Kyle Muir was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Kyle Muir (he/they) is a guitarist, producer and audio engineer working on Wurundjeri land in Victoria, Australia. Muir works in a range of different roles (recording, mixing, mastering, guitarist, singer) across many different styles (jazz, West-African music, singer-songwriter, electronic, sound art).

In 2020, Kyle completed their Honours year with a research focus on West-African Manding music under the tutelage of Guinean-Australian griot musician Amadou Kalissa. Through this project Amadou and Kyle formed the ensemble Mandeng Groove.

Mandeng Groove have since toured Australia and undergone two study trips to West Africa. Notably in 2024, Kyle recorded, mixed and played guitar on the LP Conakry, a collaboration between the Melbourne ensemble and local musicians from Guinea.  

In 2021, Kyle took part in the Australian Art Orchestra’s Creative Music Intensive, a 10-day practise-based music residency at Mt Hotham in Victoria. Undertaking the Creative Music Intensive was formative and Kyle met musicians from across the country, forming new creative connections.

Kyle is currently working on an array of different projects including their 2nd LP for Wybie and producing Flora Carbo’s upcoming LP The Cyclist.

Emil Miszk was generously supported by the Denis Jackson Memorial Scholarship Endowment.

Trumpeter, composer and improviser working at the intersection of jazz, contemporary and improvised music.

His work is shaped by a constant tension between structure and freedom. Rather than developing f ixed bands, he focuses on designing frameworks in which music can unfold in real time — where composition becomes a space for interaction, not a closed form. His projects move across large ensembles, electro-acoustic formats and interdisciplinary contexts, but remain rooted in one core idea: music as a system of relationships between people, sound and place.

As a performer and artistic director, he works with modular formats that adapt to different environments, scales and constellations of musicians, allowing each project to evolve beyond a single version or setting.

FRYDERYK Award winner and board member of the Alpaka Records Label & Foundation. Alongside his artistic work, he is active as an educator, combining artistic research, performance and community-oriented projects. He has extensive experience in international touring, recording and teaching across Europe and Asia.

emilmiszk.com

Daniel Mayer was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Daniel Mayer is an acclaimed bassist and guitarist from New Jersey. A distinctive emerging artist of his generation, Daniel has performed throughout New York City and internationally at venues such as the Panama Jazz Festival, Nublu, Jordan Hall, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. He has performed and collaborated with artists including José Soto, Nasheet Waits, Nat Adderley Jr., Gabriel Nieves, Bruno Bruni, and Fortuno, and currently leads his own cross-genre group performing original compositions spearheaded by his voices on the bass and guitar. While initially starting out on the guitar at the age of nine, Daniel eventually fell in love with the bass and resolved to move forward with both instruments in lifelong pursuit. After earning his B.A. from Bowdoin College, he went on to be awarded the Dean’s Scholarship to pursue his M.M. at the New England Conservatory, where he had the privilege of studying with Cecil McBee, Jason Moran, and Frank Carlberg.

Abi Lee was generously supported by the Marshall M. Williams Endowment.

Abi Lee (she/her) is a pianist, composer, and improviser with Korean heritage based in Melbourne/Naarm, Australia. She relocated from New Zealand to live and study jazz and contemporary improvised music. Driven by her “deep commitment to improvisation” (Andrea Keller, 2024), Lee continues to explore the possibilities and impossibilities of piano and improvisation. Lee’s work blurs the lines between percussive and harmonic aspects of the piano across genres (such as contemporary classical and free jazz). As a recipient of several prizes and awards, Lee presents her works across Australia, taking part in major jazz festivals and sharing the stage with various Australia’s best improvisers. Taking inspirations from improvisers such as Kris Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Tim Berne, Lee’s compositions bring out her unique view of the world with “musical depth and vulnerability necessary to be engaged in high level real time improvisation” (Stephen Magnusson, 2024). Lee’s works has been described: “there is a measured calm to this music, full of minimalist and restive beauty forged from conversational exchange.” (Cowley - Rhythms Magazine, 2024).

Kateryna Kravchenko was generously supported by the Barbara and John Poole Memorial Endowment.

Kateryna Kravchenko is an award-winning Ukrainian vocalist and composer. Following her dream of becoming a jazz musician, she moved to Germany in 2018 to study in Dresden. Since then, she has participated in various prestigious programs and residencies, including Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy in Hamburg, and the Gutenberg Jazz Collective in Mainz, and has toured with her music across Europe.

She has performed with internationally renowned musicians such as Melissa Aldana, Lars Danielsson, Lage Lund, Joey Baron, Ben van Gelder, and Linda May Han Oh.

During her exchange year at the Royal College of Music Stockholm, she focused on composition for large ensemble and created a genre-bending suite inspired by paintings by Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko.

Together with Luxembourgish vibraphonist Arthur Clees, she recently released the album Faces, produced by Wanja Slavin, which focuses on poetry about the search for identity and explores not only the unusual combination of vibraphone and voice but also features church organ, percussion and electronics.  

Currently, Kateryna is pursuing a dual master’s degree in Jazz Composition and Vocals at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.
 

