Dr Judith Cohen is a singer and teller of ballads and stories, an ethnomusicologist and an inveterate traveller. She presents and tells in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese; and sings in these languages as well as Bulgarian, Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), Yiddish, Macedonian, Croatian, Mirandês, Ibizan Catalan and languages of medieval Europe. Judith weaves ballad stories and stories of travel together with stories of the countless people she’s gathered songs and tales from over decades and continents. She’ll follow a ballad story through its own travels, from Moroccan to Turkish and Greek Sephardic communities, to French Canadian, Yiddish, Spanish, Italian, and other incarnations. Judith performs a capella, often adding a traditional Moroccan or Portuguese frame drums, a medieval bowed vielle, medieval recorder, and others. Her presentation style is warm, informal – at the same time, she holds a doctorate in ethnomusicology (Sephardic music), and a Masters in Medieval music studies, as well as education and ESL degrees and certificates. She teaches part-time at York University, and has sung, told stories and given talks in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Morocco, China – and in her home towns of Toronto and Montreal.