FUSE In Concert

Andrew Bennett was generously supported by the John Linn Memorial Endowment.

Under the artistic alias Factor Eight, Andrew is a multidisciplinary, award-winning experimental artist from Saskatoon who creates cinematic soundscapes using only his voice. His work centres on mental health advocacy, embodied in his philosophy “Fear, My Friend” — accepting and transforming challenging aspects of oneself into sources of creative power rather than suppressing them.

His unique approach toward music has earned significant recognition, including awards, editorial playlist adds, and notable sync placements. With years of experience in commercial landscapes, Factor Eight music has been heard in productions and trailers from major studios such as Paramount, Disney+, A24, MGM, and Apple TV, with credits including Gladiator II and the Oscarwinning Women Talking.

Native Instruments describes his practice as “more than a technical decision […] a personal method built around trust in his own instincts, careful attention to detail, and a long-term vision that ties his music and message together.”

A three-time Saskatchewan Music Award winner and Western Canadian Music Award recipient, Andrew’s work extends beyond music into dance choreography, performance art, and interdisciplinary installation. Through Factor Eight, he connects with audiences across the globe, hoping to inspire connection among those who struggle and a sense of compassion among those who struggle to relate.

Kristin Berardi was generously supported by the Helen Graham Artist Award.

Kristin Berardi and James Williams are two artists with a vision: Cultivating songs anchored by the deep roots of gospel and jazz, drawing vital nutrients from the rich soil of their musical craft to create a meaningful work grounded in storytelling and connection.This new body of work aspires to inspire, uplift and facilitate surrender and heartfelt resonance.

BerWillDirt is a budding partnership of culture transplants. Berardi, an award-winning vocalist from Australia, now residing in Switzerland. Williams, a heavily sought-after touring/session drummer from the USA, now residing in Belgium. Both know the balancing act of migration, integration, and parenting while artists - each with two kids of their own.

Lived experiences surround the music: making mistakes, learning, trying again, loss, love - all the many facets of what life brings us. They long to offer to others what music has given to them: a safe place to feel and be one’s self.

Nicolás Castañeda Lozano was generously supported by the Ken and Marie Madsen Endowment Scholarships.

Nicolás Castañeda Lozano is an award-winning Colombian harpist and composer representing a new wave of Hispanic American musicians who balance innovation with tradition. Born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1989, he has dedicated his career to expanding the artistic possibilities of the arpa llanera, developing a contemporary sonic identity through genre-crossing composition and improvisation.

Mr. Castañeda’s work has been presented at international festivals and academic engagements, including Florida State University (USA), Somerset Folk Harp Festival (New Jersey), Nomads Festival (Helsinki, Finland), and Sonamos Latinoamérica (Copenhagen, Denmark), among others. His performances reflect a commitment to dialogue between Colombian traditions and global music practices.

He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he earned his Cum Laude degree in Jazz Composition. His first EP, Renacer, showcases the harp’s versatility through original works that blend folk, jazz, and contemporary music. He is currently developing his second album, featuring solo pieces and ensemble collaborations.

In addition, Mr. Castañeda’s master’s research at the Sibelius Academy, Uniarts Helsinki investigates creative musical notation systems designed to support intercultural collaboration without limiting artistic identity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Colombia and comparative analysis of notation methods, his work proposes approaches that foster shared creative ownership across cultures.

Adanya Dunn was generously supported by the Carolyn Tavender Endowment.

Adanya Dunn (she/they) is a Canadian-Bulgarian opera singer (mezzo-soprano), interdisciplinary artist, and creative entrepreneur. As a singer, Adanya’s performed with the Canadian Opera Company (Sulie/Suzie in Pomegranate, premiere - Marshall/Hale), Santa Fe Opera (Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Barbara Hannigan (Soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Mallarmé), Warsaw Chamber Opera (Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito), City Opera Vancouver (Anna in Sophia’s Forest, Canadian premiere - Moscovitch/Beecher), and Festival 20-21 (Berio’s Sequenza III).

