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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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