Evolution: Classical Faculty and Participant Concerts

Celebrating its 30th season, the Gryphon Trio is one of the world’s preeminent piano trios, garnering acclaim and impressing international audiences with its highly refined, dynamic and memorable performances.

With a repertoire that ranges from traditional to contemporary and from European classicism to modern-day multimedia, the Gryphons are committed to redefining chamber music for the 21st century.

Creative innovators with an appetite for discovery and new directions, the Gryphon Trio has commissioned over 100 new works, and frequently collaborates on projects that push the boundaries of chamber music. The trio tours regularly throughout North America and Europe, and their 22 recordings are an encyclopedia of works for the genre. Honours include three Juno Awards for Classical Album of the Year – most recently, that of 2019 – and the prestigious 2013 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts from the Canada Council.

Deeply committed to music education and audience development, the Gryphons conduct master classes and workshops at universities and conservatories, and are artists-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music and Trinity College. Dr. Jamie Parker is the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance and Annalee Patipatanakoon is Associate Professor of Violin and Head of Strings at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.

Since 2010, the trio’s multi-faceted arts creation program Listen Up! has engaged elementary school students, teachers and parents in 16 Canadian communities and provided them with the experience and knowledge required to participate actively in the arts.

The Gryphon Trio has had a long association with the Ottawa Chamberfest – Roman Borys served as Artistic Director between 2007-2015, as Artistic and Executive Director between 2015-2021 and Patipatanakoon and Parker served as Artistic Advisors between 2008-2021. The Trio are currently Directors of Classical Music Summer programs at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Anders Åstrand est un percussionniste suédois renommé spécialisé dans les percussions à clavier. Il a un son unique au marimba comme au vibraphone. Il est très recherché comme soliste, et on le voit régulièrement jouer et donner des classes de maîtres sur la scène internationale. Depuis 2017, Anders Åstrand dirige la classe de musique contemporaine et d’improvisation à l’Académie Orford Musique. Aussi compositeur, il reçoit des commandes, dont des pièces pour percussions avec ensemble de musique de chambre, quintette de cuivres, quatuor de saxophones, chœur, et big band. Parmi ses créations les plus spectaculaires, on trouve des compositions pour instruments de glace joués par un ensemble de percussionnistes, et des œuvres mettant en jeu des avions de combat, des camions à neige ou des bâtiments utilisés comme instruments. La musique d’Anders Åstrand est aussi associée à des performances multimédias axées sur la danse, des projections vidéo, des instruments de glace et des sculptures de feu. Il collabore régulièrement avec des groupes et ensembles divers. Il joue du vibraphone avec le Soundscape Orchestra et Firm Roots, ainsi qu’avec le big band Ann-Sofie Söderqvist Jazz Orchestra, notamment sur l’album Move. Le duo Vibes and Bass (Mikael Berglund, basse électrique et Anders Åstrand, percussions à clavier) a fait paraître deux albums de musique originale : Seven Thoughts et Frantelunia. Au nombre de ses propres ensembles, notons WÅG (Mattias Wager, orgue d’église ; Anders Åstrand, percussions ; Gary Graden, voix), le Åstrand-Erlandsson Duo (Robert Erlandsson, contrebasse ; Anders Åstrand percussions à clavier), et son ensemble de percussions, le Global Percussion Network, avec lequel il a fait de nombreuses tournées en Suède, en Europe, aux États-Unis et en Corée du Sud. Anders Åstrand se produit régulièrement à la rencontre internationale annuelle de la Percussive Arts Society (PASIC). Il est consultant international en éducation (orchestre) pour le fabricant d’instruments à percussion Zildjian depuis 2008. Il se sert d’instruments Yamaha, de cymbales Zildjian, de maillets Vic Firth et de membranes Evans.

