Each year, the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals (OCFF) honours the work of an individual or group that has made significant contributions to Ontario’s folk music community. The award is named after Estelle Klein, a long-time advocate of Canadian folk music and one of the early founders of the folk festival scene in this country. The OCFF has awarded this year’s Estelle Klein Award to Sharon, Lois & Bram.

The trio of Sharon, Lois & Bram was among the most popular children's entertainers of their era, with a series of hit albums as well as two long-running television series to their credit. Sharon Hampson, Lois Lilienstein and Bram Morrison were already individual fixtures at music festivals, workshops and school programs when they first started collaborating in 1978 through their work with the "Mariposa in the Schools" program.

They quickly forged a common bond, borrowed $20,000 and recorded their first LP, One Elephant, Deux Eléphants, which became the fastest-selling children's album ever in Canada. Sharon, Lois & Bram regularly toured throughout North America in the years to follow, presenting their family sing-along show to capacity audiences; a series of gold and platinum albums followed, as did the half-hour TV program "Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show" and later the TV series "Skinnamarink TV". Canadian Ambassadors for UNICEF since 1988, the trio later expanded into books, videos, CD-ROMs and multimedia stage presentations as well. They did this out of their own company, Elephant Records, Inc.

Folk music has always been at the core of Sharon, Lois & Bram’s extensive repertoire because of their individual backgrounds in the genre, and because their philosophy of children’s entertainment is built upon participation.

Sharon, Lois & Bram will receive their award at the 23rd Annual OCFF Conference being held in Ottawa from October 15-18, 2009. The Saturday evening gala dinner on October 17th will include a short video presentation of their life’s work. On Sunday, October 18th, the OCFF will continue its tradition of the award recipient being interviewed by Richard Flohil.