Beyond the stage, Adanya is a curator, creator, and producer. Their work and practice is rooted in queer embodiment, community, and a commitment to collaboration across disciplines and identities. They are the co-founder of two different Amsterdam-based organizations: HXSSY and Red Light Arts & Culture (RLAC, est. 2020), a not-for-profit foundation that connects residents, local businesses, artists, site-specific locations, and social organizations, promoting and enriching the area’s cultural diversity.

Adanya composes classical/electronic music, writes poetry, paints watercolour, builds and designs websites, does photography, and performs pole, burlesque, and contact dance. They are a 500hr Yoga Teacher and are currently completing a multi-year Alexander Technique-based Yoga training.

www.adanyadunn.com & www.redlightartsandculture.com

Ian Foster was generously supported by the Frelyn Memorial Endowment.

Ian Foster is a multidisciplinary artist and composer from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. A multiple MusicNL and ECMA Award Winner, including Sound on Screen Composer of the Year (2025), he has released eleven albums of original material and toured all over North America and Europe. He has composed for award winning short films and features that have premiered at TIFF, The Atlantic Film Festival and others. His score for SONS was the most streamed film on the National Film Board’s website in 2025. He was recently commissioned by CBC Radio to develop music for the 2025 Canada Games, and will present a unique sonic exhibition at multiple Canadian art galleries in 2026. He remains committed to a lifelong journey in sound and image. 

More at www.ianfoster.ca and naracommunity.ca

Heidi Gielczynsky was generously supported by the Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists Scholarship.

Heidi Giel (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1991) is a pianist, accordionist, and composer. A graduate of the Escuela de Música de Buenos Aires and student of prominent mentors, she creates, performs, and records her own works while also participating in collective and orchestral projects. Her practice explores jazz, electronic music, tango, free improvisation, and real-time composition.

She has performed at venues such as ArtLab, Palacio de la Cultura, Planta Inclán, Tecnópolis, Teatro Margarita Xirgu, Teatro Colón, and Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires. Between 2013 and 2017, she studied film direction alongside music, expanding her approach to staging and transforming concerts into performative and installation-based operas.

This interdisciplinary approach is reflected in her long-term project Arcanas XIII (2019–2024). Her work is best described as “electroacoustic music”, focusing on compositions that can be improvised or fragmented and later processed through pedals or modular systems. Her influences draw from impressionistic sound, which sought to recover a modal, landscape-like, and ritual quality rooted in ancient perceptual worlds.

She currently works as a teacher at UNA (National University of Arts), and as a composer, session musician, producer, and performer for Sonosfera. She is preparing the release of her first solo album, Hora Azul.

Briana Gillet was generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment.

Briana Gillet is a French-American trumpet player and interdisciplinary artist based in Salt Lake City, Utah. An expressive and innovative performer, she is dedicated to creating immersive musical experiences that merge classical and contemporary traditions with electro-acoustic sound, movement, and visual media. Her work centers on collaboration, exploring how music interacts dynamically with space, gesture, and narrative.

A founding member of the Bridger Brass Quintet and a performer with the NYC-based Chrysalis Rock Orchestra, Briana has appeared in concerts and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. She is also a member of the Gillet Trio, whose interdisciplinary concept Project X integrates original music with aerial acrobatics, dance, and film. The project layers live performance with movement and visual design, creating immersive works that examine how narrative unfolds across disciplines through both structured and spontaneous processes.

Briana serves as Adjunct Professor of Trumpet at Utah Valley University and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Trumpet Performance at the University of Utah, where she studies with Dr. Peyden Shelton. She earned her Master of Music degree from Shenandoah Conservatory with Mary Elizabeth Bowden and her bachelor’s degree from Montana State University with Dr. Sarah Stoneback.

Carina Gillet de St Christ was generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment.

Carina Gillet is a multidisciplinary circus artist and musician whose work explores the relationship between movement, musicality, and collaborative creation. Drawn to circus for its inherently interdisciplinary nature, they are interested in how technical virtuosity can support expressive storytelling and contemporary performance.
 

They graduated from the New England Center for Circus Arts with a major in straps and a minor in partner acrobatics. Alongside their circus training, they maintain a strong background in music and often incorporate violin and musical structure into their creative process and performances. As a performer, they have worked as a straps soloist, lyra soloist, general aerialist, violinist, and flyer in both duo and group acrobatics. They have performed with companies including Cirque Dreams, Circus Scorpius, Cirque Us, and Cirque Musica.
 

