020211 Media Release - Paul D. Fleck Feloowships in the Arts 2002

Award-winning choreographer, composer -in-residence, curator, pianist… the 2002 Fleck Fellows represent a breadth of artistic talent and discipline. This year’s fifteen recipients will each receive a creative residency at The Banff Centre, allowing them to develop new work, spend time on an existing project, or collaborate with faculty and other artists-in-residence.

"The Fleck fellowships are the most prestigious scholarships offered by The Banff Centre to visiting artists of exceptional past accomplishments and future potential," says Joanne Morrow, The Banff Centre’s vice-president, Arts. The Fellowship Trust was established in memory of Paul D. Fleck, former president of The Banff Centre. Mr. Fleck was a cultural statesman, and a man of vision and influence. He brought The Banff Centre’s reputation to new international heights, and through the Paul D. Fleck Fellowships his legacy lives on. "The Banff Centre is proud to provide such a fine group of artists a chance for creative exploration in this rich and fertile environment," says Morrow. "During their creative residencies at The Banff Centre, the work of this year’s Fleck Fellows will develop in exciting new directions, and we look forward to seeing that process unfold."

The recipients of the 2002 Paul D. Fleck Fellowships in the Arts are as follows:

Lisa Mayo, actor/singer. New York, NY	Gloria Miguel, actor. New York, NY;
Muriel Miguel, choreographer/director. New York, NY	Lee-Ann Martin, curator . Ottawa, ON
David Rokeby, New Media artist/Inventor. Toronto, ON	Jean-Claude Guedon, electronic publisher/Writer. Montreal, QC
Marc Durand, pianist. Montreal, QC	Gary Kulesha, composer. Toronto, ON
Lori Freedman, clarinetist. Montreal, QC	John Estacio, composer. Calgary, AB
John Alleyne, choroegrapher. Vancouver, BC	Allen Kaeja, dancer/choreographer. Toronto, ON
Lorena Orozco, composer. Banff, AB	Marilyn Dumont,writer. Edmonton, AB
Wayne Dunkley, photographer. Toronto, ON

The Paul D. Fleck Scholarship Trust provides annual fellowships for 10-15 Canadian and international artists in the fields of Aboriginal Arts, Media & Visual Arts, Music & Sound, Theatre Arts, and Writing & Publishing. Fleck Fellows are nominated and then selected on the basis of acknowledged achievement or recognition of high potential for artistic excellence. The first Fleck Fellowships were awarded in 2001.

Contact: Sabrina Grobler, Media Relations, The Banff Centre. Ph. 403.762.6487

Muriel Miguel, New York. A choreographer/director, Miguel co-founded Spiderwoman Theatre; the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers in New York City; Shy Woman Singers and Dancers; and choreographed for the Chinook Winds Aboriginal Dance Program at The Banff Centre.

Lisa Mayo, New York. An actor/singer, Mayo co-founded Spiderwoman Theater, performs with Masterworks Laboratory Theater of New York; and directed the Native American Actor's Showcase at the American Indian Community House, where she serves on the Board of Directors.

Gloria Miguel, New York. Actor Gloria Miguel co-founded Spiderwoman Theater; toured in the original Native Earth production of Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters ; and she was nominated for a Sterling award for outstanding supporting actress for her performance in Jessica, a Northern Lights Production in Edmonton.

Lee-Ann Martin of Ottawa is a senior independent curator. She has served as head curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, where she continues as adjunct curator; first peoples equity coordinator at the Canada Council for the Arts; coordinator for the 1990 National Task Force on Museums and First Peoples; and interim curator of Contemporary Indian Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, and Quebec.

David Rokeby, Toronto. New media artist/inventor David Rokeby’s work in sound and video installation has been performed/exhibited in shows across Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. One of his interactive systems, Very Nervous System, enables a paralyzed woman to speak and write, and is also currently being used by composers, video artists, and medical facilities around the world.

Jean-Claude Guedon of Montreal is an electronic publisher/writer; a professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Montreal; an advisor to the Minister of Culture and Communication on cultural diversity; and works extensively as an advisor in the creation of archives, libraries, and databases.

Marc Durand, Montreal. Pianist Marc Durand is a soloist, accompanist, chamber musician and pedagogue. A professor in the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal, and a regular visiting artist at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, he has toured extensively in North America, Europe, North Africa, Asia, Indonesia, and Australia.

Gary Kulesha, Toronto. Composer, pianist, and conductor Gary Kulesha has served as The Composers’ Orchestra’s principal conductor and artistic director; composer-advisor to The Toronto Symphony Orchestra; and 1986, he was named Composer of the Year by the Performing Rights Organization of Canada. Kulesha teaches Composition and Theory at the University of Toronto, and Conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Lori Freedman, Montreal. Clarinetist Lori Freedman’s work in contemporary, improvised, and electroacoustic music, as well as for dance and theatre has earned her guest appearances with Canadian orchestras including Esprit, CBC Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Manitoba Chamber. Freedman performs frequently with the Ig Henneman Tentet (NL), the Vancouver New Music Ensemble (BC), and her own duo, Queen Mab with Canadian pianist Marilyn Lerner.

John Estacio, Calgary. Composer John Estacio is currently composer-in-residence for both the Calgary Opera and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He has written stage works for Citadel/National Arts Centre; the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; New Arts Quartet; the Penderecki String Quartet; and harpists Nora Bumanis and Julia Shaw.

John Alleyne, Vancouver. Choreographer John Alleyne has been artistic director of Ballet British Columbia since April 1992. He has danced in the Stuttgart Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada as a first soloist, and has created created eight new works for Ballet British Columbia since 1992.

Allen Kaeja, Toronto. Dancer/choreographer Allen Kaeja is co-artistic director/founder of KAEJA d’DANCE ; co-curator and member of the CanAsian Dance Festival; and part-time faculty at the National Ballet School of Canada and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

Lorena Orozco, Banff. Composer and conductor Lorena Orozoco has composed music for trios, quintets, chamber and symphonic orchestras. Her work has been acknowledged with many awards including the Best Original Music Score For Theatre (National Critics & Journalists Association of Mexico City), and the Julio Bracho National Prize for best new theatre.

Marilyn Dumont of Edmonton, a Metis poet, is the winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for her first book, A Really Good Brown Girl, and received an Honourable Mention for the 1997 VanCity Book Prize. Her work has been published in several anthologies, including such pieces as Writing the Circle, The Road Home, The Colour of Resistance, Looking at the Words of Our People and Miscegenation Blues.

Wayne Dunkley, Toronto. Photographer Wayne Dunkley incorporates black-and-white landscape photography and Internet-based New Media projects. On the Internet, he creates multimedia environments that allow Web participants the opportunity for interactive storytelling.