Based in Oslo, Norwegian bass player Ole Morten Vågan has been a central part of the scandinavian jazz and impro community for the last decade, performing with among others Motif, The Deciders, Håvard Wiik Trio, The Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Maria Kannegaard Trio, Andratx, Bugge Wesseltofts NCOJ, Maciej Obara Int. Quartet, Audun Kleive´s Generator X and more recently also Joshua Redman Trio with Jorge Rossy and Ole Morten Vagan . After discovering jazz as a youngster in the Northern town of Brønnøysund (just below the polar circle), he went on to study with amongst others the fantastic bassist Mats Eilertsen, and attending the very influential Jazz Conservatory in Trondheim, Norway.

Also active as a composer, he has written commissions for a.o. the Grammy Nominated Norwegian string orchestra The Trondheim Soloists, and more recently for the well renowned Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, of which he is now Artistic Director for 2017-2019 - In addition to steadily writing for bands like Motif and The Deciders for the last ten years.

Folk music of different kinds has also been at the core of Vågans interests, and through collaborations with a.o. Jovan Pavlovic, Ola Kvernberg and Stian Carstensen, he has immersed himself in the gipsy music of eastern Europe, Indian Classical Music and also norwegian folk music. He has also had the pleasure of performing with artists from an array of different countries and cultures, including some of the premier Eastern European folk musicians, among them Giani Linca, Filip Simoneov, Ivo Papasov and Petar Ralchev (after a rehearsal with the latter two, Ole Morten experienced his first and probably also last odd meter-induced fever.)

A curious interest in folk music and also classical music is the main focus in the group Gammalgrass, where he plays alongside Carstensen and Kvernberg, two of the most talented musicians coming out of Norway in recent years.

Vågan was also the recipient of the Dnb Nor/Kongsberg Jazz Festival Award in 2009, following in the footsteps of people like Sidsel Endresen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Christian Wallumrød, Audun Kleive, Nils Petter Molvaer and many more.

Anna Moschovakis works with poetry and prose as a writer, editor, translator, publisher, teacher, and designer. Her most recent book is An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth, a novel (Soft Skull, 2024). Other books include Participation (2022), Eleanor, or, The Rejection of the Progress of Love (2018), They and We Will Get Into Trouble for This (2016), and You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake (2011), which won the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. She is the translator of David Diop’s novel At Night All Blood Is Black (Frère d’âme), for which she and Diop received the International Booker Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book award; other translations include Albert Cossery’s The Jokers, Annie Ernaux’s The Possession, Bresson on Bresson, and (with Christine Schwartz-Harley) Marcelle Sauvageot’s Commentary. She is a longtime member of the publishing collective Ugly Duckling Presse and a co-founder of Bushel Collective, an experimental mixed-use storefront space in Delhi, NY. Recently, she launched Dirt Editions, an informally distributed pamphlet press. Her collaborative translation of Mihret Kebede’s #evolutionarypoems will be published in November by Circumference Books.

As a 36-year veteran of the financial industry, Rob has an extensive track record of building and leading institutional asset management firms. He is the former CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Greystone Managed Investments, a prominent Canadian institutional investment manager known for its strength in alternative investments. During his tenure, Rob oversaw more than $35 billion of assets under management, positioning Greystone as one of the country’s largest pension assets manager. Prior to joining Forthlane, Rob was Chief Investment Officer of TD Asset Management Inc., which acquired Greystone in 2018. Earlier in his career, Rob was recognized by The Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40.” Rob has also contributed to a range of boards, including serving as Chair of the Regina Airport Authority. He has held board roles with the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance and the Saskatchewan Roughriders Football Club, and is a past President of the Saskatchewan Chapter of the Chartered Financial Analysts. Rob holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Manitoba and is a CFA Charterholder.

Weyni Mengesha is a groundbreaking stage and screen director. She served as the artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre for the last seven years, and has directed acclaimed productions nationally and internationally, ( ‘da Kink in my Hair, Kim’s Convenience, A Streetcar Named Desire, Queen Goneril, and Power of Sail) 

She has directed across Canada, London, New York, and Los Angeles, receiving numerous Dora Mavor Moore Awards, two NAACP nominations and recognition from the Drama League (New York) and Drama Critics Circle (Los Angeles). In 2024, she received the Trailblazer Award at the CBC Legacy Awards and the 2025 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize.

A committed educator, mentor, and producer of youth arts initiatives, Weyni was the artistic director of the A.M.Y (Artists Mentoring Youth) Project for seven years and co-founded a platform for young Ethiopian and Eritrean artists. She has trained artists at the National Theatre School of Canada, Canadian Film Centre and The Soulpepper Academy. 
 

Lisa Davies has been working in the professional dance field for over thirty years, in Quebec and internationally. Throughout her career, she danced on international stages as a performer (Les Grands Ballets, Édouard Lock/La La La Human Steps, Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe etc.), as a guest teacher and rehearsal director for over 15 different companies (Emily Molnar/Ballet BC, Christian Spuck, RUBBERBANDance Group, BJM Danse, Akram Khan Company, National Ballet of Canada, Ballet Zurich, Czech National Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Cas Public, Wayne McGregor Random Dance Company, etc.), and founded Danse à la Carte where she was general and artistic director for nearly a decade. In addition to supporting hundreds of professional performers and choreographers annually via daily training, residencies and networking opportunities through dance, the organization annually holds the intensive TransFormation Danse as well as Propulsion, which has taken turns welcoming renowned artists from all walks of contemporary life (Edouard Lock, Hofesh Shechter, Margie Gillis, Louise Lecavalier, Virginie Brunelle, Catherine Gaudet, Victor Quijada, Frédérick Gravel, Alan Lake, Sylvain Emard, Mélanie Demers, Marcos Morau, Adi Salant, Alexandra Spicey Landé, Emmanuelle Le Phan….) in order to provide workshops and networking opportunities to the dance community. In the past decade, Lisa’s commitment to art and artists has supported hundreds of dancers and choreographers and as many creative projects locally and internationally. Sought after for her expertise and renowned for her integrity, her passion and her dedication to exploring and advancing the practice, she took over the artistic direction of the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal in 2023.

