James Williams was generously supported by the Helen Graham Artist Award.

Kristin Berardi and James Williams are two artists with a vision: Cultivating songs anchored by the deep roots of gospel and jazz, drawing vital nutrients from the rich soil of their musical craft to create a meaningful work grounded in storytelling and connection. This new body of work aspires to inspire, uplift and facilitate surrender and heartfelt resonance. BerWillDirt is a budding partnership of culture transplants. Berardi, an award-winning vocalist from Australia, now residing in Switzerland. Williams, a heavily sought-after touring/session drummer from the USA, now residing in Belgium. Both know the balancing act of migration, integration, and parenting while artists - each with two kids of their own. Lived experiences surround the music: making mistakes, learning, trying again, loss, love - all the many facets of what life brings us. They long to offer to others what music has given to them: a safe place to feel and be one’s self.

Julia Watson was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Julia began her musical journey on violin at age four in Albany, South Western Australia. A childhood immersed in the music of many world cultures, travel and adventure, undoubtedly influenced her musical trajectory. Julia completed Bachelor of music at the University of Western Australia under renowned violinist Paul Wright, and Masters of Research on violin at Edith Cowan University under internationally acclaimed violinist Alexander Da Costa. Julia’s Masters research focused on the collaborative possibilities of Western Art Music, particularly Baroque repertoire, and Middle Eastern musical traditions. Julia trained with today’s leading artists of Tango in 2019, from Buenos Aires, attended Silkroad Ensembles’ Global Music Workshop, and studied with David Darling of Guildhall, London in the art of Classical improvisation. Julia attended a residency at Banff Centre for Creativity, Canada, where she developed her project Subdued performing Bach’s D minor Solo Partita alongside Persian Radif. In 2019 Julia furthered her studies in the Persian Classical system, attending lessons with Kamancheh Master Shervin Mohajer in Tehran, Iran. Julia performs with Perth Symphony Orchestra, Australian Baroque, WA Philharmonic, and Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, and has performed nationally and internationally including tours within Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe, USA and China.

Julia is Artistic Director of Bembina Ensemble, exploring intersections of Middle Eastern and Western Art Music in a multitude of cross-cultural creations that have been delighting and inspiring Perth audiences since the group’s creation in 2021.

Elisa Thorn was generously supported by the Robert L. Jamison Endowment.

Contemporary harpist Elisa Thorn (pronounced eh-lee-sah) makes music that drifts between folk, pop, jazz, post-rock, and experimental traditions—music she likes to think of as good bath-time listening.

Rooted in curiosity and accessibility, her practice embraces unconventional sound worlds while inviting listeners in with warmth and openness. An avid collaborator, Thorn has spearheaded projects including Gentle Party, HUE, and The Giving Shapes, and has contributed to recordings and performances with artists such as Haley Blais, Ora Cogan, Loscil, Khari McClelland, Wallgrin, and Mauvey.

Thorn is currently focused on her solo project, which debuted with her album xiik in November 2025.

Jamie Thompson was generously supported by the Harold Crabtree Foundation Endowment.

Jamie Thompson is a multidisciplinary musician, photographer, and member of the Royal Conservatory Flute Faculty since 1994. He founded the acclaimed Urban Flute Project leading to ten seasons of Post-Industrial Classical performances with The Junction Trio at St. Anne's Anglican Church in Toronto.

Recent performances include appearances at X Avant, Exit Points, NFA Flute Convention (Chicago), and New Music Concerts’ Flutes Galore! under the direction of Robert Aitken. Jamie has premiered works by Canadian composers including the music of Patricia Morehead, Brian Abbott, and Frank Horvat, and chamber works dedicated to The Junction Trio by John S. Grey.

Co-editor of the RCM Syllabus and Overtones Series, Jamie adjudicates regularly for major festivals such as Kiwanis, Canadian Contemporary Showcase, and the Indian Summer Music Awards (Milwaukee). He is also a featured speaker at institutions such as Ivey Business School, Sheridan College, and UofT’s Rotman School of Management Creative Industries lecture series.

His photography has been exhibited at CONTACT, Nuit Blanche, and Audiopollination. Recent interdisciplinary collaborations include The Daughter’s Grimoire Literary, publication of 20 Artists 20 Answers, and guest appearances with Ten Tellers at the 2025 Toronto International Storytelling Festival.

Yujing Shi was generously supported by the Lewitt Family Foundation Artist Award.

