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Hinano Fujisaki

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Hinano Fujisaki is a saxophonist, improviser and composer based in Eora/Sydney, Australia.  She just recently released her sophomore EP there is a rabbit on the moon in May this year. This music is an extension of the sounds explored in her debut EP Home Is (People Sound, 2023), where she blends together jazz, improvised, folk and ambient music, weaving folkloric melodies against shifting soundscapes and textures. Hinano recently featured on Simon Barker’s new release, Tymbal Echoes (2025) performing the music at Sydney’s notable Phoenix Central Park. She also performs with jazz quartet Zodiac, who released their album Wild Wild East (ABC Jazz Commission, 2024) and toured in Asia, performing the music in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Tokyo at the start of this year.

In 2024, Hinano was awarded the Judy Bailey Jazz Connection Emerging Composers Scholarship and she has collaborated with directors to compose for short films including Echoes of the Lake by Lonefish Productions (2024) and Essence of You by Mellowminh (2025).  She has completed a Bachelor of Music (Performance) majoring in jazz saxophone at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2021. 

Hinano Fujisaki was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

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Jasper Craig-Adams

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Jasper Craig-Adams is an Eora/Sydney based musician, composer and improviser who performs under monikers: jasper c-a and jasu. Despite a background in guitar-centred studies in jazz, latin-american music and classical, Jasper has worked with a number of bands in the DIY scene of punk, experimental, and folk infused pop. Primary band Daily Toll has released two EP’s and just recently released an album A Profound Non-Event on Tough Love Records (UK), earning attention from BBC 6,  several NTS radio shows as well as community radio stations across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. 

This July 2025 sees Jasper touring Hungary and the United Kingdom with Daily Toll. Jasper also performs experimental improv based music using extended technique on guitar both solo and in collaborations with Hinano Fujisaki (Hinano Fujisaki & jasper c-a), kankan (kankan + jasu) and Mitchell Elliott (withdrawe).

Jasper Craig-Adams was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

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Illustration by Shannon Fidler, Banff Centre

Illustration by Shannon Fidler, Banff Centre

 

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Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian classic continues to resonate, with a new iteration of the story appearing at Alberta’s Banff Centre on July 26, 2025 in a chamber arrangement by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based composer Dan Schlosberg commissioned by Banff Centre.

BANFF, AB, July 16, 2025 – Four decades after its first publication, Margaret Atwood’s chillingly relevant The Handmaid’s Tale continues to evolve into new form: from a novel to an acclaimed TV show, to an opera by composer Poul Ruders and librettist Paul Bentley. Now, a new chamber music arrangement by Dan Schlosberg of that opera will receive its world premiere at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity on Saturday, July 26, 2025, at 8 p.m. in the Jenny Belzberg Theatre at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

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Set in the year 2195, the opera begins with the sudden discovery of a box of audio cassettes dating back to the early 21st century. The tapes reveal the secret diary of an anonymous woman who appears to have escaped from her role as an involuntary, so-called Handmaid, in the theocratic dictatorship of the republic Gilead—formerly The United States—around the year 2006. We never learn the Handmaid’s real name, only her assigned name of service: Offred.

Commissioned by Banff Centre, the new arrangement by Dan Schlosberg reimagines Ruders and Bentley’s opera for an intimate yet powerful chamber orchestra. Schlosberg, based in Brooklyn, New York, has been praised for his adaptations of operas like Carmen and Madama Butterfly as “fresh, urgent and immediate… with an avant-garde spirit and an eye toward the issues of our time” by The New York Times. Under Schlosberg’s musical invention, this production presents Atwood’s story at a time of unprecedented significance.

After an acclaimed workshop at Banff Centre in 2024, this full production is a marquee event of the 2025 Banff Centre Summer Arts Festival, featuring an all-female creative team including conductor Kamna Gupta, director Brenna Corner, and assistant director Amanda Testini. It also features set design by Gillian Gallow, lighting by Sophie Tang, costumes by Jessica Oostergo, projections by S. Katy Tucker, and fight and intimacy coordination by Anastasia St. Amand.

Quotation

This is a dream team to bring striking new life to this story, which only feels more visceral and urgent with each passing year. Kamna, Brenna, Amanda, Gillian, Sophie, Jessica, Katy, and Anastasia are all exceptional in their craft, and the result is eerie, moving, and undeniably powerful. In this new chamber production, my hope is that this opera will reach even more audiences across Canada and beyond.

Source
Amiel Gladstone, Director, Theatre Arts at Banff Centre
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Fulfilling Banff Centre’s mission as a post-secondary institution dedicated to training and education opportunities in arts, leadership, and mountain culture, this production is the culmination of a month-long residency program Interplay, celebrating the convergence of opera and chamber music. A collaboration between Banff Centre’s Theatre Arts and Music departments, Interplay offers early-career opera, music, and theatre professionals the unique opportunity to work on a fully produced opera alongside a world-class creative team.

After 11 years as Artistic Director, Opera at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, this production will be Joel Ivany’s final project in this role. For Ivany—founder and first artistic director of Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre and current Artistic Director of Edmonton Opera—The Handmaid’s Tale represents not only a story for the current moment, but his legacy in bringing opera training at Banff Centre into the 21st century.

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As I reflect on my tenure at Banff Centre, I think about helping foster a collaborative and innovative space for emerging artists in opera and music. I’m proud to have reimagined traditional practices and to have supported building a community where curiosity and creativity could thrive.

