Years ago, Taivi found herself in a dark mood after a guy she was supposed to meet never showed. She bought a pack of cigarettes and ducked into a bar where Beverly Glenn-Copeland was performing. Within minutes of listening, Taivi’s heartache began to dissolve. The music transformed her. That moment became a beacon as she stepped into her own life as an artist.   

Toronto-based folk singer-songwriter Taivi creates cinematic, roots-inspired songs that blend folk, bluegrass, country, and global influences into deeply human stories of hope and resilience. Her uplifting yet boldly vulnerable songwriting shines on her debut album, Rising Tide, and the single “Ukraiyna” Fans have a lot to look forward to this year as Taivi releases a series of singles and readies her sophomore album. 

“Good music grounds me in the truth – bypassing so much noise. It always inspires me to excellence,” Taivi says.

A poetic and evocative writer with a graceful sense of restraint, Taivi crafts songs that cinematically frame intimate, everyday joys while holding a fierce commitment to social justice—an influence rooted in her Estonian ancestry. The country is known for its “Singing Revolution,” when mass gatherings of songs helped end Soviet occupation. In her early family life, music was like breathing and Taivi just assumed that every moment had a soundtrack.

As the years passed, Taivi became immersed in work in the justice realm, sacrificing much, at times even remaining musically anonymous until she finally decided to choose music.  

There is a folk elegance to her musicality. A smooth, melodic singer who favors unadorned vocal lines, she is also a supple and intuitive multi-instrumentalist. Her aesthetic blends bluegrass, Latin American and Scandinavian influences, choral music, classical, jazz, country, and the 1960s singer-songwriter movement. Listeners often hear echoes of Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and The Be Good Tanyas.

Her 2017 debut, Rising Tide, launched to critical and popular acclaim. The album reached the Top 25 on the International Folk DJ Chart, received four out of five stars in the Netherlands, and topped the Folk/Roots Music chart in Kamloops. Taivi was featured in, Billboard – Canada, No Depression, Roots Music Canada, Great Dark Wonder, The Alternate Root, the Netherlands’ Real Roots Café, and the UK’s Written in Music, with subsequent coverage in Penguin Eggs. Seamlessly weaving together her many influences into a confident artistic statement, the album was produced with the guidance of modern bluegrass icon and multi-Grammy nominee Claire Lynch.  

Onstage, Taivi exudes easy charm – comforting and captivating in equal measure.  Beyond her solo work, Taivi has performed with the Wye River Band, Essentia, Reckless Rose, Skylark, garage bands and fiddle groups, Gamelan Toronto and others. She currently plays with Lightning Hill alongside fellow songwriter and mandolinist, Garth Douglas, fiddler Marion Linton, and bassist Steve Marshall. 

Taivi began piano at four but secretly coveted her brother’s guitar, waiting nearly a decade until he left for Europe before claiming the instrument as her own. Folk music filled her household, with spontaneous kitchen hootenannies and frequent festival outings.

Yet music did not initially seem like a viable profession. An unspoken rule steered her toward a successful career in social justice. But it was always music that sparked her love and she continued studying diverse instruments and traditions. In 2001, she immersed herself in the Canadian folk scene— with song circles, fellow songwriters, and multi-day music retreats. These were foundational to defining her style, bolstered by encounters with many of her folk heroes, including Pete & Peggy Seeger. 

Taivi has emerged as an artist with a well-defined aesthetic and strong sense of purpose. “Music can be powerful. It can awaken joy and possibility like nothing else,” she says. “I don't write for the purpose social change, but I do write songs and music to express what I'm feeling, and this can open new paths.”  

Now Taivi carries forward the healing tradition she once experienced in that bar years ago, and counts Beverly Glenn-Copeland as a close friend. As she prepares two albums’ worth of new material, a memory lingers: seeing her name on international folk charts alongside artists like Ry Cooder and John Prine who’ve always had a place in her heart. “Seeing my music beside theirs was incredible,” Taivi says. “It’s meaningful to me to share what I see, what I feel, through song.”