Over the past few years, French clarinettist Nicolas Baldeyrou has naturally established himself as one of the most remarkable soloists of his generation. Carving a unique path in today's musical landscape, this "concert artist armed for any challenge" (Diapason) demonstrates a mastery and versatility that transcends eras and styles, navigating with ease through all repertoires, on both historical and modern instruments.

Winning prestigious competitions like the Munich ARD Competition in Munich (Germany), the Dos Hermanas Competition in Sevilla (Spain), and finally, the ICA Young Artist Competition (United States) opened to Nicolas the doors of the most prestigious concert halls all over the world - Carnegie Hall in New York, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Philharmonie de Paris, Salzburg Mozarteum, Wiener Konzerthaus, Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

As a soloist he is regularly invited to perform with renown orchestras: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia and Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Starting his career at a very young age he had the chance to work with the legendary conductors – Carlo-Maria Giulini, Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur. Nowadays, Nicolas performs with Myung-Whun Chung, Alain Altinoglu, Pablo Heras Casado, Mikko Franck, Fabien Gabel.

Today Nicolas is one of the most demanded partners for chamber music – he shared the stage with such musicians as the pianists Bertrand Chamayou, Nikolai Lugansky; violinists Renaud Capuçon, Svetlin Roussev; violist Antoine Tamestit; Modigliani, Ébène, and Chiaroscuro quartets.

Patty Chang is a Los Angeles area based artist and educator who uses performance, video, installation, and narrative forms when considering identity, gender, transnationalism, colonial legacies, the environment, large-scale infrastructural projects, and impacted subjectivities. Learning Endings, her collaboration with Astrida and Aleksija Neimanis, is a multi-part interdisciplinary research project that surfaced amidst the overlapping contexts of climate crisis, threatened ocean ecosystems, and challenges to scientific expertise. Stray Dog Hydrophobia, her most recent project with David Kelley, explores deepsea mining and the entangled histories of extraction from the sea rooted in British colonialism in Jamaica. In addition to numerous awards and fellowships, her work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, New Museum, M+ Museum in Hong Kong, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden. She teaches at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA.

Meriem Bennani makes groundbreaking video installations and sculptures informed by the circulation of global cultures online. Frequently rooted in Moroccan life off and online, her work speaks to the hybrid nature of contemporary cultural flows. Bennani combines elements of reality television, documentary film, telenovela, music videos, science fiction, and animated cartoons in her videos. Exaggerating media tropes in what Bennani describes as a “hyperactivity of genre,” her works reflect the disjointed state of contemporary mediation, an effect she amplifies in installation settings where her moving images are mapped to sculptural projection structures or viewing stations. Using strategies of immersion, duplication, multiplicity, and remix, Bennani blends a powerful mix of humor and critique, reaffirming the power of family and home while analyzing larger systems of power across a networked world.

“The Australian Chamber Orchestra is uniformly high-octane, arresting and never ordinary.”
 

The Australian.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra lives and breathes music, making waves around the world for its explosive performances that redefine orchestral music. With their fearless leader of 35 years, Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, in 2025 the Orchestra celebrates 50 years of invention, disruption and unforgettable music-making.

The ACO performs more than 100 concerts each year, with programs that embrace celebrated classics alongside new commissions and ground-breaking collaborations, working with artists and musicians who share their ideology: from Emmanuel Pahud, Steven Isserlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicolas Altstaedt and William Barton, to Jonny Greenwood, Neil Finn and Meow Meow; to visual artists and film makers such as Bill Henson, Shaun Tan, Jane Campion, and Jennifer Peedom, who co-create unique, hybrid productions for which the ACO has become renowned.

The ACO has its own streaming platform, ACO On Demand, which hosts the Orchestra’s award-winning cinematic concert films, ACO StudioCasts, alongside live concert streams. The Orchestra also has an active recording program. Its recordings of Bach’s violin works won three consecutive ARIA Awards. Recent releases include Water | Night Music, the first Australian-produced classical vinyl for two decades, Beethoven 1, 2, & 3 Eroica and ARIA award-winning albums River and Indies & Idols.

In 2022 the ACO opened a new, world class venue, ACO On The Pier, continuing their dedication to creating and presenting transformative experiences for all music lovers.
 

Isabella Luisa Diaz is the co-director of Company 29, a contemporary circus collective. They were born in Chicago, Illinois where from a young age, they found a joy for movement and a hankering for heights. They spent their youth competing in gymnastics and studying dance, continuing on at Western Michigan University and the Joffrey Ballet School. In 2016 they joined Pilobolus Dance Theatre as a part of their main company and toured around the world for 4 years. In 2021, they began working with The 7 Fingers contemporary circus and was part of the creation for the show ‘Dear San Francisco’ and the Broadway musical ‘Water for Elephants’. They have held various roles with US-based circuses such as Shoestring Circus and Midnight Circus, including acrobat, musician, guest director, and co-composer.  Isabella is a collector of hobbies, lover of books and a fiend for a good fun fact. They are very excited to be working with the Fuse team at the Banff centre this season.