Sundog: Banff Musicians in Residence Participant Concert

Formed in Montréal, Trio Timia unites three musicians whose artistry is driven by curiosity, sincerity, and imagination. The ensemble takes its name from the Greek word timia—meaning “truth” and “honesty”—and the Korean phrase “we are a team.”

As winners of the bronze medal at the 2025 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Trio Timia have established themselves amongst the rising stars of this generation. The trio will continue to develop their creative output as ensemble-in-residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, featuring the premiere of a new work by Canadian composer Yejin Kwon as part of their project “Second Attempts: Music of Persistence in Exile, Recovery, and Transformation.”

Trio Timia is currently mentored by violinist Violaine Melançon and also works regularly with André Laplante, Jinjoo Cho, Jean Marchand, Guillaume Sutre, and Elizabeth Dolin. Trio Timia has also studied at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance with Steven Isserlis and at the Flaine Music Academy in France, supported by Jeunesses Musicales du Canada (Aida Fund).

Marked by raw intensity, wholehearted expression, and boundless creative potential, Trio Timia brings performances that captivate through their vitality and humanity.

June Lee was generously supported by the David and Peggy Leighton Endowment.

François Lamontagne began his cello studies with David Ellis at the Conservatoire de Musique de Saguenay and then at McGill University under the tutelage of Elizabeth Dolin, where he has received the “Student Excellence Award” scholarship and the Frank Mills Prize. In 2022, he earned his bachelor’s degree with the distinction of “outstanding achievement in cello performance” and his master’s degree, in 2025.

Since 2025, François is principal cellist in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Symphony Orchestra and assistant-principal the Orchestre symphonique de l’Estuaire. He also plays with the Orchestre de l’Agora and the Orchestre symphonique de Québec.

François has distinguished himself in various competitions, such as the Festival du Royaume and the Canadian Music Competition. He won the “Jeunes solistes” competition of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Youth Orchestra. In 2018, he was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal and the Governor General’s Medal as part of his collegial diploma at the conservatory.

Passioned about chamber music, he studied string quartet under the guidance of renowned ensembles such as the Alban Berg string quartet, Quatuor Ébène, and Quatuor Danel at the McGill International Sring Quartet academy. François has also played internationally in the Fischoff Competition (USA), the Schiermonnikoog Festival (Netherlands), and the Trondheim Chamber Music Academy in Norway.

François Lamontagne was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

Israeli pianist Itamar Prag began his piano studies at the Givatayim Conservatory of Music under the guidance of Hannah Shalgi and later attended the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts. He served as an “outstanding musician” in the Israel Defense Forces and continued his training at the Buchmann–Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University in the class of Prof. Arie Vardi. Prag is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music degree in piano performance at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, studying with Kyoko Hashimoto and André Laplante. Past teachers also include Ilya Poletaev, Asaf Zohar, Vadim Monastyrski, and Daria Monastyrski.

Prag maintains a vibrant career as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician. He made his solo debut at age eleven with the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble and has since performed with orchestras in Israel and abroad under conductors such as Yoel Levi, Lahav Shani, Frederic Chaslin, Omer Wellber, Vag Papian, and Alexis Hauser.

He is a member of Trio Timia, winners of the third prize at the 2025 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Prag has appeared in recitals across Europe, North America, and Israel, and is a recipient of scholarships from the America–Israel Cultural Foundation and the Ronen Foundation.

Itamar Prag was generously supported by the Sir Jack Lyons Scholarship for the Arts.

Amy Hillis has “a rich, warm sound and has mastered the violin with such ease, that it is impossible to ignore her passion in performance” (Ludwig Van Montréal). She challenges artistic norms to build community relationships inside and outside the concert hall. As a soloist, Amy has commissioned Canadian works by Luis Ramirez, Matt Brubeck, Fjóla Evans, Gabriel Dufour-Laperrière, Laurence Jobidon, Vincent Ho, Andrew Staniland, Jocelyn Morlock, Nicole Lizée, Carmen Braden, Randolph Peters and Jordan Pal. She is winner of the Pan-Canadian Recital Tour, the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, the Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank competition on two occasions, an artistic residency at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the McGill Concerto Competition, and the Sylva Gelber Foundation Music Award. A passionate chamber musician, she is a founding member of the meagan&amy duo with pianist, Meagan Milatz, and the Horizon String Quartet (HSQ) which has performed over 200 schools shows for young audiences across Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Amy is currently Associate Professor of Community Music at York University and the Artistic Director of the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. amyhillis.com

Amy Hillis was generously supported by the Lewitt Family Foundation Artist Award.

