Alexandre Roux-Dufort stands out in Montreal as a rising talent in saxophone, composition, and arrangement. In 2023, he made his mark on the international stage by winning first place in the Léopold Bellan International Competition in Paris. Alexandre has been lauded as a “saxophonist and composer who has the wind in his sails” (ULaval Nouvelles). 

Raised in France, Alexandre has performed at festivals in Europe and Canada (Cap Ferret Music Festival, Québec Jazz en Juin) and collaborated with renowned artists such as the Lost Fingers, clarinetist Virginia MacDonald and pianist Rafael Zaldivar. As a saxophonist and arranger, he also works with the Montrealbased producer Teuteu, the gypsy jazz Delasalle Trio, and the gender-inclusive big band Jazz Coven. 

His playing experiences have shaped a distinctive approach to composition. Alexandre strives to create a sensitive and personal musical universe by exploring soundscapes that straddle the line between jazz and impressionism. The stylistic hybridization results in music that is streamlined, calm, and colorful. With Yannick Anctil on piano, Alex Le Blanc on bass, and Guillaume Pilote on drums, his quartet released its debut single titled Small Place in early 2024. 

Alexandre Roux-Dufort was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

alejandra borzyk is a Spanish-Belgian saxophonist, composer, performer, and writer based in Brussels. They are mainly active as a musician at the core of the creative and improvised music scene of the city. They are part of projects such as “Sound of Brussels Orchestra,” a collective creation directed by Fabrizio Cassol and Adèle Viret; the octet “I’m not done cooking” by Lara Humbert; and collaborates with artists such as Samuel Ber, Cyrille Obermüller and Diogo Alexandre.  Since 2022, they lead their quartet “bodies”, with whom they released two EPs independently, and performed in prestigious venues such as Ancienne Belgique and Flagey, being a milestone of the city’s emerging bands. They have as well a solo performance, where they explore movement, circular breathing, extended techniques and breath art. 

Although the majority of their professional work is in music, their artistic vision and creation span multiple disciplines: slam poetry, theater and performance, with a strong connection to the body and movement in their playing and approach to saxophone. Their research and writing focuses on the link between improvisation and sexuality from a feminist standpoint. 

Alejandra Borzyk was generously supported by the John Linn Memorial Endowment.

Cellist, improviser and composer Adèle Viret (born in 1999) is described as one of the most promising young musicians of her generation. Her singular musical universe was revealed with the creation in 2023 of her very first project, Adèle Viret Quartet, winner of numerous awards (Euroradio Jazz Competition 2024, FoRTE 2024) as well as laureate of the Jazz Migration scheme in 2023. The group has performed at renowned venues such as Jazz in Marciac (FR), Bimhuis (NL), Nuoro Jazz Fes val (IT) and was selected for the Jazzahead! 2025 showcase. The quartet’s debut album Close to the Water, released in October 2024, won the Jazz Magazine’s Revelation and Jazz News’s Indispensable awards. 

From an early age, Adèle studied classical cello at the Montreuil Conservatory, and went on to perfect her skills at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 2023. At the same time, she started playing in improvised music, jazz and world music projects, performing alongside such luminaries as Magic Malik, Fabrizio Cassol, B.C. Manjunath, João Barradas. 

Lulled from an early age by the music of her father, a jazz double-bass player, she quickly developed a sense of improvisation and composition. Her curiosity drives her to join and initiate projects mixing aesthetics and disciplines (dance, literature, theater). In 2019, she created n’Être, a cello and dance duet whose music and choreography are jointly composed by the two artists. That same year, she joined the Medinea network, which brings together young artists from the Mediterranean basin to compose collectively an original repertoire under the mentorship of Fabrizio Cassol. Deeply influenced by the experience of intercultural creation, she created her own collective; Mosaïc in the company of Bulgarian, French, Portuguese and Tunisian musicians whose first album will be released in 2026. More recently she became co-leader of the trio Notes on the memory of notes, with Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch and Fabrizio Cassol. 

Besides her personal projects, she is playing as side-woman in diverse bands : Abhra (from Julien Pontvianne), Kaija String Quartet and internationally with Jawa Manla in the Netherlands, Zé Almeida’s quartet and Apophenia in Portugal as well as occasional guest for Aka Moon (Belgium). 

