Kaiya Cade

Celebrated by the CBC and well-received by Canadian music festivals including Pop Montreal and NXNE, Kaiya Cade (full name Kaiya Cade Smith Blackburn) has been actively involved in the music industry since the release of her debut album Semicircles as the lead vocalist/guitarist and composer of CADE. With CADE, a dream-folk quintet, Kaiya was awarded FACTOR (Funding Assisting Canadian Talent on Recording) funding, played inter-provincial tours, and supported artists such as Noah Gundersen. Then taking her musical interest to academia, Kaiya completed an undergraduate degree with distinction at the University of Toronto in Music History & Culture, Philosophy, and English. Her postgraduate work consists of a Master's Degree in Musicology at McGill University in Montreal, QC. With this degree her focus is on African American musical expression & religion, as well as the gender politics of the Freak-Folk tradition.

The musical awareness and critical ear Kaiya has developed has culminated in her career in film composition. Creating ethereal and haunting sonic landscapes, Kaiya combines synthetic sound with the acoustic instrumentation of piano, guitar, strings, sound bowls, and percussion, finishing the musical environment with her characteristic vocal overlaying. She continues to work out of Toronto, Montreal, and London, UK and her pieces have been featured in the Ryerson University Film Festival, and at the London (UK) Film School.