Hillary Bonhomme is a performer and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently working on a musical trilogy and corresponding graphic notations. Her work is influenced by Nina Simone, Meredith Monk, Phillip Glass, and Beverly Glenn-Copeland.

She enjoys collaborations with choreographers, filmmakers, and podcast-makers. She aims to use music as a 'third space' and social cavern in a divided world. Hillary has participated in residencies in the US and abroad. She was a recipient of the Pablo Vela Memorial Scholarship to participate in the Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble Program, where she developed her skills in experimental composing styles and furthered her interest in cultivating community through music. Based in New York’s thriving arts and culture scene, she additionally opts to present her work in spaces not catered to live music. She has been a featured act in art exhibitions, theatre festivals, and city gardens.

As a singer and multi-instrumentalist, her original compositions are currently being performed solo with looping, vocal fx, synths, keys, hand drums, and guitar. She has created 'glacial humming,' where her pieces serve as a curriculum for a music-social experience conducted by Hillary. The mission of 'glacial humming' is to achieve higher levels of consciousness around connection through musical play.

Hillary Bonhomme was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

Originally from Bloomington, Illinois, Miguel Velasco is a fifth-year student at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, pursuing both a BM in Clarinet Performance and a BA in Computer Science. During his undergraduate career, Miguel studied under Dr. Andy Hudson and David Bell, along with masterclasses with Michael Lowenstern, Alica Lee, Zachary Good, and Eric Mandat. Miguel is a part of multiple highly regarded chamber ensembles, one of which was previously invited to play a recital at the International Clarinet Association Lowfest in Glendale, AZ, in January 2025.

Along with his musical endeavors, Miguel also works year-round at State Farm Insurance as a Senior Software Engineer Intern, working on the MyAccounts page of the statefarm.com website. When not working or practicing, Miguel enjoys cooking, competing in fighting game tournaments, collecting retro consoles, and weightlifting.

Miguel Velasco was generously supported by the Richard and Sidney Killmer Oboe Endowment Fund.

Garrett Myers is a saxophonist and educator who believes in music’s power to tell stories and create community. Originally from central Minnesota, he began playing saxophone at age 11 and quickly discovered its ability to convey a wide spectrum of emotions. Over the years, he has developed a deep appreciation for the instrument’s versatility in expressing the human spirit. Garrett recently graduated from the Lawrence Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and now performs throughout the Midwest as both a soloist and ensemble musician. His recent appearances include a solo performance with the Manitowoc Wind Ensemble, and he is a recipient of a DownBeat Student Music Award.

Equally devoted to teaching and performing, Garrett strives to create musical experiences that feel communal. He plans to continue his studies through master’s and doctoral degrees in music, deepening his artistry while inspiring and supporting future generations of musicians. Outside of music, Garrett is an avid outdoors enthusiast who enjoys climbing, hiking, biking, and skiing. Whether on stage or in the classroom, he hopes to share moments of honesty, joy, and connection through his music.

Garrett Myers was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

Robyn Jacob is a composer, pianist, vocalist and educator living and working from the unceded territories of the Sḵwxwú7mesh, Xwməθkwəyəm and Səl’il’wətaʔ Nations, also known as Vancouver. She has written music for ensembles such as Grammy winning Third Coast Percussion (Chicago),Architek Percussion (Montreal), Grammy winning Sō Percussion (Brooklyn), Chor Leoni (Vancouver), and the Victoria Symphony, and has collaborated with visual artists and instrument makers. Her avant-pop project Only a Visitor (Mint Records) has toured internationally and released four albums to date. She has released two albums with her duo project The Giving Shapes in collaboration with harpist Elisa Thorn. Her new solo project Immix explores the emotive narratives of voice and electronics. From 2012 - 2024 she was part of the multi-disciplinary art collective Publik Secrets, whose work included a variety of public space interventions, performances, installations and ephemeral gatherings, including Gamelan Bike Bike, which she co-led with artist and composer George Rahi for over ten years.

