Fuse: Music Residency 2026

John de Lancie is an actor, director, producer, writer, educator, sailor, voice artist, and comedian, best known for his iconic portrayal of the omnipotent Q across multiple Star Trek series, including The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Lower Decks, Picard, and Strange New Worlds. He also appeared as Q in Star Trek: The Game Show and Star Trek: Borg, co-wrote the novel I, Q with Peter David, and narrated several Star Trek audiobook adaptations, including Q-in-Law (with Majel Barrett Roddenberry) and Dark Mirror. Outside of Star Trek, de Lancie is widely recognized for voicing Discord, a character inspired by Q, in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–2019).

His television credits include recurring roles as Colonel Frank Simmons in Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007), Donald Margolis in Breaking Bad (2008–2013), and Donald Finley in the revival series episode “The Gun.” In 1996, he co-founded Alien Voices with Leonard Nimoy and Nat Segaloff, producing a series of science fiction audio dramas, including the popular Spock vs. Q recordings, as well as televised specials for the Sci-Fi Channel. He has also appeared in concert settings, co-hosting Star Trek: The Music with Robert Picardo in 2008 and 2010, celebrating music from all eras of the franchise.

“The Australian Chamber Orchestra is uniformly high-octane, arresting and never ordinary.”
 

The Australian.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra lives and breathes music, making waves around the world for its explosive performances that redefine orchestral music. With their fearless leader of 35 years, Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, in 2025 the Orchestra celebrates 50 years of invention, disruption and unforgettable music-making.

The ACO performs more than 100 concerts each year, with programs that embrace celebrated classics alongside new commissions and ground-breaking collaborations, working with artists and musicians who share their ideology: from Emmanuel Pahud, Steven Isserlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicolas Altstaedt and William Barton, to Jonny Greenwood, Neil Finn and Meow Meow; to visual artists and film makers such as Bill Henson, Shaun Tan, Jane Campion, and Jennifer Peedom, who co-create unique, hybrid productions for which the ACO has become renowned.

The ACO has its own streaming platform, ACO On Demand, which hosts the Orchestra’s award-winning cinematic concert films, ACO StudioCasts, alongside live concert streams. The Orchestra also has an active recording program. Its recordings of Bach’s violin works won three consecutive ARIA Awards. Recent releases include Water | Night Music, the first Australian-produced classical vinyl for two decades, Beethoven 1, 2, & 3 Eroica and ARIA award-winning albums River and Indies & Idols.

In 2022 the ACO opened a new, world class venue, ACO On The Pier, continuing their dedication to creating and presenting transformative experiences for all music lovers.
 

A passionate communicator, Daniel brings clarity and meaning to the concert hall, fostering deep connections between audiences and performers. Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser is concurrently the Principal Youth Conductor and Creative Partner of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Principal Education Conductor and Community Ambassador of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Artist in Residence and Community Ambassador of Symphony Nova Scotia, and Resident Conductor of Engagement and Education of the San Francisco Symphony.

He served as Assistant Conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Associate Conductor of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. Daniel has performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, and was Cover Conductor with the Washington National Opera in 2020.

In the 2021 Season Daniel will debut with the Carnegie Hall Link-Up Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company.

Daniel is the host of Canadian Broadcasting Company’s nationally broadcast weekly radio show Centrestage.

He was also the subject of an award-winning, full-length Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary called Disruptor Conductor, focusing on his concerts for Neurodiverse, Prison, African Diaspora and LGBTQ2S+ populations.

Daniel earned his Bachelors in Music Performance and Education from the University of Calgary, and his Master of Philosophy in Performance from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

Keaton is a multi-disciplinary acrobat and physical theater performer whose work has taken them around the globe. They have performed with acclaimed companies including C!RCA, Broadway’s Water For Elephants, and 7 Fingers. Raised in the circus, Keaton developed an early love for chaos, community, and the creative freedom that thrives in collaborative art-making. When not on stage, Keaton can often be found at the pottery wheel, happily covered in clay, mud seems to be their natural state.Keaton extends deep love and gratitude to their family, Jessica, Mike, Terry, Mary, Eliana, Wyndon, Kellin, Daniel, and Caroline. Without their unwavering support, Keaton jokes they’d still be stuck in the mud... literally.

Bridie Hooper is an award-winning Australian artist and maker who champions circus within multidisciplinary and contemporary performance contexts. 
Her work reveals multi-faceted perspectives on hope, connection, catharsis and mortality, navigating universal themes through deeply personal works that challenge form, context and performer/audience relationship. Intersecting ritual, endurance and the body's potential, her performances affirm and celebrate the intricate human psyche.

Bridie’s practice is centered in circus and physical performance, but places huge value on working collaboratively with multidisciplinary forms including sound art, visual art, theatre, and participatory performance to extend, challenge and reframe her work. These engagements are built on a mutual drive to find new ways to create transformative live art experiences for audiences across theatres, galleries and public space.