Alongside her instrumental practice, she was commissioned to compose a piece for solo cello by Les Ateliers du Violoncelle (2023 edition) and in 2025, the Klara Festival (Belgium) asked her to join the “Sounds of Brussels” project, assisting Fabrizio Cassol as artistic co-director.  

Adèle is a laureate of FoRTE (2023), Académie Musicale de Villecroze (2018) and the Prix Marion Bourgine awarded by the Jazz in Marciac summer camp (2017). She received the SACEM fund for auto-production (2025). Adèle is endorsed by Gewa.

Adèle Viret was generously supported by the Fondation David R. Graham Award.

Niran Dasika is a trumpeter, improvisor, and composer based in Melbourne, Australia whose work encompasses jazz, free improvisation, and electronic music. Niran leads an active performing career around Australia and across Japan where he lived for several years. He has released eight albums as a band leader, including the latest ‘Life Forms’ (2025). 

Niran’s live solo performances augment his distinctive trumpet sound with live sampling and processing to create mesmeric, hypnotic patterns underneath his lyrical trumpet playing. Niran’s electronic music releases “Endless Spring, Infinite Summer” and “Assorted Drone Music Vol. 1-3” have explored an expanding sonic world of synthesisers, drum machines and lo-fi electronica. 

Outside of his music practice, Niran works as a music educator, mental health worker and disability support worker.

Niran’s work has been recognised by a number of awards including:

• 2017 National Jazz Awards - 2nd Place
• 2019 Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year - winner
• 2019 APRA AMCOS Professional Development Award - winner
• 2020 Freedman Jazz Fellowship - finalist 

Niran Dasika was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Lawrence Folvig is an Australian born guitarist, bassist, composer and improvisor currently based in Melbourne Australia. Since the early 2000’s Lawrence performed on guitar in the Melbourne Jazz and Improvised music scene with various artists including David Tolley, Ren Walters, Shannon Barnett, James Macauley, Barney McCall, Eamon McNelis, Lachlan McLean, Andrea Keller, Sam Anning, Kyrie Anderson and Niran Dasika. From 2010 to 2020 Lawrence collaborated with Australian singer songwriter Ainslie Wills. The pair co-wrote and produced Ainslie’s debut LP You Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine which was nominated for the Australian Music Prize in 2013. Some notable performances together include supporting Leon Bridges (US), Hiatus Kaiyote (AU), Michael Kiwanuka (UK), Lianne La Havas (UK), Tom Chaplin (UK), Bernard Fanning (AU) as well as festivals including The Great Escape Festival (UK), Reeperbahn Festival (EU), Womadelaide, Falls Festival, and Dark MoFo. 

Lawrence’s recent work includes performing with LIIT, Phosphorescent (US) Australian Art Orchestra and Kutcha Edwards, Megan Washington, Ben Abrahams and Kurt Rainbow. In January 2023 he released Revelate, an EP of original compositions for solo baritone guitar and in 2024 Lawrence released ‘bloom into’ is an electroacoustic solo guitar EP consisting of three improvised pieces that incorporate extended techniques, real-time effects processing and the integration of metal and wooden objects to extend the timbral range of the electric guitar.  

Lawrence Folvig was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Hailing from Australia, Kyrie graduated with First Class Honours in Jazz performance from the University of Adelaide. Now based in Melbourne, she stands as one of the country’s most sought-after drummers, both on stage and in the studio. 

Her career as a sought-after session musician has led her to collaborate with a diverse array of national and international artists, from Russian feminist icons Pussy Riot to North America’s Basia Bulat and Rachel Baiman, as well as Australian talents like Julia Jacklin, Emma Donovan, Odette, Thndo, Kutcha Edwards, Barney Mcall, and more. 

Kyrie is a regular collaborator with notable artists such as Sam Anning, Andrea Keller, The Maes, Rowena Wise, Harry Angus, Nancy Bates, Australian Art Orchestra, Stephen Magnusson, Tom West, Siberian Tiger, Libby ODonovan, and many others. Her musical journey has taken her around the globe, gracing stages at numerous festivals including Breminale, Reeperbahn Festival, Woodford, Womadelaide, National Folk festival and more. Kyrie wears multiple musical hats, co-leading jazz group Aura (ABC Jazzs album of the week, Bandcamps new and notable, and the best Jazz on Bandcamp; February 2021), ThenNowWhen featuring Sam Anning & Theo Carbo and LIIT with Niran Dasika and Lawrence Folvig.