Their creative practice is shaped by an interest in how rhythm, phrasing, and live sound can influence movement and expand the expressive possibilities of circus. They enjoy collaborative creation and are especially inspired by their work with the Gillet Trio, where they develop contemporary pieces that weave together high-level circus technique and musical sensibility. Through this work, they seek to create performances where music and movement function as equal partners, opening new possibilities for contemporary circus as a deeply collaborative art form.

Jah'Mila was generously supported by the Lockwood Family Endowment Fund for Music.

Meet Jah’Mila, Juno-nominated reggae singer hailing from Kingston, Jamaica, who now calls Nova Scotia home. A beacon for Jamaican music and culture in Atlantic Canada, Jah’Mila's music embodies the spirit of traditional Jamaican roots reggae music, infused with light elements of jazz and soul. Her journey has led her to tour with renowned reggae acts like The Wailers, Black Uhuru, and Groundation to name a few. She has also collaborated with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Nova Scotia honing her skills as a vocalist and a cultural reggae ambassador along the way.

Her Juno nominated debut album, Roots Girl, released in 2022, is a spirited collection of reggae songs that not only honors her cultural roots, but also serves as a platform for social advocacy. Through her music, she champions a vision of a more inclusive, diverse, and supported arts community.

With the unwavering support of her musical team, Jah’Mila stands poised to light up every stage, continuing to captivate hearts and share her music and culture all across the world!

Yejin Kwon was generously supported by the Rebecca Levant Performing Artists' Scholarship.

Yejin Kwon is a Korean composer based in Montreal whose work explores the beauty that emerges at the intersections of genres and cultures. She studied Korean traditional music, classical and contemporary music, electronic music, and music for visual media in Seoul, Paris, and Montréal, alongside academic training in French literature. This cross-cultural background informs an artistic practice shaped by movement between musical traditions, languages, and aesthetic contexts.

For Kwon, the final barline of a score does not signify closure, but an opening. Music becomes a point of departure for performers and listeners, unfolding through interpretation, play, or quiet presence. In this sense, encounters within Fuse: Music Residency 2026 hold particular importance within her ongoing practice.

Her work spans both concert and film music, including the orchestral album Biblioteca, the premiere of White Clad by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the Winnipeg New Music Festival, and her selection as one of seven composers for the Character Market at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montréal.

She is a member of the Association of Canadian Women Composers and an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, and is active as a composer of both concert and film music.

Nicholas Lai was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Nicolai is a computer scientist turned musical professional. Classically trained in both piano and violin, Nicolai has composed piano concertos, string quartets, and scored films, in addition to participating in classical music festivals in both Spain and Austria and a techno-arts residency in Southern California. While in college Nicolai also developed a passion for computer science, publishing AI research, working as a professional software engineer and bioinformatician, and garnering a Webby nomination for his algorithmic explainer Algo Theory.

He composes in a style which distinctly merges both orchestral and electronic elements into a one-of-a-kind sound.

Ben Litzcke was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Ben Litzcke is a BC-based conductor with a particular interest in contemporary wind music. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Island Chamber Winds, a professional touring ensemble based in Victoria. Through Island Chamber Winds, Ben works to make the music of living composers more approachable to audiences.

Ben is the Chair of the Pender Island Concert Society, where he curates diverse seasons featuring musicians from across Canada. He also enjoys teaching school band workshops and guest conducting in community music ensembles.

Ben holds a Master of Music in wind conducting from the University of Victoria, where he also completed a Bachelor of Music on clarinet. He currently lives on Pender Island with his three cats.

Amanda Raquel Martinez was generously supported by the Susan and Graeme McDonald Music Endowment.

Amanda Raquel Martinez is a Puerto Rican interdisciplinary artist drawing from the realms of songwriting, theatre, opera, yoga, circus, astrology, and dance to create multifaceted work. Originally from the Bronx, she has made her home in Chicago's performing arts scene over the last decade, most recently creating an album and presenting some of her original work with Physical Theatre Festival.

