Toledano

Biography

Toledano is the immersive solo project of Blanche Israël, a Moroccan-Canadian artist and multi-instrumentalist. Rooted in Judeo-Spanish languages and songs, the project reinvents ancestral Sephardic songs on the cello, with electronics, voice and personal sound archives. Its material: transmission between women — from her grandmother to her daughter —, care, memory, feminism and displacement.

The cellist behind the project has a singular path: started as a child in Montréal, she has played more than sixty stages, worked at the Canadian Opera Company and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, lived in Germany as a consultant, then was invited in 2018 by Jeremy Dutcher as the cellist of his world tour — the Polaris Prize landed just before her second concert alongside him. Founder of proScenium Services, she has led the East Coast Music Association (ECMA) since March 2024 — and it is from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where she has lived since 2019, that she brings Toledano to life.

At Mundial Montréal, she appears twice: in an intimate showcase on Thursday afternoon, then on Friday morning at the artists’ affinity meeting of the Artist Lab day, at Centre Sanaaq — the project and the network-builder in the same breath.

Gallery

On stage

• 19 November 2026, 4 p.m. — Montréal, Maison des Arts Participatifs — official Mundial Montréal showcase (intimate showcases)
• 20 November 2026, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. — Montréal, Centre Sanaaq — artists’ affinity meeting, Artist Lab day (Mundial Montréal and M for Montréal)

On video — their Mundial Montréal 2026 showcase

The official presentation video of Toledano for Mundial Montréal 2026: Thursday, November 19, 2026 · 4:00 p.m. · Maison des Arts Participatifs, Montreal. Video © Mundial Montréal — provided to Festival TV in the festival's official media kit.