Sean Keenan was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Sean Keenan is a musician, composer, and researcher based in San Francisco, California. He is currently a PhD candidate in Cross-Cultural Musicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, expecting to finish the program in Spring of 2026. He previously studied music at Mills College in Oakland and visual art at Columbia College in Chicago. Keenan often performs with various improvising/experimental groups, both around and outside of the Bay Area, generally playing either electric guitar or bass guitar. He is a regular performer in the Santa Cruz-based Rodrigo Barriga Ensemble, and New York-based group Das Audit. He also regularly performs solo or as a duo, using a mix of acoustic instruments (Hmong gong, Costa Rican ocarina, Celtic lyre, modified bull horn shofar, tambourine), and altering their sounds through electronic processes (reverb, octave generator, delay, pitch shift). His debut solo album Delay Music (2025) utilizes field recordings processed through Max MSP and is now available through Mixed Media Recordings.

Jasper Hood Bruten was generously supported by the Helen Graham Artist Award.

Jasper Hood Bruten is an acclaimed and award winning drummer, composer and educator, based in Melbourne, Australia. Guided and mentored by some of Melbourne's best drummers, Bruten's genre defying approach to playing embraces improvisation, deep groove and ensemble interaction, creating a unique style that he brings to every ensemble he works with. 
Over the course of his career, he has had the privilege to perform and record with many significant Australian musicians including Andrea Keller, Paul Williamson, Paul Grabowsky, Sam Anning and Julien Wilson. In addition to supporting local musicians, Jasper is regularly called to perform with international artists such as Linda May Han Oh, John Hollenbeck and Ambrose Akinmusire. After nearly a decade of working as a sideman, Jasper is now turning his attention towards crafting original projects. These include the writing of an entirely original suite of music for a jazz quartet and strings, as well as works for solo drumset with improvised, emergent electronics.

Kali Gillen was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

“Creatively Sophisticated” - (John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald) Kali Gillen is an active multi-instrumentalist in the music scene in Sydney and beyond. After graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor in Music (Jazz Performance), Kali has been regularly performing with local bands Hot Potato Band, 343 Brass Band and Lyre Byrdland. She also has toured and recorded with Lime Cordiale for the 14 steps to a Better You album, and more recently played with iconic Australian band the Hilltop Hoods for their ‘Never Coming Home’ Australian Tour. With a proclivity to explore new genres and styles, Kali has played with Sydney Theatre Company for Bloom on reeds, Irish Whistle/Flute for Come From Away with Blue Mountains Theatre Co and toured with US Broadway and Tour singers Diana Huey (The Little Mermaid - US Tour), Christine Dwyer (Wicked - Broadway) and Nic Coleman (Book of Mormon - Broadway) as part of a production in China (2024). Within the jazz scene, Kali has played with Pharos for the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival alongside featured artists Silke Eberhardt, Helen Sung and Lekecia Benjamin. 2026 will see the release of Armour, Kali’s debut EP featuring original works alongside Harry Birch (Double Bass) and Ryu Kodama (Drums).

Eli Davidovici was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Eli Davidovici is a bassist and composer who is currently in Tio'tia:ke/Montreal, Quebec. Originally hailing from Vancouver, BC, he has been a long-standing collaborator in the jazz, rock, and experimental Canadian music scenes. While performing in various projects and musical styles over the years, the music he gravitates towards is strongly improvisatory, with an emphasis on group connection and collaboration. In 2023, Eli released his first album as a leader, Shapes, and has been writing and arranging music for his band as well as other local artists. He has performed and recorded with Canadian artists in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, including Bellbird, Chris McCann, Jean-Michel LeBlanc, Mili Hong, Roman Munoz, Thad-Bailey Mai, Kim Albert, and Erika Angell. His newest record, Bellbird’s The Call, was released on Constellation Records in early 2026, and features him as a composer and bass player.

Oliver Cox was generously supported by the Helen Graham Artist Award.

Ollie Cox is a Narrm/Melbourne-based composer, drummer and improvisor, who works in the spaces between sound and music. Drawing in equal measure from his background in jazz and love of experimentalism, Ollie seeks to craft emotive compositions that flicker between spans of contemplative ambience to moments of frenetic sonic chaos.

Ollie’s rich textural palette and sensitive, considered and creative playing style at the kit have paved the way for a diverse range of collaborative projects, across a broad scope of genres. Cox performs frequently with some of Australia’s most exciting songwriters including Juice Webster, Hannah McKittrick, Phoebe Go, Maple Glider and Armlock - leading him to tour both domestically and internationally (EU, UK, USA).

Away from the drum kit, Ollie is well-known for his avant garde percussion stylings and techniques, which can be heard in solo contexts (Speak Percussion’s Bespoke Artists Program 2023-24), duos with musicians including Zela Papageorgiou and Helen Svoboda, and with local cult-favourite “post-stadium rock band”,  Dragonfru?t  (led by Theo Carbo and Robert Downie).

Ollie holds a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in Contemporary Music from the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne). It was during his studies that Ollie developed a penchant for experimentalism, drawing inspiration from the compositional stylings of ambient music, musique concréte and surrealist cinema movements. Under the tutelage of renowned composer Kate Neal, Ollie began investigating the hidden musical capacities of everyday objects and sounds as his honours project in 2020. This work culminated in his debut album, Objects In Mirror, an exploration of electroacoustic composition using found objects, which was released via experimental label Curveball in 2023.