Yujing Shi is a composer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work explores the intersection of music, movement, and interdisciplinary performance. With a background in classical flute performance, she later expanded her practice through extensive engagement with folk and traditional music across Asia, including studies in India, Mongolia, Tibet, and China. She works with a wide range of instruments and vocal techniques, alongside electronics and live processing.

Her creative practice spans contemporary dance, circus, theatre, installation art, and film, and she is particularly interested in how music interacts with physical movement and narrative. Yujing has performed live and improvised for dance, theatre, and circus productions, as well as composed original scores for interdisciplinary works presented in both studio and festival contexts.

Through collaboration, she seeks to bridge classical training with heritage-based musical languages and contemporary forms, creating work that is both grounded and exploratory. Yujing is drawn to environments that encourage experimentation, collective creation, and cross-disciplinary exchange, and she sees residencies as vital spaces for developing new artistic processes and collaborations.

Beaver Sheppard was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Born to human parents in 1980s Newfoundland, Beaver Sheppard is a Montreal-based artist whose work hums at the crossroads of folk storytelling and left-field experimentation. Sheppard has cultivated a sound that feels handmade — DIY acoustic textures layered with unexpected sonic detours and mass pop sensibility. With 15 full length records under his belt there’s something for everyone! He has collaborated with many notables: Ricardo Villalobos, Nick Warren, Suki Waterhouse, Ohm Hourani, Kiani Del Valle, Le Matos, Brandt Brauer Frick, Irina Lazeraneau. He is also a Chef and Painter.

Kelly Ruth was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Kelly Ruth is a new media artist based in Treaty 6 territory (Edmonton, Canada). Her early work focused on fibre arts, including plant dyes, felting, and weaving. Her practice has been a long study of the relationship that humans have had with technology through history and imagined futures. With a focus on sound, she has created installations by activating her textiles and tools with microcontrollers and circuits, weaving conductive thread directly into the fabric’s foundation. Since 2020, her work has expanded to include immersive installations featuring self-built environments and spatial audio in 3D, avatar-based virtual worlds. In performance, she uses contact microphones and effects pedals on her weaving loom, spinning wheel, and other fibre related tools to produce live, improvised soundscapes.

Mehdi Rezania was generously supported by the John W. Kieley Endowment for Emerging Musicians

Mehdi Rezania is a santur performer, composer, and ethnomusicologist whose artistic practice is rooted in Persian classical music and shaped by contemporary intercultural exchange. He holds an MA in music composition as well as an MA and PhD in ethnomusicology. His music explores the expressive, spiritual, and aesthetic dimensions of sound while engaging critically with modern contexts of performance, migration, and cultural memory.

As a performer and composer, Rezania has released five albums in Canada and Iran, spanning Persian classical repertoire and contemporary composition. He is the recipient of the bi-annual Robert M. Stevenson Prize in Composition from the Society for Ethnomusicology and a Global Music Award (silver medal) for composition and original score.

Rezania has played a significant role in shaping Iranian musical life in the diaspora. He has served as music advisor to the Tirgan Festival, music director for Iranian Heritage Day at the Royal Ontario Museum (2011–2014), and music director for the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton (2021–2023). His artistic projects have received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Edmonton Arts Council, and he was awarded the Edmonton Artists Trust Fund in 2023.

Nora Price was generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment.

Nora Price is a dancer, experimental musician, and filmmaker based in Salt Lake City, UT. She trained with the Milwaukee Ballet Academy and Second Company and is currently a Film & Media MFA and Screendance certificate candidate at the University of Utah, from which she also holds a degree in Linguistics. She has been a performing member of SB Dance since 2023.

Most recently, Nora Price has performed on insen scale electric guitar in an improvised trio alongside Dante Lerae and Fezmaster for Yardwork Presents, Onestraw, and Ghost Canyon's "Confluence 2025" Festivella, appears on Cached Media's ensemble audio collage broadcast memo, performed alongside Briana and Carina Gillet for the 2025 International Trumpet Guild Conference, scored Samuel Hanson's thesis work a cat in the classroom, filmed, scored, and edited a reimagining of Ashley Anderson's The Windy Gap on commission for intermodal publication by Utah Poet Laureate Lisa Bickmore's Lightscatter Press, and presented a trio of screendances with live ‘pointeshoegaze’ accompaniment for 801 Salon at Fountain Records.

Her multi-channel screendance and sound installation solo show Arrange Your Tools is presented in the Gittins Gallery February–April 2026, and will be shown in single channel at the 2026 Noori Screendance Festival.

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.