Chicago credits include: Circus Quixotic (Actors Gymnasium); Somewhere Over the Border (Teatro Vista); American Mariachi (Goodman Theatre); American Bottom; 33 to Nothing (A Red Orchid Theatre); Ghost Quartet* (Black Button Eyes Productions); La Ruta (Steppenwolf); Big Lake, Big City (Lookingglass Theatre); Cinderella at the Theater of Potatoes (Hypocrites); As You Like It; Love, Loss and What I Wore (First Folio Theatre); For the Love Of (Pride Films and Plays); Even Longer and Farther Away (The New Coordinates); El Stories: The Holiday Train (Waltzing Mechanics.)

Regional Credits include: Kitty Hawk (Adrienne Arsht Center) Frankenstein (The McCarter Theatre in association with Lookingglass Theatre) Pirates of Penzance (Skirball Theatre Center); Resurrecting Wildflowers (HERE: Arts Center); Pirates of Penzance (Pasadena Playhouse); Pirates of Penzance; The Mikado (Olney Theatre Center.)

*Recipient of a Joseph Jefferson Award for her role in this production.

Ryan McGeorge was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Ryan McGeorge is a Nashville based musician, composer, and educator specializing in Euphonium and low brass. As a former member of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band, he performed extensively in chamber, solo, and jazz settings, introducing Jazz Euphonium to the White House where he performed for countless dignitaries. His work has been featured at numerous International Tuba and Euphonium Conferences and festivals, and he has appeared as a guest artist and clinician with ensembles including the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble.

Ryan is known for expanding the expressive role of the euphonium through original compositions, improvisation, and the use of electronic effects. His work explores texture, timbre, and genre blending approaches drawn from jazz, fusion, rock, and experimental music. He has contributed as an arranger and composer to award winning recording projects and has performed across a wide range of collaborative and solo contexts.

Following his transition from military music, Ryan is re-exploring his creative identity and artistic direction. He is currently preparing the release of his debut solo album, Kuranes, a jazz fusion recording of original compositions and arrangements for euphonium and rhythm section, scheduled for release in 2026.

Benjamin Mizrach was generously supported by the Ada Bronstein Endowment Fund.

Ben Mizrach is a saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator based in Brooklyn.

Ben began playing piano at age 5 and saxophone at age 9. In high school he attended the Jazz House Kids summer workshop, where the inspiration of mentors Bruce Williams and Christian McBride would encourage him to study jazz saxophone at New England Conservatory, and physics at Tufts University.

Ben draws from a sprawling palette of influences, from Stephen Sondheim to Anthony Braxton. Alongside creative partner Harrison Clark, Ben wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Almanac – a stage musical exploring the artistic struggles of three black musicians studying at a predominantly white college. The musical, inspired by the work of composer T.J Anderson and American minstrel shows, premiered in Somerville, MA to a sold-out crowd in November of 2021.

In December 2023, Harrison and Ben reunited to develop and produce Orbiting Lovers & Contraband as part of the Office Hours Residency Program at the Kennedy Center. The project explores connections and disconnections - with each other, our environments, our ancestors, and ourselves.

Ben regularly performs in New York with his quartet, Zohar & Adam, and other projects.

He works as an educator at Jazz House Kids NYC, Brooklyn Friends School , and as a private lesson instructor.

Janika Mueller was generously supported by the Michael Davies Scholarship Endowment Fund.

Janika Mueller is a German-Taiwanese Canadian violinist, composer, and interactive multimedia artist based in Vancouver, BC. Her practice sits at the intersection of music, technology, and performance, exploring how real-time data and digital systems can shape immersive musical experiences. Trained classically as a violinist, Janika’s work has evolved toward interactive composition and audiovisual performance, blending acoustic instruments with software-driven environments.

She composes across orchestral, electroacoustic, and popular genres, using tools such as MaxMSP, Logic Pro, and MuseScore to create responsive works that engage both performers and audiences. Her interactive pieces have been presented at UBC Bang! Festivals, and she has collaborated internationally through residencies such as the UBC Laptop Orchestra’s project at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Currently, Janika is developing H-CAT (Heart-Controlled Active Tempo), an interactive system that uses real-time heart-rate data to manipulate musical tempo, pitch, and visual forces, reflecting her interest in embodiment and human-machine interaction. Alongside her artistic practice, she works in digital marketing and strategy within arts organizations, positioning her to bridge experimental music technology with popular media, education, and entertainment.

