ALTO

ALTO Records was a small Ukrainian-Canadian label in Oshawa, Ontario, created and run by violinist and bandleader Mike (Michael) Kupnicki, who also owned the music shop Alto Music.

The label was established in the mid-1950s and is definitely documented as active by 1955, issuing Ukrainian dance and folk music (waltzes, polkas, kolomyjkas) for the Ukrainian-Canadian community on 78-rpm discs.

In the 1960s the label moved into the stereo LP era.

Based on surviving records, Alto seems to have stopped issuing new releases by the early 1970s at the latest. When Kupnicki sold the Alto Music store to Long & McQuade in the 1980s, the label was effectively inactive; after his death in 1997, Alto is clearly defunct.