Taiwo Afolabi is an award-winning researcher, educator, entrepreneur, and chartered director whose career is defined by innovation across diverse global domains. With professional experience in 35 countries across six continents, he provides the strategic governance and executive leadership needed to build and scale impactful organizations in higher education, creative technology, and entertainment. Afolabi possesses deep expertise in executive strategic advising, board governance, and corporate leadership.

As Founder of Emissary Group (EG), a conglomerate providing services across knowledge, culture, and the creative industries, he manages major corporate decisions. Under his leadership, EG built viable products and services and developed partnerships that better positioned the company for profitability. His current and past board appointments include Director, Mass Culture (Canada), where he served on the governance committee and contributed to the development of the organization's social enterprise initiative. As Board Chair of Common Weal Community Arts (Canada), he led sustainable financial initiatives and managed executive and artistic director recruitment; as Co-President of the UNESCO International Theatre Institute's Network of Emerging Arts Professionals, he led rebranding initiatives and strategic planning to mobilize engagement across 56 member states. He directed rebranding initiatives and strategic planning to mobilize engagement across 56 member states. He successfully operationalized the leadership transition plan.

Afolabi is driven by research and innovation. A Canada Research Chair in Socially Engaged Theatre and a 3M National Teaching Fellow, Afolabi is recognized for post-secondary educational leadership and teaching excellence. He founded and directs the Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (C-SET) and has established partnerships with over 10 global institutions. He served as a consultant to organizations such as the University of Regina, Rugby Canada, the British Columbia (BC) Government BIPOC Employee Resource Group, and the Saskatchewan Arts Board. He was part of the team that led the University of Regina's 10-year strategic plan (2026-2036). He regularly contributes to international media outlets and hosts the Glocal Voices and Excellence with a Soul™ Re:Frame podcasts. Additionally, he serves as an appointed mentor for the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, guiding doctoral scholars through 2027.

Finally, Afolabi holds a PhD in Applied Theatre from the University of Victoria. His professional designations include Chartered Director (C.Dir) from McMaster University, Administrateur de sociétés certifié (ASC) from Université Laval, and MBA Essentials from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA), Salzburg Global, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College (MRSC). He is an alumnus of the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference (GGCLC).
 

Jen Randall is an editor and director who aims to empower, entertain and challenge viewers with emotive narratives and a quiet sense of play. She loves digging deep into intimate, character-driven stories and, for well over a decade, has focused on the adventure documentary world where she believes outdoor pursuits provide a stellar backdrop for exploring deep human experiences.

Her films have been broadcast, distributed across international cinemas and awarded major prizes at mountain film festivals. In her own time, she can be found climbing and exploring the mountains around Squamish with a stills camera in hand, or trying to learn how to be a gardener in her back yard

Bosco is a lighting and set/space designer and builder. His interest is in work that involves bodies and movement, how light feeds across, and can influence a space. In 2016 he co-founded ADDITIVE, a collaborative lighting design company.  He is the recipient of 3 Green Room awards for visual design. He has worked with large contemporary dance companies, intimate projects and individual artists, theatre works as well as designing and installing lighting for public spaces
Projects include; Antony Hamilton - Meeting. Tim Darbyshire - More or Less Concrete. Dance North - Attractor. Chunky Move - It Cannot Be Stopped, Token Armies, 4/4. All The Queens Men - Congress, Coming Back out Ball, Playdate. Lucy Guerin Inc. - Pendulum. Stephanie Lake - Double Blind, Replica, Colossus, Manifesto, The Chronicles. The Australian Ballet - Circle Electric. Luke George - Erotic Dance, Asia TOPA - XO State, Mel Lane - Nightdance, Arkadia. Mona Foma - Faux Mo 2018/2019/2020. Dark Mofo - Night Mass 2018. Zoe Barry - The Nervous Atmosphere. Alex Harrison/Paea Leach - The Difficult Comedown.

Harriet, based in Melbourne, Australia, designs and creates costumes for dance, opera, musicals and theatre. She has designed for contemporary dance companies and artists across Australia such as Stephanie Lake Company, Lucy Guerin Inc, Sydney Dance Company, Chunky Move, and Dancenorth. She has designed several productions for Victorian Opera, winning a Green Room Award for one of her designs for VO in 2011. She has also designed musicals and circus/ physical theatre performances, contemporary performances and theatre pieces.

Blending the raw fire of blues guitar with the polish and punch of modern pop, Jimi is quickly establishing herself as one of the most compelling new voices in contemporary music. A gifted guitarist and songwriter, she channels the soul and grit of her influences into a sound that feels both timeless and forward-leaning.

With over 600,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, Jimi has cultivated a dedicated audience drawn to her electrifying playing, magnetic personality, and genre-defying songwriting. Fans come for the riffs and stay for the songs — music that connects across generations with its emotional depth and infectious hooks.

Jimi has already proven her ability to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of music’s greats. She’s shared the stage with The Black Crowes, Def Leppard, blues phenom Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and rising country star Cameron Whitcomb, while also benefiting from the guidance of a mentorship with Bryan Adams.