Janika aims to bring interactive music and multimedia performance into wider cultural and commercial streams.

Liz Page was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

YOU’RE is a creative storyteller based in Brooklyn. Primarily a vocalist and composer, she creates sonic expressions that are influenced by jazz, ambient, folk, and more. YOU’RE often performs her work in tandem with video projections that she designs using digital and film images. As an ethnomusicologist with degrees from the University of Oxford and New York University, YOU’RE also utilizes her research and field recording background to add additional layers of depth to her art.

YOU’RE has created and collaborated on works that have been presented in London (The Tate Modern), Montreal, New Orleans, and more. Her work examines various perspectives, such as the mental effects of familial hierarchy and its social expectations, or a tree’s internal monologue during deforestation. Her desire to self-reflect through different lenses comes from her Soulaani roots, whose traditions she uses throughout her work.

These traditions taught her that we don’t exist to understand and serve only an individual self, but rather try to understand and love all that exists as if we are one collective self. She strives to use her art to communicate this while highlighting the breadth, complexity, and richness of the Soulaani culture itself.

Lily Petrova was generously supported by the Michael Davies Scholarship Endowment Fund.

London-based concert pianist and artistic director Lily Petrova works across performance, improvisation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She has performed at leading venues including the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, and St Martin-in-the-Fields. Her practice spans solo, chamber, and concerto repertoire, alongside projects that reimagine classical performance through contemporary and cross-disciplinary contexts. She is also a member of the Azurite Duo, which most recently won the Piano and Strings Award at the Royal Academy of Music.

Lily regularly collaborates with visual artist Kathy Hinde and is an original member of Flux Ensemble, a contemporary music collective focused on new work and collaborative creation. She regularly improvises live to silent film and continues to expand her performance practice through multimedia, site-responsive, and process-led projects, exploring the integration of sound, image, and narrative.

A prize-winning artist, Lily most recently won the Jacob Barnes Award for a community-based project developed with The Winch charity to form and lead a children’s choir. She is Artistic Director of the Maria Vraka Music Academy and founder of the Muse & Fashion Collective.

Lily is currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music, London, supported by a Leverhulme Scholarship, working with Joanna MacGregor CBE.

Nora Price was generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment.

Nora Price is a dancer, experimental musician, and filmmaker based in Salt Lake City, UT. She trained with the Milwaukee Ballet Academy and Second Company and is currently a Film & Media MFA and Screendance certificate candidate at the University of Utah, from which she also holds a degree in Linguistics. She has been a performing member of SB Dance since 2023.

Most recently, Nora Price has performed on insen scale electric guitar in an improvised trio alongside Dante Lerae and Fezmaster for Yardwork Presents, Onestraw, and Ghost Canyon's "Confluence 2025" Festivella, appears on Cached Media's ensemble audio collage broadcast memo, performed alongside Briana and Carina Gillet for the 2025 International Trumpet Guild Conference, scored Samuel Hanson's thesis work a cat in the classroom, filmed, scored, and edited a reimagining of Ashley Anderson's The Windy Gap on commission for intermodal publication by Utah Poet Laureate Lisa Bickmore's Lightscatter Press, and presented a trio of screendances with live ‘pointeshoegaze’ accompaniment for 801 Salon at Fountain Records.

Her multi-channel screendance and sound installation solo show Arrange Your Tools is presented in the Gittins Gallery February–April 2026, and will be shown in single channel at the 2026 Noori Screendance Festival.

Mehdi Rezania was generously supported by the John W. Kieley Endowment for Emerging Musicians

Mehdi Rezania is a santur performer, composer, and ethnomusicologist whose artistic practice is rooted in Persian classical music and shaped by contemporary intercultural exchange. He holds an MA in music composition as well as an MA and PhD in ethnomusicology. His music explores the expressive, spiritual, and aesthetic dimensions of sound while engaging critically with modern contexts of performance, migration, and cultural memory.

