their home province of Ontario, and beyond. Their passion, integrity, and commitment inspire us, and it is a privilege to recognize them with these awards."
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