Aiyun Huang jouit d’une vie musicale diversifiée en tant que musicienne soliste, chambriste, chercheure, enseignante et productrice. Elle est reconnue dans le monde depuis qu’elle a remporté le Premier prix et le Prix du public au Concours international de musique de Genève, en 2002. Tout en défendant le répertoire existant, elle est une voix importante de la création collaborative de nouvelles œuvres. Aiyun Huang a commandé — et donné la première de — plus de deux cents œuvres durant ses vingt ans de carrière de soliste et de chambriste. Robert Everett-Green, critique du Globe and Mail décrit son jeu comme « captivant à entendre et à regarder » et son choix de répertoire comme susceptible de « rénover nos habitudes d’écoute ». Au nombre de ses prestations mémorables figurent des concerts au Victoria Hall  de Genève, au Weill Recital Hall de New York, lors de la série Green Umbrella de l’Orchestre philharmonique de Los Angeles et de la série de concerts LACMA, au Holland Festival, au Festival Agora de Paris, au festival du Centre des arts de Banff, à la 7e Biennale d’Art contemporain de Lyon, au Vancouver New Music Festival, à la radio anglaise de Radio-Canada, à la La Jolla Summerfest, au Scotia Festival, à Cool Drummings, au Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques, au Centro Nacional de las Artes à Mexico, au Festival Cervantino, et au National Theatre and Concert Hall  de Taipei. Plus récemment, elle a joué avec le quatuor St. Lawrence, l’Orchestre de la Suisse romande, l’Orchestre symphonique de Taipei et l’Orchestre symphonique de San Diego. Elle a récemment donné la première d’œuvres de Philippe Leroux, de David Bithell, de Nicole Lizée, de George Lewis et d’Eliot Britton.

Brandon Patrick George is a leading soloist and Grammy-nominated chamber musician whose repertoire extends from the Baroque era to today. He is the flutist of Imani Winds and has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Albany symphonies; the American Composers Orchestra; and Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, among others. He has been praised as “elegant” by The New York Times, as a “virtuoso” by The Washington Post, and as a “knockout musician with a gorgeous sound” by The Philadelphia Inquirer. His debut album was released by Haenssler Classics in September 2020. George has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Dresden Music Festival, and the Prague Spring Festival, among other venues. Before his solo career, George performed with many of the world’s leading ensembles, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. George trained at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Conservatoire de Paris, and the Manhattan School of Music. He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2021.

Caroline has spent the best part of 35 years in the arts, as stage manager, production and technical manager, education manager, project manager and producer in UK and Canada.

It has taken her into community arts and human circuses in South London; large parades with boats, cars and bicycles made of sticky tape; giant puppets in Portugal; too many events in soggy fields; touring round the Scottish Highlands; running two theatres for young people in Wales; enjoying fireworks and tugs (fortunately at the same time); Operas with elephants; Touring a multimedia theatre/opera production (Constantinople - Christos Hatzis + Gryphon Trio; What’s Classical? festival weekends; Producer with Luminato Festival over the years; Performances with 1000 performers (Apocalypsis - R Murray Schafer); Night time illuminated walks in Canadian National Parks (Banff and Rouge) (Illuminations); Multiple choirs on a pond (Maada’ooki Songlines – C Derksen) and Community presentations (Odaabanag-with music by Melody McKiver - Jumblies Theatre)

She has one simple, but passionate, aim - to introduce people, especially young people, to the live arts as creators and participants, as well as spectators.

David Harrington is the founder and artistic director of the Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet. For more than 40 years, the Kronos Quartet has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually re imagining the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 50 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many of the world's most intriguing and accomplished composers and performers, and commissioning more than 850 works and arrangements for string quartet.

