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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!