When he was 6-years-old and living in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Illia Ovcharenko’s mother took him to hear a performance of Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto. After the concert, Illia told his mother he wanted to be a pianist when he grew up. 

Today, just a dozen years later, Illia Ovcharenko is one of the world’s most celebrated young pianists, playing concerts all over the world. 

Most recently, he won the Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada—a competition that seeks to identify the “Complete Artist”—someone who demonstrates technical mastery, perseverance against adversity, and an understanding of musical text that is both intellectual and emotional. He’s also won top prizes at the Busoni and Horowitz competitions. 

He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Orchestre National d’Île de France, the Orchestra of La Monnaie, the Toronto Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, and the Jerusalem and Haifa Symphony Orchestras, in recital at venues and Festivals including Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Sendesaal in Hannover, Robert-Schumann-Saal in Düsseldorf, Salle Bourgie. Highlights of the 2024-25 season include debuts with the Israel Philharmonic, Deutsche-Symphonie Orchester, I Pomerrigi Musicali, Edmonton Symphony and San Antonio Philharmonic, while recitals include the Konzerthaus Berlin, the ‘Folle Journee’ Warsaw, the Kissinger Olymp, Dubai Opera, Salle Cortot, Music Toronto and Shenandoah University. The season will also see the release of two recital albums, on the ‘Discauvers’ and Steinway labels.

Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón (she/her) writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys, and electronics as well as for chamber ensembles, orchestras, choir, and film. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise.” Negrón has been commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kronos Quartet, loadbang, Prototype Festival, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Sō Percussion, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, the Louisville Orchestra and the New York Botanical Garden, among others. Angélica received an early education in piano and violin at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico where she later studied composition under the guidance of composer Alfonso Fuentes. She holds a master’s degree in music composition from New York University where she studied with Pedro da Silva and pursued doctoral studies at The Graduate Center (CUNY), where she studied composition with Tania León. Also active as an educator, Angélica is currently a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program. She has collaborated with artists like Sō Percussion, Lido Pimienta, Mathew Placek, Sasha Velour, Cecilia Aldarondo, Mariela Pabón & Adrienne Westwood, among others and is a founding member of the tropical electronic band Balún. She was recently an Artist-in-Residence at WNYC’s The Greene Space working on El Living Room, a 4-part offbeat variety show and playful multimedia exploration of sound and story, of personal history and belonging. She was the recipient of the 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize. Upcoming premieres include works for the Seattle Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra and NY Philharmonic Project 19 initiative and multiple performances at Big Ears Festival 2022. Negrón continues to perform and compose for film.

Amy Malbeuf is a Métis visual artist from Rich Lake, Alberta, Treaty 6 territory. She is grateful to currently be living and creating on unceded Mi’kmaq territory in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Through utilizing mediums such as caribou hair tufting, beadwork, installation, performance, video, and tattoo Malbeuf explores notions of identity, place, language, and ecology. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in over forty shows at such venues as Art Mûr, Montréal, Winnipeg Art Gallery; Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; and Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, New Zealand. Malbeuf has participated in many international artist residencies including at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, (AUS); Fogo Island Arts; The Labrador Research Institute; and Santa Fe Art Institute (US). She holds a MFA in Visual Art from the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Malbeuf has been the recipient of such honours as the 2016 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award, the 2016 William and Meredith Saunderson Prize for Emerging Artists in Canada from the Hnatyshyn Foundation, a 2017 REVEAL award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation and was long listed for the 2017 and 2020 Sobey Art Award.

Alvin Jiahuan Li is a curator and writer based in London, where he serves as Curator, International Art, supported by Asymmetry, at Tate Modern. He previously worked as an adjunct curator at Tate, a contributing editor to frieze magazine and an artistic advisor to the 59th Venice Biennale. He has curated projects in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and London, and is a frequent contributor to art periodicals and monographs. He is the curator of the Turbine Hall commission Mire Lee: Open Wound, 8 October 2024 - 16 March 2025. 

Bilal Akkouche is a writer and Assistant Curator of International Art at Tate Modern, where he works on the Middle East and North Africa Acquisitions Committee and the African Acquisitions Committee. He has co-curated displays of artists including Anna Boghiguian, Pascale Marthine Tayou, and Farah Al Qasimi and worked on acquisitions of key works by Samia Halaby, Merikokeb Berhanu and Baya. Bilal also worked on the 2024 Hyundai Commission Mire Lee: Open Wound and is co-curating the upcoming Nigerian Modernism exhibition opening in October 2025. He has contributed to the likes of frieze magazine and Trigger magazine.

Bruno Canadien is a Visual Artist whose multidisciplinary practice investigates Indigenous presence, kinship, and relationality in the contemporary context, through painting, drawing, installation, walking/land art, and public art.

Bruno is a member of the Deh Gah Got’ı́é Dene First Nation of Zhati Kǫ́ę́, Denendeh, a Dehcho Region member of the Dene Nation. He is currently based in Black Diamond, Alberta, gratefully grounding himself in the landscapes and traditional territories of the Siksikaitsitapi, Tsuut’ina and Îethka Nakoda Wîcastabi nations.