Dinuk Wijeratne est un compositeur, chef d’orchestre et pianiste originaire du Sri Lanka. Son travail a été récompensé par de nombreux prix (prix Juno, prix de la SOCAN, prix de l’ECMA, et Prix des arts Masterworks). Il a été décrit par le New York Times comme étant « d’une créativité exubérante » et par le Toronto Star comme « un artiste qui reflète une vision positive de notre avenir culturel ». Son travail l’entraîne vers des destinations aussi dissemblables que la Philharmonie de Berlin et le North Sea Jazz Festival (le Festival de la mer du Nord, aux Pays-Bas). Dinuk Wijeratne a donné son premier concert au Carnegie Hall en 2004 comme compositeur, chef d’orchestre et pianiste, aux côtés de Yo Yo Ma et du Silk Road Ensemble. Il y est retourné en 2009 au côté du légendaire Zakir Hussain, virtuose du tabla. Il s’est également produit au Kennedy Center, à l’Opéra Bastille, au Lincoln Center, au Teatro Colón (Argentine), et dans différentes salles au Sri Lanka, au Japon, et aux quatre coins du Moyen-Orient. Il fait partie des principaux musiciens présentés dans What Would Beethoven Do?, documentaire sur l’innovation en musique classique, mettant aussi en vedette Eric Whitacre, Bobby McFerrin et Ben Zander. Dinuk Wijeratne, qui a grandi à Dubaï, a étudié la composition au Royal Northern College of Music (Royaume-Uni) et à l’école Juilliard, auprès du compositeur (gagnant d’un Oscar) John Corigliano. Il a ensuite fait des études en direction d’orchestre au Mannes College (New York) auprès de David Hayes, et des études de doctorat avec Christos Hatzis à l’Université de Toronto. Il a dirigé de nombreux orchestres : l’Orchestre du Centre national des arts, ceux de Winnipeg, de Thunder Bay, de l’Î.-P.-É et du Scotia Festival, ainsi que Symphony Nova Scotia dans le cadre de son mandat de trois ans comme chef d’orchestre en résidence. Au nombre des honneurs qu’il a reçus figurent, entre autres, le prix Jean-Marie-Beaudet en direction d’orchestre du Conseil des arts du Canada, l’Established Artist Award (prix de l’artiste établi) d’Arts Nova Scotia, des nominations pour le prix Masterworks (Nouvelle-Écosse) pour son Concerto pour tabla et pour son trio avec piano Love Triangle, deux nominations pour le prix Robert Merritt, des bourses d’études (de Juilliard, de Mannes et du Countess of Munster Musical Trust), le prix du concours Sema Group d’improvisation en jazz, le prix Soroptimist International pour compositeurs-chefs d’orchestre, et le prix Sir John Manduell, la plus haute distinction décernée par le Royal Northern College of Music. Sa musique et son travail de collaboration embrassent la grande diversité de son passé et de ses influences internationales.

Image by Raoul Manuel Schnell

Eliot Britton (né en 1983) jette des ponts entre les mondes sonores. Des rythmes imperceptibles de la nature aux timbres imposants amplifiés par des moyens numériques, son langage musical utilise les outils et techniques du 21^e siècle pour construire et partager des réseaux de musique et de sens. L’esthétique primée de Britton, empreinte d’une virtuosité féroce, rapproche les interprètes et la technologie pour trouver de nouveaux modes d’expression et de collaboration. Des solistes, boîtes à rythmes et orchestres à la réalité augmentée et à l’apprentissage machine, Britton recherche des façons innovatrices de relier et exprimer le paysage sonore contemporain du Canada. Métis anglophone du Manitoba, Britton adore collaborer à des projets autochtones qui sortent des sentiers battus. 
 

Diplômé de l’Université du Manitoba (avec Michael Matthews) et de l’Université McGill (avec Sean Ferguson), Britton est aujourd’hui enseignant, chercheur et compositeur à l’Université de Toronto. Il y dirige le studio de musique électronique de l’Université de Toronto (UTEMS) qui vient d’être reconstruit et partage son temps entre la composition et la technologie musicale. Britton est actuellement le compositeur en résidence de Red Sky Performance et le co-directeur du festival Cluster pour la nouvelle musique et les arts intégrés. Par son travail à l’Université de Toronto, il cherche à élargir le cadre des recherches innovantes en ouvrant de nouveaux espaces pour la diversité dans l’application créative de la technologie musicale.  

A versatile artist, whose talents transcend the boundaries of dance, music, opera and multi-media, Marie-Josée Chartier moves easily between her many roles as choreographer, performer, director, vocalist and teacher. Her dynamic choreography is influenced by contemporary music, literature and the visual arts as she explores and deconstructs the vulnerabilities of human beings.

Her acclaimed pieces have been presented at major festivals and by dance companies across Canada, Europe and Latin America. Her work was the subject of several documentary films. Since 2003, in addition to her activities as a performer and choreographer, Marie-Josée directs/stages contemporary opera and multi-media productions for: Gryphon Trio, Toca Loca, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, Tapestry Opera, Theaturtle and l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal (ECM+).

Chartier receives the following awards: Jacqueline Lemieux Prize (2015); K.M. Hunter Artist Award (2001), 9 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations; recipient of a Dora for fifty- one pieces of silver (2002) and shared two Doras with the collective URGE for And by the way Miss (2005).  Marie-Josée formed Chartier Danse in 2003 to support her projects and create a cornerstone for large scale productions and partnerships in Canada and abroad.

