Kevin Woods has emerged as one of the most melodic and emotive voices in improvised music in the Northwest US. The trumpeter, composer and author’s passion for both performance and education have made him in demand as a leader and sideman, composer, arranger, and clinician. An Origin Records artist, Woods has recorded seven albums as a leader and has performed throughout North America, Italy, Sweden, and South Korea. 

Kevin’s father, who also played the trumpet, gave him a bugle at age two, a cornet at age 5, and a trumpet at age 13. Music from the Big Band era through early Rock ‘n Roll was always playing in the house or in the car, and Woods was enthralled by all of it. Kevin currently lives in Bellingham, Washington, where he serves as Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies at Western Washington University. He leads the contemporary Jazz group Emotive Origami, and co-leads the Toren//Woods Duo, Trio Linguae, and the In Motion Quartet. Kevin enjoys living and spending time in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with his wife and two daughters. 

Kevin Woods was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Lunr Girl is the moniker of Keira Madsen, an independent electronic musician, producer, and performer with roots in so-called “Vancouver” and Denmark. Blending ambient textures, gentle rhythms, and lush vocals, her music lives somewhere between stillness and movement, offering a space to slow down in a world shaped by urgency and disconnection. 

Growing up, Keira often turned to the piano as a quiet space to process her emotions, using improvisation as a way to work through whatever she was feeling. Later, she discovered that she could bring those improvisations into a computer and build on them by adding other layers, instruments, sounds, rhythms, and textures. She still builds music this way: by listening, layering, and letting each idea unfold naturally. 

After graduating from the New Media + Sound Art program at Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2023, she began developing her voice as Lunr Girl, influenced by artists like Four Tet, Enya, Kelly Lee Owens, ML Buch, and Grimes. Since 2023, she has steadily grown her practice as a self-managed artist: releasing music monthly, sharing videos and visualizers on YouTube, performing shows, and connecting with listeners through social media, email, and livestreams.

Keira Madsen was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Karl A. Rozankovic is a pianist, composer, and improviser based in Montreal. Trained in classical music, his path expanded through jazz studies at McGill University, where he studied with major figures of the Montreal scene such as Marianne Trudel, Jean-Michel Pilc, and John Hollenbeck. Improvisation has since become a central focus of his artistic approach, allowing him to revisit classical repertoire with a fresh perspective, compose his own pieces, and adapt them for various ensembles. 

He is the co-founder of the group Solarium, with whom he won First Prize at the Sutton Jazz Competition as well as the Grand Prize at the Festi Jazz de Rimouski. Their album aube/nocturne was nominated for Jazz Album of the Year at the 2024 GAMIQ awards. He also received the Emerging Artist Prize at Université Laval’s music competition. 

To date, Karl A. Rozankovic has released three short solo piano albums under his name and taken part in numerous projects as a pianist, accordionist, arranger and composer. His musical research is rooted in a sensitive exploration of sound and presence, through an approach that is both rigorous, intuitive, as well as deeply personal.

Karl A. Rozankovic was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist' Awards. 

Canadian cellist George Crotty has forged his own exciting vocabulary, pushing the boundaries of the cello. Following his graduation from the Berklee College of Music, Crotty immersed himself in New York’s jazz and world music scenes, playing with several ensembles, such as the Brooklyn Raga Massive, and Detroit-based National Arab Orchestra. Crotty has also worked with esteemed musicians such as Bob Ezrin, Adam Rudolph, Simon Shaheen, and Paquito D’Rivera. Crotty has performed as a soloist and bandleader in The Americas and Europe and enjoys active collaboration in film & theatre. He toured North America with award-winning Broadway musical, “The Band’s Visit,” and played on the video game soundtrack for “Assassin’s Creed Mirage.”

Formed in 2019 in Brooklyn, The George Crotty Trio (GC3) makes multicultural chamber music that is both cinematic and conversational; using the language of other cultures to speak new things. “I’m not at home in any one culture,” muses Crotty, “so the trio became my home.” The GC3 has performed at the 21C Festival, Small World Music Festival, Copenhagen Vinterjazz Festival, and the New Directions Cello Festival. They have toured internationally in cities such as Toronto, Montreal, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Bogota, Sao Paolo, London, Berlin, Antwerp, and Copenhagen. The GC3’s new album, “Heart Music” will be released on June 6th, with summer tour dates in Canada & the US. 

George Crotty was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Artist, composer, writer, musician, performer, bass player, Gabriela Laconsay is all that and more.  Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Gabriela grew up studying classical double bass, playing in the local youth orchestra and big bands. During her high school years she was enrolled in a classical performance academy with Mount Royal University where she learned recital etiquette and stage presence. Through her time there she received honours in her grade 10 Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) exam. Gabriela also played in big bands and jazz combos, developing her jazz language and improvisational skills. The Calgary music scene was a very nurturing musical environment for her and provided many performance opportunities with big jazz names like: Ted Nash, Luis Bonilla and Dick Oatts. Now in Toronto with her Bachelor of Music degree from Humber College, Gabriela has grown her arsenal of skills to reach a wide array of genres such as, indie rock, punk rock, funk, fusion, country, pop and more. Prolific performer, Gabriela has extensive experience as a bass player for hire; recording for a diverse list of artists and touring all over Canada and the UK. Known for her engaging performance style, Gabriela Laconsay is one to remember! 

