The city of Montreal, beautifully laid out at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers and named for the distinctive Mont Royal on the island where it is located, is a multilingual and multicultural metropolis that boasts of 4 major universities, the highest number of restaurants per capita in all of North America and no less than 106 festivals per year!

For the last five years, one of these festivals gaining more and more attention is Mundial Montreal, an annual North American world music summit that showcases world music talent primarily from Canada. Thanks to a carefully curated program of artists, networking activities and panels, and an ever-growing presence of greater number of international artists from outside of Canada, Mundial is becoming an important world music discovery event and in this year’s edition showcased 34 artists from 11 countries.

It was fascinating to experience how world music is being created from the vantage point of our neighbors to the north, and see how the children and grandchildren of immigrants and First Nation peoples express and discover their own musical identities. Additionally, it was wonderful to experience it all in the world-class city of Montreal, in intimate venues which gave us us ample opportunity to walk on beautiful cobblestone streets, see the street lamps glimmering in the French and the English historic parts of town and even visit Ashukan, a First Nation arts centre, to hear the music of emerging First Nation artists. Along the way, of course, we did have a bite or five of some of the best croissants ever!

Here’s are ten of our favorite musical moments. You can also check the music and conversations with several of the Latino artists showcasing at Mundial Montreal on Beat Latino.

Alex Cuba: Sauntering soul with just a touch of sass

Cuba’s art is well-known to the world music community, having garnered several awards (Canadian Juno, Latin Grammy, Grammy nomination). From Artemisa, Cuba, he was born in a distinguished musical family led by his father Valentín Puentes, recognized guitarist and music professor. Cuba has honed his intimate, rhythmic Latin pop-soul ballads into gentle gems that though they may stray from typical Cuban grooves always seem to be propelled delicately, in their deep musical subtexts, by the island’s tropical breezes.

Florent Vollant: First Nation dreams story-teller

Vollant, a Juno-awarded Innu author and composer who grew up on a reservation, has been a musical pioneer bringing together musicians and singers from various First Nations people. At times reminiscent of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, singing primarily in Innu and French, Vollant wove a gentle spell on us, sharing blues-tinged folk ballads which told the stories and the visions of a people who say everything is born in dreams.

Alejandra Ribera: Chanson for the 21st century

Born in Canada to an Argentinian father and a Scottish mother, now based in Paris, Alejandra Ribera tells tales that are all about chiaroscuro and stark contrasts between light and darkness. Veering between moments of loss and joy, melancholy and hope, longing and elation, with touches of quirky charm, Ribera’s songs successfully straddle jazz, soul and folk and are driven by her deep, velvety voice and compelling stage presence. We are excited to see where Ribera’s unique musical vision will take her in years to come.

Rocky Dawuni: Reggae with a mission, sweet and heady

Charismatic Ghanaian reggae artist Rocky Dawuni has just been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Reggae Album category (the only non-Jamaican artist nominated this year, and is the first Ghanaian to ever be nominated), and at Mundial the talents that led to the nomination were evident. Dawuni captivated the Mundial Montreal audience with a joyful sound that travels from Africa to the Caribbean and back, along the way passionately promoting messages of peace, harmony and unity between all peoples and sharing the vision of an eloquent activist who has worked on campaigns regarding environmental issues, women’s health, HIV and Aids Advocacy, water rights and peace-building.

Akawui: Beats from First Nations across the Americas

Born to Chilean parents and of indigenous Mapuche ancestry, Akawui Riquelme’s father introduced him to the folk music of South America. His earlier musical explorations led him to Brazilian music, but most recently in exploring Andean flutes and South American percussion, Akawui has been developing a project that fuses Andean roots, other Latin contemporary sounds and the performance of First Nations dancers and drummers. This musical project is is still in its initial phases, but it was exciting to hear the raw power of what can come of a uniting of First Nation peoples from all of the Americas.

Nano Stern: Fierce Chilean punk folk troubadour

An outspoken social activist, Nano Stern is becoming a recognized and acclaimed voice of the nueva Nueva Canción. The grandson of Jewish refugees fleeing persecution, in many ways Stern continues the path formed by assassinated Chilean poet songwriter Victor Jara. Performing solo and playing the guitar, shaking a long mane and punctuating his songs with anecdotes and stories of social justice, Stern creates fresh takes on iconic nueva cancion tunes and propels these and his own compositions into the 21st Century with a fierce punk and rock sensibility.

Marcio Faraco: Musical enchantment born between Brazil and France

Brazilian-born, France- based, Márcio Faraco surprised the audience with a truly delightful set in which Faraco melded of the samba, bossa nova and choro of his homeland into beautiful compositions that highlight his delicate, nuanced guitar playing, and enchanting tenor vocals, as well as the masterful accordion playing of Lionel Suarez from France.

Djmawi Africa: Gnaoua Rock with loads of wonderful je ne sais quoi

Founded to perform at a student concert in Algiers in 2004, Djmawi Africa has eight members, each who specialized in a different genre (Algerian Chaabi, Andalusian music, gnawa beats, rock , metal, reggae, and classical), Djmawi Africa’s high energy music is irresistibly danceable, veering from moment to moment between all those genres. Somehow, each musical strand in Djmawi Africa’s multi-rooted grooves kept its integrity and at the same time benefitted from the colors it gained in the fusion with other beats. It was a lovely musical model for what the world could be-- each of us keeping our individual beliefs and roots, but reveling in the joyful interacting with others of like and not-so-like hearts and minds.

A-WA: Ancient Yemenite women’s folk chants for the dance club

A-WA (pronounced Ay-wa, Arabic for “yes”) are three sisters, Tair, Liron and Tagel Haim, born in a small village in southern Israel not far from the Egyptian border. From a musical family with Yemenite roots, A-WA’s music is based in the love songs and protest chants of women in the Yemeni-Arabic dialect that were passed on as an oral tradition and were first recorded in the early 60's. In impeccable three-part harmony, A-WA take these ancient folk songs into the club, adding touches of jazz, hip hop, and prog-rock, all in the context of amped-up electronic dance music.

Solawa: Lovely Métis and Mestizo musical soundscapes

Fronted by by multidisciplinary artist Moe Clark of Métis (mixed First Nations and European) ancestry, Solawa creates universal sonic landscapes in five languages that highlight Clark’s crystalline vocals and the musical influences of her four bandmates, which include Argentina and Persia. The band takes its name “sol”, which means “sun” in Spanish and “earth” in French and the word “awa” which in Cree means “here, now, near us” and in also, in Persian signifies “sound and music”. The band’s songs mix and match languages and genres, going from an African-inspired lullaby sung in Cree language to a waltz in Spanish, French and English and many other surprising places, creating surprisingly effective musical collages and highlighting the beauty of collective compositions that bring people together in art and harmony.

Learn more about Mundial Montreal 2015 in www.beatlatino.com