Grâce au caractère innovant et à l’étendue de ses activités artistiques, à son tempérament dynamique et à ses prestations « captivantes et aptes à élargir les horizons », la pianiste primée Megumi Masaki est considérée comme l’une des interprètes de premier plan de la scène de la musique contemporaine. Elle se spécialise dans l’exploration des manières d’intégrer son, image, texte et mouvement dans des œuvres multimédia. Elle collabore fréquemment avec des compositeurs, des artistes en arts visuels, des écrivains et des chorégraphes dans le cadre de projets interdisciplinaires mettant à profit les nouvelles technologies pour accroître l’interaction dynamique entre le créateur et l’interprète. Megumi Masaki a commandé de nombreuses nouvelles œuvres et a donné la première de plus de 70 œuvres dans le monde. Elle est professeure de piano ainsi que directrice du New Music Ensemble et du New Music Festival à l’Université Brandon, est membre de l’ensemble interdisciplinaire Noiseborder et de Slingshot-Kidõ, et fait partie du corps enseignant du festival Casalmaggiore, en Italie. Elle est également directrice artistique du Concours de musique national Eckhardt-Gramatté.

Violinist Parmela Attariwala interweaves life as a performer-creator, researcher, equity advocate and educator. Parmela pursued her fascination with sound and unworded music through studies in performance (Indiana University and Bern Conservatory), electroacoustic and jazz composition, and ethnomusicology (School of Oriental and African Studies, and the University of Toronto). Her creative work explores the liminal space between musical genres, artistic disciplines, and identities, often using improvisation as a point of departure. Parmela has recorded three critically acclaimed Attar Project albums featuring works for violin and tabla. She has also collaborated extensively with choreographers (bharata-natyam, butoh and contact) as composer and movement artist.

More recently, Parmela has been working with visual artists, creating musical responses to installations by Jeffrey Gibson, Nep Sidhu, Luciana Santos, Peter Morin and Ayumi Goto. She is currently developing a series of soundscores for bharata-natyam dancer Sujit Vaidya; and is co-creating music for the Indigenous-led opera Namwayut (Calgary Opera) as well as for Re:Naissance Opera’s virtual opera, Live from the Underworld.

Parmela uses her academic chops to advocate for a radical reimagining of the Canadian musical ecosystem centred around equity, access, decolonization and ethical practice. She recently developed an anti-racist, anti-oppressive music curriculum for a Toronto community music school; and in 2021, she co-founded Understory an online multi-disciplinary creation platform for Canadian improvising artists.

30 novembre au 3 décembre 2016

Patricia O’Callaghan a enregistré six CD en solo ainsi qu’avec d’intéressants collaborateurs. Elle a commencé par se concentrer sur le cabaret européen. Elle est maintenant considérée comme spécialiste de la musique de Kurt Weill pour avoir chanté dans L’Opéra de quat’sous, Les Sept péchés capitaux et Kleine Mahagonny avec la troupe théâtrale Soulpepper, l’opéra d’Edmonton, l’opéra de Vancouver et autres.

Elle a chanté avec des ensembles et des artistes de renommée internationale (l’orchestre de chambre Orpheus, le quartet Don Byron, Bryn Terfel) et s’est produite dans les plus beaux théâtres comme le Royal Opera House à Londres et le cabaret Le Poisson Rouge dans le quartier de Noho à New York.

Patricia compose aussi des chansons, parfois en collaboration avec d’autres compositeurs. Elle a eu l’honneur de chanter en première de nombreuses compositions, autant classiques que pop. Elle a travaillé avec maints créateurs, tels que R. Murray Schafer, Dennis Lee, Christos Hatzis, George Aperghis, Steve Reich et Steven Page.

Dans les mondes du film, du théâtre et de la télévision, Patricia a produit sa propre émission spéciale pour la chaîne Bravo! Elle a participé à la série Foolish Heart, produite à la CBC par Ken Finkleman ainsi qu’à un film semi-autobiographique de Rhombus / Westwind intitulé Youkali Hotel, qui a décroché plusieurs prix, dont une Gerbe d’or pour Patricia dans la catégorie de la meilleure interprétation féminine. 

Plus récemment, Patricia a collaboré à un projet du Gryphon Trio intitulé Broken Hearts and Madmen. Son nouveau projet, Deepest December, sera son premier CD de Noël; on y entendra de très beaux chants de Noël, des arrangements envoûtants et quelques curieuses juxtapositions très inhabituelles.