Image by Billie Wilson Coffey

Isabella Luisa Diaz is the co-director of Company 29, a contemporary circus collective. They were born in Chicago, Illinois where from a young age, they found a joy for movement and a hankering for heights. They spent their youth competing in gymnastics and studying dance, continuing on at Western Michigan University and the Joffrey Ballet School. In 2016 they joined Pilobolus Dance Theatre as a part of their main company and toured around the world for 4 years. In 2021, they began working with The 7 Fingers contemporary circus and was part of the creation for the show ‘Dear San Francisco’ and the Broadway musical ‘Water for Elephants’. They have held various roles with US-based circuses such as Shoestring Circus and Midnight Circus, including acrobat, musician, guest director, and co-composer.  Isabella is a collector of hobbies, lover of books and a fiend for a good fun fact. They are very excited to be working with the Fuse team at the Banff centre this season.

Artist based in Lyon, Malo Lacroix works as a director and scenographer and artistic director of Sinople. 

Since 2013, he has worked and collaborate on a wide range of creation with theater, opera, film and installation. Past experiences include projects with Jean Louis Grinda, Jean Romain Vesperini, Murcof, Allex Aguilera, Robert Henke, Antoine Mermet, Philippe Gordiani, Dasha Rush. Bridging video, digital art with physical object, texture and new narrative forms, Malo presented different creations in institutions such Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Amsterdam, Grand Théâtre de Québec, Macerata Opera Festival, Teatro Cervantes de Malaga, Musée Fabre Montpellier, Berliner Festspiele, Ohm, Berlin, Forte festival Portugal, Gaîté Lyrique et Théâtre du Chatelet, Paris, Stereolux, Nantes, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, TNP, TNG, and Nuits Sonores, Lyon, Positive Education Festival, Saint-Étienne, Metropolitan pavillon, New York et Gamma festival, Saint Petersburg. In 2019, Malo was awarded a bronze medal at the Shenzhen Design Week in China for the Porte Nef project, resulting from a collaboration with architect Maxime Aumon and composer In Aeternam Vale. More recently, he joined the creation of A l'originie fût la vitesse by Philippe Gordiani and Nicolas Boudier based on La Horde du Contrevent by Alain Damasio, coproduced by Théâtre Nouvelle Génération as well as Le Ring de Katharsy by Alice Laloy at the Théâtre Nationale Populaire. In 2024, his short film Celui qui voulait croire au Bison was awarded International Competition at Videoformes festival in Clermont Ferrand.
 

Alex Clark is a composer, arranger, and creative producer whose work bridges orchestral tradition, digital media, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Drawing on a background in composition, conducting, and multi-instrumental performance, Alex creates music that moves fluidly between concert hall and studio, blending acoustic craft with contemporary production. 
 

Through Aseosa Productions, he develops original works and arrangements for orchestras, chamber groups, and cross-disciplinary projects, often integrating technology and visual elements to expand the concert experience. His career has evolved from orchestral librarianship into a broader creative practice encompassing concert design, digital performance, and new music development. Alex’s recent work focuses on immersive, collaborative approaches to composition 
that invite dialogue between artists, audiences, and environments.

“I could still feel there was more. The world just kept spinning… My body was still. But inside, I kept tumbling.”

These words come from Laura Hickli’s therapy sessions, not lyrics. Her album dark secrets—the first of three—is anchored in a traumatic 24-second moment in 2023. While touring the U.S., her van skidded off the road, rolled three times down a slope, and left her confronting mortality in a surreal blur of slow-motion chaos. Though no one was seriously injured, the crash left a lasting physical and psychological mark, sparking a deep exploration of trauma, fragility, and meaning.

For Laura, who is autistic, the aftermath was particularly intense. PTSD, hyper-awareness, and sensory overload made recovery a daily challenge: “Sometimes I genuinely don’t know how I made it through the day,” she says. The songs on dark secrets reflect this struggle—raw, unsettling, and painfully human. Tracks like “Wanting” and “Little Girl” confront existential questions and past trauma, blending confessional reflection with attempts at acceptance.

Laura’s resilience is rooted in music. Raised in a highly religious household, she learned early to navigate complex belief systems, a theme explored in her previous release, Both Feet In The World, At Least I Can Stand. Touring and performing have long been her outlet, a way to process the battles in her mind. After the accident, she returned to music through exposure therapy, gradually reclaiming the stage and her creative voice.

dark secrets marks a step in Laura’s ongoing journey toward reconciliation with those 24 seconds. Recovery is non-linear, but through creation, performance, and connection, she finds a sense of understanding and communion. Her music is not just art—it is survival, witness, and a bridge to the world beyond trauma.

She previously served as a School and Public Programs Educator at The National Music Centre and brings over nineteen years of private music teaching experience to her practice. Beyond her solo work, she is a member of the Western Canadian Music Award-winning art rock band 36?, and co-owner of the boutique guitar pedal company 36? Circuits. Her expansive career embodies the transformative power of vulnerability, experimentation, and artistic risk-taking.