Robyn Jacob was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

Praised by La Libre Belgique as an “expressive, fine chamber musician,” pianist Charlotte Tang actively performs across North America. Named a laureate of the Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges (2024), Charlotte’s passion for early 19th-century music is well-recognized. Her recent highlights include residencies at the Banff Centre and Orford Musique, fellowship at the Gilmore Piano Festival, and performances at the Historical Keyboard Society of North America and Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards. She is looking forward to the Emerging Artist Showcase at the Early Music America Summit (Oct 2025).

Charlotte believes that music and art are integral to our development as a society, and are particularly crucial to the growth of the younger generation. She values opportunities to contribute to their artistic and pedagogical development through her work as a scholar–performer and teacher. Her research focuses on instrumental affordances as reflected in early 19th-century piano compositions, which she has passionately shared in conferences. As a pedagogue, she is a regular guest for masterclasses at universities and music communities in Ontario.

Charlotte has been mentored by Elisabeth Wright and David Breitman on the historical piano, and James Parker, Roberto Plano, and the late Marietta Orlov on the modern piano.

Charlotte Tang was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

KALAISAN KALAICHELVAN is a composer and musician based in New York. His compositional practice spans multiple disciplines, drawing from film, dance, theatre, installation and deals with themes of translation and transference.

Named by Ludwig Van as one of “six emerging Canadian composers to keep an eye on” and Playback’s 10 to Watch, his music has been performed and premiered by celebrated ensembles such as Glenn Gould New Music Ensemble, the Dior Quartet, NMC Ensemble and Extended Music Collective. He has held residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, NewAm Composers Lab, UCross Foundation, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Kalaisan is a 2021 Fellow of the Sundance Composers lab and is one of the awarded grantees of the Sundance Institute’s Art of Practice Fellowship. He was awarded the SOCAN Emerging Composer Award in 2023 and 2024. He was also awarded the esteemed Kathleen McMorrow Award by the Ontario Arts Foundation in 2024 for the composition and presentation of contemporary classical music in Ontario. In 2023, Kalaisan wrote the music for the film In Flames, which was selected as the Pakistani entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards. Kalaisan has scored feature films that have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. He is currently working on various commissions and scoring a new Netflix series directed by Simon Barry.

Kalaisan has been mentored by esteemed composers and music leaders such as Christopher Cerrone, Huang Ruo, Suzanne Farrin, Brian Current, Paul Wiancko and David Harrington of Kronos Quartet. Having worked across various disciplines and communities of thought, Kalaisan seeks to bring together incongruous institutions to build novel structures that reflect his artistic upbringing.

Kalaisan Kalaichelvan was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

Theresa Thordarson’s boundless creative drive springs from a lifetime of musical risk-taking. Growing up in rural Manitoba, Theresa experienced an environment where the classical canon was just one of many influences. Her curiosity has led her to explore unexpected connections across disparate musical worlds. Her creations embrace playful pastoral poetry, subtle and surprising harmonies, and memorable melodies.

Theresa performs traditional, contemporary, and original music as a pianist/keyboardist, collaborator, and vocalist. Highlight performances include concerts for Westben’s Performer-Composer Residency in Campbellford ON, Winnipeg Baroque Festival, Send and Receive, Winterruption, Nuit Blanche Winnipeg, and Lethbridge’s Centric Festival. She also sings, synths, and writes adventurous pop music as one half of the duo Bicycle Face with guitarist Ava Glendinning, and released a solo chamber-folk album entitled ‘revery’ in 2024 under the name theresa thor.

A passionate educator, Theresa instructs with a flexible, student-centred approach. She has served as a sessional instructor and collaborative pianist at Brandon University and the State University of New York, Fredonia.

Theresa makes her home in Winnipeg where she hosts a lively teaching studio, many plants, and a blossoming house show series: “Closer Concerts”.

Theresa Thordarson was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

Highly interested in the solo and chamber repertoires of the XX and XXI centuries, the Brazilian pianist Alice Belém has already performed in Brazil, Portugal and Germany. She has recorded works of emerging and emblematic Brazilian contemporary composers for the projects ‘Brazilian Music’s Memory’, ‘Listen Here Festival’ and ‘I would like to hear...’. She has also premiered works and developed collaborations with composers from Latin America, United States and Japan.