Paul Wiancko a une carrière musicale exceptionnellement variée en tant que violoncelliste, compositeur et collaborateur aux projets d’autres artistes. Son interprétation au sein de l’ensemble Musicians from Marlboro a été décrite comme « d’une transparence absolue » et « regorgeant tellement d’une vitalité concrète et d’un plaisir sensuel à l’état pur qu’elle fait qu’on se sent heureux d’être en vie » (Washington Post). Durant ses études, Paul Wiancko gagnait des prix d’interprétation au violoncelle à des concours internationaux et, parallèlement à cela, enregistrait des pistes pour des groupes punk dans sa chambre d’étudiant. Cette dualité est au cœur de son « ADN artistique » et a mené à des collaborations avec Chick Corea, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, Yo-Yo Ma, des membres d’Arcade Fire, The National, Pennywise, et les quatuors Guarneri et Juilliard.

La musique de Paul Wiancko a été qualifiée d’« éblouissante » et d’« irrésistible » (Star Tribune); on l’a décrite ainsi : « des éclats gestuels et des mélodies entrelacées tourbillonnent et se confondent, révélant une abondance de couleurs et de textures » (Pop Matters). Quoique son parcours à titre de compositeur ait commencé relativement récemment, il a remporté le prix Washington de composition de la fondation S&R, et a reçu des commandes d’œuvres, entre autres, des quatuors Aizuri, Parker, St. Lawrence et Attacca, de yMusic, de la soprano du Metropolitan Opera Susanna Phillips, du violoniste Alexi Kenney, et de l’Orchestre symphonique civique de Raleigh. Il a été compositeur en résidence aux festivals de Caramoor, de Spoleto, de Twickenham, de Newburyport, de Portland et de Methow Valley.

Sigi Torinus creates new media works that include site-specific installation and improvisatory interactive live-video performance. Her work explores our perceptions of the migratory journey, through time and space, in physical, ephemeral and digital worlds. She holds an MFA from the Braunschweig Art Institute, Germany, and San Francisco State University in California. As a professor of Integrated Media at the University of Windsor in Ontario, she co-directs the Noiseborder Multimedia Performance Laboratory with composer and multimedia artist Brent Lee.
As a co-founder of the Noiseborder Ensemble, she has been exploring artistic and technical complexities in multimedia performance, including the integration of acoustic instruments and emerging sound processing technologies, the development of performance practice in real-time audio and video creation, and the potential for new relationships between sound and moving images. The ensemble includes Brent Lee (composer, sound designer, saxophonist, keyboardist, guitarist), Sigi Torinus (video artist, installation artist), Nicholas Papador (percussionist, composer, keyboardist), Chris McNamara (media artist, sound designer, visual artist), Trevor Pittman (clarinetist, composer), and Megumi Masaki (pianist). The ensemble has performed at various festivals and venues, including ClarinetFest Oostende, Belgium (2018); the Festival des Musiques de Création in Jonquière, Quebec (2015); Beyond The Keys, Laban Theatre, London UK (2015); Bangor University, Wales (2015); the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival (2013); the Sonorities Festival in Belfast (2013).
 

Tom Allen se passionne pour la musique. Il est conteur, tromboniste accompli, auteur et animateur radio. Il met ses vastes connaissances au service de CBC Music, au réseau anglais de Radio-Canada. Tom a animé l’émission Music and Company de CBC Music pendant dix ans et est ensuite devenu l’animateur de l’émission CBC Music Mornings. Auparavant, ses histoires étaient entendues chaque semaine par un auditoire enthousiaste en Ontario à l’émission Fresh Air au réseau Radio One, et à l’émission This Morning diffusée à l’échelle nationale. De plus, il a créé, conjointement avec la harpiste Lori Gemmell, une série de spectacles alliant art du conte, notions d’histoire, musique classique et chansons populaires. Au nombre de ces spectacles figurent : Bohemians in Brooklyn (qualifié d’« habilement écrit » et de « merveilleusement cadencé » par Now Magazine), The Judgment of Paris, From Weimar to Vaudeville, et The Missing Pages, qui ont tous été présentés devant public des dizaines de fois et qui sont continuellement interprétés en tournée au pays. Tom Allen a également écrit trois livres, dont le plus récent The Gift of the Game, est une réflexion sur le hockey et le rôle que joue ce sport dans la vie de parents divorcés. Tom Allen a étudié à l’Université McGill, est diplômé de l’Université de Boston et est titulaire d’une maîtrise de l’Université Yale. À l’époque où il cherchait du travail à plein temps comme tromboniste, il a travaillé comme employé temporaire sur Wall Street et a cuisiné dans un restaurant mexicain. En 1987, il a commencé à jouer en tournée avec l’ensemble Great Lakes Brass jusqu’à ce qu’il se joigne à l’équipe de la radio anglaise de Radio-Canada à Halifax. Il vit avec sa femme et son fils à Toronto, ayant toujours hâte à la visite des autres enfants qui ne sont plus des enfants. Fervent cycliste, il pratique d’autres activités récréatives comme le hockey et le basketball.