As a performer and composer, Rezania has released five albums in Canada and Iran, spanning Persian classical repertoire and contemporary composition. He is the recipient of the bi-annual Robert M. Stevenson Prize in Composition from the Society for Ethnomusicology and a Global Music Award (silver medal) for composition and original score.

Rezania has played a significant role in shaping Iranian musical life in the diaspora. He has served as music advisor to the Tirgan Festival, music director for Iranian Heritage Day at the Royal Ontario Museum (2011–2014), and music director for the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton (2021–2023). His artistic projects have received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Edmonton Arts Council, and he was awarded the Edmonton Artists Trust Fund in 2023.

Kelly Ruth was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Kelly Ruth is a new media artist based in Treaty 6 territory (Edmonton, Canada). Her early work focused on fibre arts, including plant dyes, felting, and weaving. Her practice has been a long study of the relationship that humans have had with technology through history and imagined futures. With a focus on sound, she has created installations by activating her textiles and tools with microcontrollers and circuits, weaving conductive thread directly into the fabric’s foundation. Since 2020, her work has expanded to include immersive installations featuring self-built environments and spatial audio in 3D, avatar-based virtual worlds. In performance, she uses contact microphones and effects pedals on her weaving loom, spinning wheel, and other fibre related tools to produce live, improvised soundscapes.

Beaver Sheppard was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Born to human parents in 1980s Newfoundland, Beaver Sheppard is a Montreal-based artist whose work hums at the crossroads of folk storytelling and left-field experimentation. Sheppard has cultivated a sound that feels handmade — DIY acoustic textures layered with unexpected sonic detours and mass pop sensibility. With 15 full length records under his belt there’s something for everyone! He has collaborated with many notables: Ricardo Villalobos, Nick Warren, Suki Waterhouse, Ohm Hourani, Kiani Del Valle, Le Matos, Brandt Brauer Frick, Irina Lazeraneau. He is also a Chef and Painter.

Yujing Shi was generously supported by the Lewitt Family Foundation Artist Award.

Yujing Shi is a composer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work explores the intersection of music, movement, and interdisciplinary performance. With a background in classical flute performance, she later expanded her practice through extensive engagement with folk and traditional music across Asia, including studies in India, Mongolia, Tibet, and China. She works with a wide range of instruments and vocal techniques, alongside electronics and live processing.

Her creative practice spans contemporary dance, circus, theatre, installation art, and film, and she is particularly interested in how music interacts with physical movement and narrative. Yujing has performed live and improvised for dance, theatre, and circus productions, as well as composed original scores for interdisciplinary works presented in both studio and festival contexts.

Through collaboration, she seeks to bridge classical training with heritage-based musical languages and contemporary forms, creating work that is both grounded and exploratory. Yujing is drawn to environments that encourage experimentation, collective creation, and cross-disciplinary exchange, and she sees residencies as vital spaces for developing new artistic processes and collaborations.

Jamie Thompson was generously supported by the Harold Crabtree Foundation Endowment.

Jamie Thompson is a multidisciplinary musician, photographer, and member of the Royal Conservatory Flute Faculty since 1994. He founded the acclaimed Urban Flute Project leading to ten seasons of Post-Industrial Classical performances with The Junction Trio at St. Anne's Anglican Church in Toronto.

Recent performances include appearances at X Avant, Exit Points, NFA Flute Convention (Chicago), and New Music Concerts’ Flutes Galore! under the direction of Robert Aitken. Jamie has premiered works by Canadian composers including the music of Patricia Morehead, Brian Abbott, and Frank Horvat, and chamber works dedicated to The Junction Trio by John S. Grey.

Co-editor of the RCM Syllabus and Overtones Series, Jamie adjudicates regularly for major festivals such as Kiwanis, Canadian Contemporary Showcase, and the Indian Summer Music Awards (Milwaukee). He is also a featured speaker at institutions such as Ivey Business School, Sheridan College, and UofT’s Rotman School of Management Creative Industries lecture series.