Poised at the intersection of artistry and momentum, Jimi is more than an artist on the rise — she’s building a movement. With her catalog ready to launch and her audience growing daily, Jimi stands ready to bring her unique sound from the screen to the stage and beyond.

jimisound.ca
Jimi on Instagram

Pouya is a five-time Juno-nominated engineer, producer, musician, and composer based in Toronto, Ontario. He holds a Master’s degree in Sound Recording from McGill University, where he studied with Richard King and George Massenburg. With a background in performance and composition, Pouya approaches recording as both a technical and deeply artistic practice, viewing the studio as a space where creative ideas and performances can unfold naturally.

He works across acoustic, jazz, classical, and electronic music. He is the founder of Ladom Ensemble, a quartet of accordion, cello, percussion, and piano that has toured extensively across Canada and released three award-winning albums. He is also the creator of MOJ, an electronic project blending acoustic and electronic sounds through an Iranian and experimental lens. For over a decade, Pouya has been a recording engineer at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He has also worked with leading Canadian orchestras. 

Joe Kelly has been part of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as the Assistant Principal Timpanist/Section percussionist since 2018.  Before that he was a member of the percussion section at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Mr. Kelly has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Malaysia Philharmonic, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and Fort Worth Symphony.  Joe also holds the position of Percussion Coach for the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and is on Faculty at the University of Toronto.

In 2013 and 2014, Mr. Kelly was selected to be a member of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, where he performed orchestral and chamber works and was the soloist in Evan Antonellis’s Multiple Histories. In 2014, Joe joined the Lucerne Festival Academy and toured Europe under the direction of Matthias Pintscher, performing works by Lachenmann, Berio, and Pintscher. When he returned to Lucerne in 2015 as a member of the Academy, he was also invited to perform as an Alumni Guest at the Tanglewood Festival during its Festival of Contemporary Music. The following summer, Joseph was invited to be the solo percussionist of the Lucerne Festival Alumni Ensemble. This included being the resident ensemble for a composer workshop run by Wolfgang Rihm, as well as the set group for a large commissioning project from the festival. The Alumni Ensemble gave 21 world premières during the 2016 Lucerne Festival.

Mr. Kelly received his bachelor’s degree in percussion performance and master’s degree in orchestral performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a recipient of the Elizabeth Beineke Scholarship and the Outreach Award at the 2015 Commencement. He was awarded the 2012 Kerope Zildjian Concert Percussion Scholarship. Mr. Kelly holds a professional diploma in orchestral studies from Roosevelt University and was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Former teachers include Christopher Lamb, Duncan Patton, She-e Wu, Erik Charlston, Vadim Karpinos, and Ed Harrison. 

Winner of a Naumburg International Violin Competition Prize and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, featured in the Smithsonian Museum for African-American History, and as New York Times “New Yorker of the Year,” Ms. Hall-Tompkins is a violin soloist entrepreneur appearing with numerous orchestras including St. Louis, Baltimore, Dallas and Oakland, conductors Leonard Slatkin, Keith Lockhart and Michael Morgan, as featured artist in residence with the Cincinnati Symphony and New York City’s WQXR and on Broadway as "Fiddler"/Violin Soloist of the Grammy and Tony-nominated production of Fiddler on the Roof. A collaboration with 5-time Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal features a new violin concerto, Body in Motion, written for her. The collaboration also features celebrated conductor Leonard Slatkin; Ms. Hall-Tompkins and Maestro Slatkin performed the Sold-Out world premiere with the St. Louis Symphony to critical acclaim: “The world premiere was a treat even by the rarified standards of world premieres…masterful… “ Kelly Hall-Tompkins and Maestro Slatkin also gave the European premiere with the Orquesta of Gran Canaria, Spain this spring. As the first soloist to perform the Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto after the dedicatée, Kelly Hall-Tompkins has been a champion of the work in 25 performances so far, including the Lucerne Festival Premiere in Switzerland and a tour across the Netherlands. The first American artist to perform in China after the pandemic, Ms. Hall-Tompkins received a Chinese “Rare Talent Visa” to perform as soloist with the Shanghai Symphony. As founder of Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, Kelly Hall-Tompkins is a pioneer of social justice, bringing top artists in over 100 concerts coast to coast in homeless shelters and presenting the World Premiere of Forgotten Voices Song Cycle in Association with Carnegie Hall. Ms. Hall-Tompkins is also a published author contributor to Music and Human Rights on Routledge Press. 

Demarre McGill is a celebrated flutist known for his lyrical expressiveness and technical mastery. Winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, he has performed as soloist with top orchestras including the Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco Symphonies. He currently serves as Principal Flute of the Seattle Symphony.

Demarre McGill’s 2026–27 season features a performance of Billy Childs’s double concerto, A More Perfect Union, with his brother Anthony McGill and the New World Symphony. Additional highlights include engagements in Tahoe, Chicago, and Cincinnati, as well as performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

A founding member of the Myriad Trio and McGill/McHale Trio, he champions inclusivity in classical music. McGill studied at Curtis and Juilliard and is a Yamaha Performing Artist.