Pianist Yolanda Tapia and singer Camila Montefusco co-founded Obsidiana Duo with a clear mission: to celebrate the vibrant tapestry of Ibero-American musical culture and give voice to composers who have been historically overlooked. They take great pride in fostering a more inclusive and diverse industry through this transformative project. The duo has a reputation as an international prize-winning collaborative pair, having been featured at CollabFest 2020, Collabaret 2020, and the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society in 2021. Last year, they won First Prize at the 2022 Puerto Rico Collaborative Piano Competition, and joined Toronto Summer Music Festival as Art of Song fellows. 

This season they look forward to their upcoming tour with Prairie Debut. They will present a concert based on the folk music from Ibero-America and the premiere of a new commissioned piece by composer Alice Ho and writer Madeleine Thien. This collaboration will explore themes of immigration and belonging. Looking ahead to 2024-2025, they are excited to undertake a new curation for their second national tour with Debut Atlantic.

Camila and Yolanda call Toronto home, where they explore profound and meaningful routes in their personal artistic ventures. Creating sincere and purposeful connections with their audiences is what drives them forward.

Obsidiana Duo are generously supported by the Boris Roubakine Memorial Endowment (Yolanda Tapia) and the Rebecca Levant Performing Artists' Scholarship (Camila Montefusco).

After living several years in Germany and the States, Claudia Do Minh Ramos currently makes her home in the city where she was born, Madrid. In May 2021, she completed her Masters's Degree in Viola Performance at the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Kim Kashkashian. Previously, Claudia studied viola with Tatjana Masurenko while completing her Bachelor's Degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Teather Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig, Germany. She has followed masterclasses with important violists such as Nobuko Imai, Hartmut Rohde, Thomas Riebl, and Jean Sulem. Claudia has studied with renowned chamber musicians such as the Borromeo String Quartet, the Parker String Quartet, Talich Quartet, Vogler Quartet, and Quiroga String Quartet. Claudia was a member of the newly formed Boston-based Rasa String Quartet, and with them, she won first prize in the Chamber Music in Yellow Competition and MTNA Chamber Music Competition. Since 2013 she has received scholarships from the Humboldt Stiftung, the Community Madrid scholarship for musicians, and the DAAD- Infinitum Stiftung. When not performing and collaborating, Claudia enjoys teaching music as well. She holds a Masters's Degree in Pedagogy and is a faculty member of the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Castilla y León. 

Claudia is generously supported by the Cyril and Elizabeth Challice Fund for Musicians.
 

Noise Catalogue is a New York based contemporary music collective whose primary passion is creating universally engaging concert experiences. Their work draws upon on a diverse range of musical influences including minimalism, avant-garde classical, Hungarian and Romanian folk, and electro-acoustic ambient music. The core ensemble features violinist Madeline Hocking and percussionists Daniel Matei and Jon Collazo, all of whom performed together in the critically-acclaimed contemporary ensemble ‘Tactus’ during their studies at Manhattan School of Music. Since forming their collective in spring 2023, they have received a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and launched an active performance schedule throughout the Eastern United States. Recent projects have included performing newly-commissioned and original works on the Sō Laboratories series in Brooklyn, and producing an interdisciplinary concert program with visual artist Knox Peters. They are currently preparing for a featured performance at the Hungarian Consulate General of New York on the Emerging Artists concert series this fall.

Noise Catalogue is generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment (Madeline Hocking) and the John Linn Memorial Endowment (Daniel Matei).