His photography has been exhibited at CONTACT, Nuit Blanche, and Audiopollination. Recent interdisciplinary collaborations include The Daughter’s Grimoire Literary, publication of 20 Artists 20 Answers, and guest appearances with Ten Tellers at the 2025 Toronto International Storytelling Festival.

Elisa Thorn was generously supported by the Robert L. Jamison Endowment.

Contemporary harpist Elisa Thorn (pronounced eh-lee-sah) makes music that drifts between folk, pop, jazz, post-rock, and experimental traditions—music she likes to think of as good bath-time listening.

Rooted in curiosity and accessibility, her practice embraces unconventional sound worlds while inviting listeners in with warmth and openness. An avid collaborator, Thorn has spearheaded projects including Gentle Party, HUE, and The Giving Shapes, and has contributed to recordings and performances with artists such as Haley Blais, Ora Cogan, Loscil, Khari McClelland, Wallgrin, and Mauvey.

Thorn is currently focused on her solo project, which debuted with her album xiik in November 2025.

Julia Watson was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Julia began her musical journey on violin at age four in Albany, South Western Australia. A childhood immersed in the music of many world cultures, travel and adventure, undoubtedly influenced her musical trajectory. Julia completed Bachelor of music at the University of Western Australia under renowned violinist Paul Wright, and Masters of Research on violin at Edith Cowan University under internationally acclaimed violinist Alexander Da Costa. Julia’s Masters research focused on the collaborative possibilities of Western Art Music, particularly Baroque repertoire, and Middle Eastern musical traditions. Julia trained with today’s leading artists of Tango in 2019, from Buenos Aires, attended Silkroad Ensembles’ Global Music Workshop, and studied with David Darling of Guildhall, London in the art of Classical improvisation. Julia attended a residency at Banff Centre for Creativity, Canada, where she developed her project Subdued performing Bach’s D minor Solo Partita alongside Persian Radif. In 2019 Julia furthered her studies in the Persian Classical system, attending lessons with Kamancheh Master Shervin Mohajer in Tehran, Iran. Julia performs with Perth Symphony Orchestra, Australian Baroque, WA Philharmonic, and Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, and has performed nationally and internationally including tours within Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe, USA and China.

Julia is Artistic Director of Bembina Ensemble, exploring intersections of Middle Eastern and Western Art Music in a multitude of cross-cultural creations that have been delighting and inspiring Perth audiences since the group’s creation in 2021.

James Williams was generously supported by the Helen Graham Artist Award.

Kristin Berardi and James Williams are two artists with a vision: Cultivating songs anchored by the deep roots of gospel and jazz, drawing vital nutrients from the rich soil of their musical craft to create a meaningful work grounded in storytelling and connection. This new body of work aspires to inspire, uplift and facilitate surrender and heartfelt resonance. BerWillDirt is a budding partnership of culture transplants. Berardi, an award-winning vocalist from Australia, now residing in Switzerland. Williams, a heavily sought-after touring/session drummer from the USA, now residing in Belgium. Both know the balancing act of migration, integration, and parenting while artists - each with two kids of their own. Lived experiences surround the music: making mistakes, learning, trying again, loss, love - all the many facets of what life brings us. They long to offer to others what music has given to them: a safe place to feel and be one’s self.

Muse Ye was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Muse Ye is a collaborative pianist, curator, and artistic leader, passionate about connecting with people and exploring humanity through collaboration. Highlights from growing up in New Zealand include being a national finalist in the New Zealand Chamber Music Competition, playing with the Christchurch Symphony orchestra, and touring the country with national choirs.

She relocated to Singapore for her Bachelors degree in piano performance and there she found further creative outlets for expression such as co-producing an original jukebox musical and curating a concert for the senior cohort.

She then moved to Ithaca, New York, to pursue a Masters in collaborative piano and subsequently a second Masters in vocal performance, where she curated concerts and performed across multiple continents.

Muse holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from the University of Michigan, studying with Ana María Otamendi and Martin Katz. Her doctoral work includes research on New Zealand composer Jenny McLeod, a recital program of arrangements dedicated to folk songs, spirituals and well-known classics, and the production of In Search of Her, an interdisciplinary exploration of womanhood through the music of Jake Heggie and Gabriel Fauré.