About
Built by festival people, for festival people.
Ovaro started inside the performing-arts festival world. We lived the patchwork of registration in one tool, judging in another, and spreadsheets holding it all together. We knew there was a warmer, simpler way to run a festival — and to give performers a record of their work that lasts.
The founders
The founders
We are two people who run a 94-year-old festival. We wrote Ovaro because we needed it.
We know what a syllabus is. We know why the accompanist needs a run sheet in time order, with keys. We know what a recommendation to provincials means to a fifteen-year-old, and what choral speech morning does to a schedule. Everything in Ovaro exists because a season made us need it.
Why we built it
A festival is a celebration. Its software should feel like one.
We watched brilliant festivals — with generations of history and hundreds of young performers — held together by exported CSVs, printed adjudication sheets, and late-night email chains. The tools worked, but they were cold, disconnected, and every year the performer’s history scattered again.
Ovaro is our answer: one platform that carries a performer from registration to ovation, and a single record that follows them from their first festival to their university auditions. Built from the inside, not from a boardroom.
We are a small, focused team based in Canada, working with organizers across Canada and the United States.
What we believe
Five things we hold to.
Celebrate the performer
Festivals exist for the people on stage. Our software should feel like a program note, not a spreadsheet.
One record, for life
A performer is entered once. Their history follows them across events, organizers, and years — and belongs to them.
Safe for young people, by default
Guardian consent, private storage, and family-controlled data are the starting point, not a settings page.
Respect the organizer's time
Most festivals are run by volunteers on evenings and weekends. We build for those hours.
Say only what is true
No invented statistics, no borrowed credentials, no cold-corporate theatre. Plain language, always.
Want to talk?
Whether you are an organizer sizing us up, a teacher curious about the record, or a parent with a question about safety — we would love to hear from you.