Extended Music Collective (EMC) is a chamber music ensemble exploring the diverse spectrum of new music. EMC strives to incorporate new composers within an established contemporary concert experience. Setting aside the norm for what defines a performance, they seek out collaborations
wherein the musicians work closely alongside young composers as well as renowned names from all over the world. It is our mission to include and encourage diversity within the field and endeavor to bring socially relevant aspects within humanity to the stage.

EMC creates bonds that narrows down the distance between creator and performer to interdisciplinary relations and worldwide friendships. Including music from all around the world strengthens the vision of creating a globally informed audience. Previous projects resulted in collaborations with, among others, Anne Leileluha Lanzelotti, Vache Sharafyan, Anuj Bhutani, Frank Nuyts, Ward De Vleeschhouwer et al. In 2022 they were invited by the renowned Ensemble Modern where they performed the world premieres of works by Alireza Farhang and David Fennessy. In collaboration with Theater Transparant, they created L’acte de respirer by composer Siebe Thijs. Future projects include collaborations with composers Jason Eckardt, Elena Rykova and Baldwin Giang.

Extended Music Collective is generously supported by the Isobel and Tom Rolston Fellowships in Music Endowment (Nina Vanhoenacker), the Frederick Louis Crosby Memorial Endowment (Stef Van Vynckt) and the Benediktson Fellowship Fund for Icelandic Artists (Jaume Darbra Fa) in addition to funding from the Flanders Art Institute through Flanders State of the Art. 

Inland Ocean is an international cooperative of contemporary artists committed to crafting and sharing innovative, personal, and original interdisciplinary work. We are passionate about empowering performer agency, fostering collective creativity, and building community. Each of our projects is developed collaboratively, leveraging the varied backgrounds, experiences, and skills within our group. At the Banff Centre’s Evolution: Classical 2023 program five of Inland Ocean’s members (Marie Leveque - dance, Anuj Bhutani - voice and electronics, Nolan Ehlers - percussion, Martin Daigle - drum set, and Zoe Markle - bass) have come together to adapt the solo voice and electronics piece, “How Long” by Anuj Bhutani, to a multidisciplinary performance involving live instruments, dance, and visuals.

These Artists are generously supported by: Gladys and Merrill Muttart Foundation Endowment (Anuj Bhutani), Isobel and Tom Rolston Fellowships in Music Endowment (Marie Lévêque), Ken and Marie Madsen Endowment Scholarships (Nolan Ehlers), David and Peggy Leighton Endowment (Martin Daigle), N. Murray Edwards Family Fund (Zoe Markle) 

Interstitial Gestures is made up of musicians and composers Benjamin Portzen, Kalaisan Kalaichelvan and David Potvin. It was founded at the Banff Musicians in Residence (BMiR) program in January 2023 as a means of interrogating how our artistic practices can be more expansive and relational to the world around us - asking how we can be more deeply in dialogue with community and with one another across media, geography and culture. Our ensemble seeks to create and present performances shaped by diverse aesthetics and ethics nurtured through curiosity and collective inquiry.

Interstitial Gestures is generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment (Benjamin Portzen), the MacLachlan Ridge Family Awards (Kalaisan Kalaichelvan), and the Marek Jablonski Piano Endowment (David Potvin).

Iida-Vilhelmiina Sinivalo is a cellist who lives in Helsinki, Finland. She spent much of her childhood in a remote, rural environment filled with the sounds of nature. These sounds were so important to Iida’s family that when a new, multi-lane highway was proposed for the area, her grandfather intensely studied the land’s fauna until he found a local species whose survival would be threatened by the highway, and the project was moved. Iida is a classically-trained cellist with a gift for natural warmth and expression, and a collaborator who has commissioned new pieces from several composers. She works often with electronic instruments, and recently toured with a circus performer. Iida is earning a doctoral degree at the Sibelius-Academy, and has performed on many of Finland’s finest concert series as a soloist and chamber musician, as well as with the Finnish National Opera and Radio Symphony Orchestra. Her family is so full of cellists that her niece and nephew were approaching adolescence before they understood that not everyone in the world plays the cello.

Iida is generously supported by the John W. Kieley Endowment for Emerging Musicians.

Known for their “immensely colourful, lyrical and expressive playing” (Laura Snowden), Quartet Malamatina first converged around Leo Brouwer's Cuban Landscape with Rain for a performance with film at the 2021 UN Climate Conference.