Gabriela Laconsay was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Florence Beauquier-Léger is an alto and soprano saxophonist and composer from Montréal. Throughout her undergraduate degree at McGill’s Schulich School of Music, she has had the privilege to study with musical legends such as Camille Thurman, Christine Jensen, Marianne Trudel, and Philippe Côté. Her primary project, the Florence Beauquier-Léger Quartet, has performed in some of Montréal’s most iconic venues, Upstairs Jazz Bar and Casa del Popolo, and at the Rimouski Festijazz. She has also performed as a sideperson in major festivals such as the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal , Osheaga, Francofolies, and Festival d’été de Québec. She writes with sensitivity inspired from life events and different works of art and likes to include free improvisation sections in her compositions as a way to connect on a deeper level with her fellow musicians and add another level of spontaneity to performances. 

Florence Beauquier-Léger was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Flora Carbo is a saxophonist, composer and music leader from Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). Her unique practice creates novel musical environments that connect people through improvisation, composition and conceptual works, led by her explorations into the vocal qualities of the alto saxophone.

Her work traverses settings, methods and scales, with works devised for major festival stages at Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, Phoenix Central Park’s Strata Festival, Amersfoort Jazz Festival, and alongside luminaries of Australian jazz and improvised music like Andrea Keller, Helen Svoboda and Harry James Angus. 

Flora’s recorded projects are acclaimed documents of moments in this scene. Her albums are MAGNIFY (2023); Arthur’s Walks (2022); VOICE (2020); and Erica (2018). 

Flora was the Melbourne International Jazz Festival’s Take Note Leader for 2022. She was a finalist for the Freedman Jazz Fellowships 2022 and 2021; for the Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2019 Australian Jazz Bell Awards; and for the 2016 National Jazz Award; and won the James Morrison Scholarship at the Generations in Jazz Festival in 2017.

Flora Carbo was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Photo credit: Celeste De Clario Davics

Filippo Deorsola (they/them) is an Italian pianist and composer based in Brussels. With a multidisciplinary background spanning music (BA) and Philosophy (MA), their practice is a hybrid encompassing group and solo projects, article publications and composing for diverse setups including chamber ensemble, Javanese Gamelan instruments and smaller electroacoustic line-ups.

Increasingly centered on a rhythmical and conceptual investigation of wood-based piano preparation, the resulting space of expression is kaleidoscopic, yet remains grounded through programmatic experimentation. These take multiple shapes, with one of them being their long-standing piano trio project, Anaphora. Releasing a first album for Auand Records (IT) in 2022, the group’s latest work, [Bloom], mixes jazz with textural and percussive influences from Balinese Gamelan and released on January 2025 for Swedish label Loumi Records.

A multi-awarded artist in solo (Best instrumentalist, Tremplin Jazz d’Avignon 2024) and with Anaphora (Burghausen Nachwuchs-Jazzpreis 2025, Jazz Migration 2025, Keep an Eye 2024, Goethe-Culture Moves Europe 2023, VGC 2023, Italy Music Export 2022) , Filippo has accumulated a variety of experiences both as project leader, composer and side-musician (Domen Cizej Duo with Clean Feed records). They are co-leading EMBAT, an international collaborative project between the gamelan ensemble Sandikala and Anaphora. Supported by Maison de la Musique Contemporaine. 

Filippo Deorsola was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Dhaivat Jani is a Toronto-based, award-winning drummer, tabla player, and composer from Ahmedabad, India. He began his musical journey at age five, focusing on Indian classical music, and achieved his tabla Visharad at 16, earning three gold medals. A Humber College graduate with a Bachelor of Music, Dhaivat has called Toronto home since 2018. 

In 2023, Dhaivat released his debut album Sum // Parts with his contemporary jazz ensemble, Dhaivat Jani PLUS, earning acclaim from outlets like All About Jazz, Paris Move, and Jazz.FM91. Beyond leading his ensemble, he collaborates widely, moving fluidly between drums and tabla across a range of genres. His recent work includes performances with Pat LaBarbera, Hamid Motebassem, Kiran Ahluwalia, Roberto Occhipinti, Rez Abbasi, Mike Downes, and Adam Rudolph. 

Dhaivat’s creativity extends to multimedia collaborations such as Transmigrations with software artist Ryan Kelln, and Offerings at Ishpadinaa with Nova Dance. His accolades include the Nuit Blanche and Aga Khan Museum Fellowships, along with awards from the Government of India, Yamaha Music Canada, and Jazz.FM91. 

Dhaivat’s vision is to push creative boundaries, blending art forms while keeping music at the heart of his work. 

Dhaivat Jani was generously supported by the Denis Jackson Memorial Scholarship Endowment. 

Derek Lewis is a pianist, composer, and educator based in New York City.  Growing up in Buffalo NY, he was exposed to jazz music from an early age by his father and brother, who are musicians as well.  Despite not initially taking to an instrument, he fell in love with the piano at the age of 15, and chose to pursue music from then on.  He is a graduate of The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and will be attending Manhattan School of Music this Fall pursuing a Masters in Music.  He believes strongly in the healing power of music, and in its ability to help people learn more about themselves and others.

Derek Lewis was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.