Kyrie Anderson was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Sam Little is a bassist, composer, artist, and community organizer splitting time between Toronto and Winnipeg, Canada. He is actively involved in both cities’ jazz and creative music communities and is deeply committed to both artist practice and community education. After returning from an extended engagement in Paris, Sam has been active recording and performing, and is poised to release several new recordings, forthcoming in Fall of 2025. Sam has also been an active collaborator in a range of projects including Winnipeg based alt-pop project Bluebløøds, hip-hop band Super Duty Tough Work, trap-jazz band Game.Set.Trap. 

Sam’s involvement in art bridges the two, sometimes distinct, worlds of theory and praxis, acknowledging that while there is frequently friction between these approaches, friction can often be creatively generative. As a fellow at Massey College, Sam worked actively to place the disparate worlds of theory, community engagement, and artistic practice in conversation with each other to build bridges across disciplines. 

An active educator, Sam has organized many masterclasses, music salons, and community aimed events through his involvement with both the University of Toronto and Massey College.  

Sam Little was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Patrick O’Reilly is a composer, artist and a community-driven fixture in the Toronto creative music scene. He operates the W/DRWN record label, is co-founder of the Furniture Music composition workshop series, is a contributor to Musicworks Magazine, and co-curates the Second Fridays concert series in partnership with the Canadian Music Centre. 

A sought-after collaborator, he can be found on tour internationally with Senegalese Afro-Pop artist Cheikh Ibra Fam, in Canada with singer-songwriter Just Prince, and art-pop band Language Arts, at Toronto’s Tranzac Club with creative music ensemble Never Was, in Kensington Market with epic-afro-funk trio Wapama, at the University of Toronto running the Large Improvising Ensemble (DOG), and improvising with ad-hoc groups in basements and DIY spaces throughout the GTA.

His latest release, Plastic Babies, is a collaborative album with celebrated improvisers Christine Duncan and Laura Swankey. Produced by Jean Martin and released on the venerable Barnyard Records, the album showcases the trio’s spontaneous and deeply connected musical language.

Patrick holds a Bachelor’s of Contemporary Music from Humber College, and a Master’s of Musical Arts from the University of Toronto where he is a Doctoral candidate. He is a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University.

Patrick O'Reilly was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Photo credit: Mark Senitt

Hinano Fujisaki is a saxophonist, improviser and composer based in Eora/Sydney, Australia.  She just recently released her sophomore EP there is a rabbit on the moon in May this year. This music is an extension of the sounds explored in her debut EP Home Is (People Sound, 2023), where she blends together jazz, improvised, folk and ambient music, weaving folkloric melodies against shifting soundscapes and textures. Hinano recently featured on Simon Barker’s new release, Tymbal Echoes (2025) performing the music at Sydney’s notable Phoenix Central Park. She also performs with jazz quartet Zodiac, who released their album Wild Wild East (ABC Jazz Commission, 2024) and toured in Asia, performing the music in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Tokyo at the start of this year.

In 2024, Hinano was awarded the Judy Bailey Jazz Connection Emerging Composers Scholarship and she has collaborated with directors to compose for short films including Echoes of the Lake by Lonefish Productions (2024) and Essence of You by Mellowminh (2025).  She has completed a Bachelor of Music (Performance) majoring in jazz saxophone at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2021. 

Hinano Fujisaki was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Jasper Craig-Adams is an Eora/Sydney based musician, composer and improviser who performs under monikers: jasper c-a and jasu. Despite a background in guitar-centred studies in jazz, latin-american music and classical, Jasper has worked with a number of bands in the DIY scene of punk, experimental, and folk infused pop. Primary band Daily Toll has released two EP’s and just recently released an album A Profound Non-Event on Tough Love Records (UK), earning attention from BBC 6,  several NTS radio shows as well as community radio stations across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. 

This July 2025 sees Jasper touring Hungary and the United Kingdom with Daily Toll. Jasper also performs experimental improv based music using extended technique on guitar both solo and in collaborations with Hinano Fujisaki (Hinano Fujisaki & jasper c-a), kankan (kankan + jasu) and Mitchell Elliott (withdrawe).

Jasper Craig-Adams was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.