Quartet Malamatina is comprised of members Tim Beattie (Canada), Finlay Hay (Scotland), Ross Morris (England), and Lenny Ranallo (United States). They are building upon the culturally diverse and longstanding traditions of guitar music through a wide range of commissioning, arranging, multidisciplinary collaboration, and community engagement activities.

Quartet Malamatina have recently performed for BBC Radio Scotland, The Worshipful Company of Musicians, Beacon Arts Centre, Carlisle Cathedral, among others. Amidst these performances, Malamatina gave world-premiere performances of newly-commissioned works by Marco Galvani and Erin Thomson, thanks to generous support from Creative Scotland and the PRS Foundation. The Quartet also worked with conductor-composer Martyn Brabbins (English National Opera) in a performance of his piece, Sometimes You Can Hear the Birds Sing – the work’s first outing since 1984. The Quartet’s season highlights include residencies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Yellow Barn (VT) and concerts throughout Canada and the UK.

Quartet Malamatina is generously supported by the Michael Davies Scholarship Endowment Fund.
 

Instruction Manual is Ollie Hawker and Scott Morrison - two composers and performers based in Glasgow, Scotland. Their work explores digital nostalgia and pastoral visions of the information age. Their newest project, The Instruction Manual, is centred around synthesised vocals, evoking hazy memories of the early days of the internet. By combining elements of past and future, Instruction Manual investigate the similarities between folk traditions and online culture, capturing the latter's mixture of ironic absurdism and earnest emotion. 

Instruction Manual have performed at numerous venues and festivals across Scotland including Sound Thought, Cryptic, Permanent Holidays North, and the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art alongside artist Monster Chetwynd. Their 2020 work, The Owen Wilson Elegies, was nominated for a Scottish New Music Award. 

They are joined by Katie Muir, a multidisciplinary videographer and designer. In recent works, Katie has been using archive materials to create moving collages reflecting modern society’s nostalgic cultural tendencies. She graduated from The Glasgow School of Art in 2020 and has since had work featured in Sonica Festival, worked with pianist Megumi Masaki on her Hearing Ice project, and was named a Scottish Local Heroes Design One-to-Watch.

Instruction Manual and Katie Muir are generously supported by the Sir Mark Turner Memorial Scholarships Endowment.

“Play the Lute to the Cow,” a Chinese idiom that inspired two Toronto-based multidisciplinary percussionists Thomas Li and Nikki Huang on their contemporary music endeavors. A cow could never understand music played on a lute, unless the music becomes meaningful to the cow. The two percussionists aim to provide modern audiences a listening guide to complex contemporary music through incorporating theatrical elements and visual display into their work.  The pair also intend to employ musical performances as a medium for conveying social commentary, aiming to raise awareness about issues of social injustice among their audience.

The two are currently pursuing Masters degree in Music at the University of Toronto under the tutelage of Professor Aiyun Huang. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Thomas is interested in integrating visual media with his playing, and aspires to dedicate his artistic voice to expressing personal emotions and preserving the collective narratives of his home city. Taiwanese percussionist Nikki on the other hand is passionate about exploring the realm of story-telling and attempts to portray different characters through her performance. She actively engages different art forms like contemporary dancing in her art making practice. She has been involved in diverse performance settings, including original music, children musical theater, and interdisciplinary workshops.

In Case of Fire Play the Lute to the Cow is generously supported by the John W. Kieley Endowment for Emerging Musicians (Thomas Li) and the Susan and Graeme McDonald Music Endowment (Nikki Huang).

Seán Morgan-Rooney is currently one of Ireland’s leading young pianists. Winner of the Charles J. Brennan Prize at the 10th Dublin International Piano Competition, he has released a début album, performed with the country's top orchestras and concertized extensively around Europe as a solo recitalist.

Seán's early studies were with John O'Conor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. He went on to study with Professor Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music in London and with David Kuyken at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Winner of several prizes for his playing, as a teenager Seán was a piano finalist of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. He is a past winner of the Royal Academy of Music's Else Cross Prize for contemporary music and a past finalist of the Dutch Classical Talent Award.

Alongside traditional repertoire, Seán is involved in more explorative, interdisciplinary performances. He has worked on numerous occasions with silent film, dance and theatre, and was formerly the pianist for the Hard Rain Ensemble, one of the UK’s leading contemporary music ensembles. Seán also composes his own music, focusing on piano with electronics and song composition.

Seán is generously supported by the Maria Francisca Josepha Brouwer Fund for Dutch Artists.