Since 2022, Alice Belém has been developing interdisciplinary concerts joining music, video, dance and literature, aiming to rethinking the traditional concert experience. By collaborating with other performers, composers, video makers and dancers, Alice Belém aims to incorporate new creative methods and refresh her own performance skills through an interdisciplinary approach. Other key themes in her current work include the experimentation of extended piano techniques and reimagining works by other composers through contemporary lens.
Alice Belém concluded her PhD at the Music Department of the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil, and attended a Split-site doctoral program at the Cologne University of Music in Germany. She is currently a Professor at the School of Music of the State University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, where she teaches Piano, Chamber Music and Contemporary Music Performance.

Alice Belém was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

Laura Roy is a Canadian artist, musician, and Grammy-nominated songwriter originally from Nova Scotia. Blending soulful melodies with introspective storytelling and contemporary r&b and folk influences, she has built a distinctive presence in the music industry. A 2x ECMA (East Coast Music Award) winner, she gained recognition with her breakthrough EP Forte, followed by Tides and Odyssey, which showcased her evolving artistry. Her songwriting and vocals landed her a cut on Doja Cat’s “Alone” Planet Her album, gaining a Grammy nomination.

After being based in London, UK since 2017, Laura splits her time between the UK and her home in Canada. She has worked as a vocalist and songwriter with major artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Dua Lipa, Anne-Marie, Camila Cabello, Mabel, Jordan Rakei, Lianne La Havas and JP Cooper.

With her unmistakable voice, emotive lyricism, and a gift for crafting melodies that resonate, Laura Roy continues to establish herself as one of contemporary music’s most compelling talents.

Laura Roy was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

I grew up in an environment where women’s singing voices were restricted, yet I always dreamed of sharing my voice freely with the world. This desire became the foundation of my artistic journey. Rooted in the folk traditions of Azerbaijani music, I was surrounded by melodies that carried the history, emotions, and resilience of my culture. These songs, often marginalized and forgotten, became my strongest source of inspiration. Singing them allowed me to both preserve cultural memory and express my deepest emotions. Over the years, I have released an album that reinterprets Azeri folk songs with contemporary arrangements, blending piano and clarinet with my voice. My goal is to revive these traditions while creating a bridge to global audiences. For me, music is more than performance—it is a universal language of freedom and connection.

Ooldouz Pouri was generously supported by the Banff Centre Endowment.

Rebekka Homburg is a Berlin-based sound engineer, combining practical expertise in recording with academic research in musical acoustics and music psychology. She completed her diploma studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with an Erasmus term at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Her recording experience includes collaborations and internships with renowned institutions such as msm-productions in Singapore, the Verbier Festival Academy and Teldex Studio Berlin, alongside numerous independent projects. With a background in violin and voice, she brings a holistic perspective to performance and production and is committed to fostering inclusive structures within the field. Her professional approach is defined by a pursuit of the highest sound quality, an empathetic working style, and the faithful capture of artistic intent.

In addition to her production work, she has engaged in research in music psychology and acoustics at the Technical University of Berlin, enriching her practice with a deeper understanding of listening and perception. Her diploma thesis explored the influence of room acoustics on the perception of music, integrating methods from both natural sciences and music psychology. As a scholar of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, she was recognized for academic excellence and curiosity.

Paulin ROMAN, is a master student in Sound Engineering at the Paris Conservatoire since 2022. Mostly interested in acoustic music recording and spatial audio creation, he also pursues musicology studies in his goal to become an informed artistic director. He still practices the saxophone, his instrument, from classical training to Balkan traditional music, across all genres and aesthetics, as he is firmly attached to the act of musicing as a universal way of communicating.

Born in Chamonix Mt-Blanc, France; he keeps a physical attachment to outdoor sports, mountain landscapes, and nature, in which he thrives, as triathlon training is his main hobby outside of his music interests.

Before entering the Paris Conservatoire, he studied contemporary music composition and analysis through electroacoustic music, in Annecy – France - which initiated his dedication to spatial and sensorial composition as he founds it to be a deep source of inspiration and a still not fully explored way to convey music and creation to the audience.