Bio

[color="red"]CAIRO-MONTREAL [b]Shola Doummar was born in Cairo and immigrated at a young age - with her sisters and Egyptian/Italian parents - to Canada. This parental background founded a volatile spirit. For a time, life followed its predic-table course - schooling, marriage and the birth of her two children, Richard and Cristina.[/color] [color="indigo"]Then, life was laid bare. The marriage failed and with it went any semblance of security. This was the turning point. Shola embarked on a series of life training courses each designed to bring her closer to that person she believed existed inside herself. Her deeply felt spirituality became the corner stone to all that followed. She found a natural empathy with people; an ability to reach those in emotional conflict on an inner level. Suffused with this understanding, Shola became in turns a qualified masseuse and then a teacher. But it was this empathy with people that allowed her natural healing strengths to flourish. [/color] WORDS & MUSIC [color="orange"]Through this stage of her life - at times happy, at times raw - her passion for music took root and grew. Supporting herself and her small family by various means, Shola taught herself to play the guitar. However, instead of singing other people's lyrics, she chose to write her own. Composing in one language was not enough. Songs sprang forth in French, English and Italian - all languages in which Shola is fluent.[/color] [color="darkred"]It was during this time that she discovered a second passion. A passion that echoes within her own soul, helping to fine tune the music that climbs towards the centre of our own being. That second passion is for dolphins. By swimming with them in the open ocean, their music infused her beyond anything she had so far learned.[/color] [color="green"]Life through all this was not easy. But despite suggestions - sometimes strong - to the contrary, Shola persisted with what she believed to be her destiny. Her spirituality became her guiding light. She wanted to write music. She wanted to get her music out to an audience. [/color] PERFORMING [color="red"]Until, that is, she began to play for small groups of friends; people who responded as though they had seen themselves mirrored within the music they heard. Each believed the music was being played especially for them, each believed the music was being heard by them alone, each was changed in ways they did not at first understand. It was as if something long lost in their lives had been found. And so it is. Shola's music has the power to move an audience to tears. Her music is not heard; it is felt somewhere deep within. Like the call of the dolphin, it becomes a mysterious force that moves us at times beyond our understanding. That we have heard is not enough. What we do next is up to each one of us.[/color] [color="violet"]To hear Shola perform is a privilege. One that will haunt your being. Her music will echo within your soul long after the final notes have faded. Like life the music remains, a reminder that life is what we make it, not what others would have us live.[/color] Wayne Reid[/b]