“Honeypaw’s unique sound and ability to sit in on workshops and jam any style of music, or lead the jam, was a crowd favourite!” –
J. Law, Kingsville Music Festival 2024
“It struck me to the roots of my heart where the love for tradition and forest meet”
Kansanmusiikki Magazine, Fall 2019
“Honeypaw’s meditative and evocative Ninth Tree Standing fits well with the growing body of complex and gently avant garde Baltic neo-folklore”
The Wire Magazine, December 2021
Honeypaw’s vision is to explore the connection between Finnic and Baltic cultures to create rich and enchanting soundscapes. Since 2019, Interdisciplinary artists Jurgita Zvinklyte and Matti Palonen have been blending ancient Nordic instruments with modern sound synthesis. They have studied early wax cylinder recordings in order to maintain archaic tunings which aimed to produce effects lost to Western music.
They have made four tours of Finland and the Baltics, centred around festivals including Mėnuo Juodaragis, the Pajot Folk Music Festival, and the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. In 2025, they spent six weeks at an artist residency in Southern Lithuania developing their art and music, while shepherding sheep on a traditional homestead.
Bookings
Matti Palonen & Jurgita Zvinklyte
jurgita@honeypawband.com
phone (Matti): +1 647 225 4544
Stage plot
for download:
Videos
Music
Ninth Tree Standing (2021) was recorded on hollow trees strung with steel and horsehair strings in the forest near Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada. It contains traditional chants from the Lithuanian sutartine tradition, and runos from Karelia and Ingria.
Tuta Tuta (2022) contains songs centred around secundas and other dualities. Within the rampant pandemic polarity, Honeypaw seeks to find harmony in the dissonance. This album was recorded on traditional instruments in Toronto, with tree harps recorded in Wasaga, Ontario.
Kolme käkeä (2023) began with research into the field collections of Aukusti Robert Niemi in Finland, Karelia, and Lithuania. During the recording process, the dark winter changed Honeypaw’s focus to themes of lament and loss, and the album finds itself caught in the space between melancholy and groove.
Members
Jurgita Žvinklytė
Jurgita Žvinklytė has a M. FA in sculpture from the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts. She performed in several folk ensembles in Lithuania before coming to Canada in 2019. In 2023 she was selected to be part of the Small World Music Incubator program for emerging Canadian artists. In addition to music, she is a pottery instructor.
Matti Palonen
“Matti Palonen on moderni Väinämöinen,” proclaims the cover of the Fall 2019 issue of Finland’s Pirta magazine. He has performed Finnic and other European folk music with many groups across Canada since 2008. He studied Lutherie with David Freeman, and builds stringed instruments including harp and kantele. He has studied folk traditions in Finland with Maija Pokela, Emmi Kuittinen, and Arja Kastinen. He teaches kantele, and is the cantor at a Finnish church in Toronto.
Photos
Documentary on Tree Harp
This documentary created by filmmaker Nicolas Pollock is featured in Natural Collaborators, a new video series from CBC Arts about artists who find inventive ways to use the natural world in their work.
Past Performance Highlights
- August 8-10 – Live From The Rock Folk Festival, Red Rock, ON
- July 9-10, 2025 – Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, Kaustinen, Finland
- December 7, 2024 – “Songs Sealed in Wax” concert at Small World Music Centre, Toronto, ON
- October 2024 – Eight date tour in Biržai, Nemunėlio Radviliškis, Marcinkonys, Valkininkai, Utena, Vilnius, Kaunas. Lithuania
- October 3-5, 2024 – Official showcase at Folk Music Ontario conference, Mississauga, ON
- August 9-11, 2024 – Kingsville Music Festival, Kingsville, ON
- June 14, 2024 – Western and World symposium, at The Music Gallery, Toronto, ON
- April 26, 2024, Empowering women in the music industry conference, Ottawa, On
- April 2, 2024, Nadah El Shazly + Khôra + Honeypaw at Tranzac club, Toronto, On
- November 7, 2023, “Sorrow songs and laments”, Honeypaw with Brenna MacCrimmon at Tranzac club, Toronto, On
- September 23, 2023, Honeypaw at Nuit blanche at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, On
- June 6-20, 2023, Honeypaw Art&Water Cultura residency – Dockside Festival, Empire Sandy, Toronto, On
- May 2023 – Three date tour in Kontiolahti, Siihtala, Joensuu. Finland
- August–September 2022 – Five date tour in Utena, Zarasai, Vilnius, Kaunas, including festival Mėnuo Juodaragis XXII and KanklesCollab: Honeypaw with Agota Zdanavičiūtė at „Sodas 2123“ space. Lithuania
- September 25-26, 2021, Honeypaw at Festival Terre Ferme, Godmanchester, Que
- December 4, 2020, Honeypaw at Estonian Music Week, Toronto, On