A Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal recipient for his work creating community through music, bandleader Chris McKhool’s “lush, lyrical” violin playing is inventive and rich. McKhool produces, composes and plays violin with Billboard charting Sultans of String, who’s CDs hit #1 across Canada in the Top Ten International/World Canadian community radio charts, and earned 3 JUNO Award Nominations for Instrumental and World Album of the Year. With Sultans of String, McKhool also won the SiriusXM World Music Award, Festivals & Events Ontario’s Best Variety Act, two Ontario Independent Music Awards, and three Canadian Folk Music Awards out of eight nominations. 

McKhool has recorded/performed with several jazz, world, folk and pop artists including Béla Fleck, Jesse Cook, the Chieftains, Pavlo, Amanda Martinez, Richard Bona, Ruben Blades, Yasmin Levy, and Nikki Yanofsky. As producer he received a nomination for Producer of the Year for the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Awards, and won Producer of the Year for the 2020 Independent Music Awards and 2021 Canadian Folk Music Awards. He won the inaugural PIVOT AWARD from the Canadian Independent Music Association this year for creating the Sultans Zoom Room livestream series.