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Joel Ivany, Artistic Director, Opera at Banff Centre
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Jenny Belzberg Theatre at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive, Banff
July 26, 2025
7:30 p.m. $45 -$75
Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes
Tickets are available at banffcentre.ca or 403.762.6301. 

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For photos, information, or interview requests, please contact:

Carly Maga
Director, Communications
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
tel: +1.403.763.6210
cell: +1.403.431.3423 
carly_maga@banffcentre.ca

About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

Founded in 1933, Banff Centre is a post-secondary institution built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and leadership development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become a global organization leading in arts, culture, and creative decision-making across dozens of disciplines, from the fine arts to Indigenous Wise Practices. From our home in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to move everyone who attends our campus - artists, leaders, thinkers, and audiences - to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to build an innovative, inspiring future through education, performances, convenings, and public outreach. banffcentre.ca

About Dan Schlosberg

Brooklyn-based composer, pianist, and conductor Daniel Schlosberg’s music has been performed by the Dover Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Nashville and Albany Symphonies, at Carnegie Hall, (le) poisson rouge, Royal Albert Hall, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption, and has also been featured in the New York Times and WNYC’s Soundcheck. Dan has received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards. He has composed for and music directed at the Soho Repertory Theater, Public Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and Playwrights Horizons. Daniel is the Music Director of Heartbeat Opera, for which his radical re-orchestrations of classic operas have been praised by the Wall Street Journal as “ingenious.” In addition to collaborations with Angel Blue, Ariana DeBose, Ben Stiller, Tony Kushner, Anthony McGill, and the Imani Winds, Schlosberg was a pianist on the Grammy-winning soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, and a featured soloist in Only an Octave Apart with the New York Philharmonic. danschlosberg.com

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Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, 
Punctuate! Theatre, and Pyretic Productions present

Kohkom’s Babushka

Written by Lianna Makuch & Joleen Ballendine
Inspired by the book by Marion Mutala
Directed by Lianna Makuch
Movement Directed by Anna Kuman

Previews: October 10, 15, & 16
Premiere: October 18


Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is proud to present Kohkom's Babushka, a new family theatre production developed in collaboration with Pyretic Theatre, Pemmican Collective, and Punctuate! Theatre. 

When feuding tweens—Paulette, who’s Métis, and Natalia, who’s Ukrainian—are forced to team up to protect a beloved tree from being cut down, they are accidentally transported back to the turn of the 20th century. The girls find themselves caught in an unfamiliar world and must discover a way to cooperate if they want to find their way back home. Along the way, they discover connections between their two cultures through music, dance, and their values, and craft the beginnings of a new and profound friendship.

Inspired by the work of prairie author Marion Mutala, Kohkom’s Babushka re-examines the legacies of traditional Canadian settler stories, fostering dialogue that celebrates both differences and shared values. It highlights the beauty of cultural traditions, the spirit of generosity, and the enduring power of friendship.

Join Banff Centre for this family production, great for ages 8+.
 

The New Play Productions are generously funded by The Slaight Family Foundation.
 

Praise for Punctuate! Theatre

"ever-enterprising" - The Edmonton Journal
"Never let it be said that Punctuate! Theatre doesn’t earn its exclamation mark." - 12thNight.ca

Kohkom's Babushka
Page Summary
Experience the heartwarming world premiere of Kohkom’s Babushka, a time-travelling family play. Previews Oct 10, 15, 16; world premiere Oct 18.
Exhibition
No
Banff Centre Artist/Practicum/Staff Only
Off
Licensed
Off
Age Restrictions
Ages 8+
Event Tags
Performance Date
Date
Audience View Micro Site URL
https://tickets.banffcentre.ca/Online/mapSelect.asp?BOset::WSmap::seatmap::performance_ids=3FBEEBD0-7C4C-46B2-BBF7-F6888CAA3886
Extra Description

Premiere

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Description

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Based on the story by Washington Irving
Adaptation & Story by Peter Balkwill, Anna Cummer, Steven (Pityu) Kenderes, and Judd Palmer
Written by Anna Cummer and Judd Palmer
Directed by Craig Hall
Alberta Theatre Projects
In association with Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Featuring The Old Trout Puppet Workshop
World Premiere
 

Previews: October 11, 14, & 15
Premiere: October 17 


Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is proud to present the premiere of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, developed in association with Alberta Theatre Projects and featuring The Old Trout Puppet Workshop.

Ten years after the American Revolutionary War, the country is still haunted by the violence that created it.  A country school master, Ichabod Crane, finds himself dispatched to a remote village North of the Hudson River: Sleepy Hollow. Here, he tries to bring the inhabitants of this deeply superstitious hamlet into the 18th century. But secrets run deep, and not all is as it appears in this place still haunted by its past.

Brought to wildly imaginative life by the twisted genius of The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, this world premiere adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow breathes exciting new life into the enduring and haunting tale of the Headless Horseman. 

Experience this thrilling tale first, before it heads to its full theatrical run at Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary. Just in time for Halloween, travel to Sleepy Hollow at Banff Centre!

The New Play Productions are generously funded by The Slaight Family Foundation.
 

Praise for The Old Trout Puppet Workshop:

“A fantastical visual world” – The Globe and Mail

“…Unimaginable creativity and talent… downright beautiful.” – Vue Magazine

“As funny as it is inventive” – The Guardian

“Brilliant, sublime and often hilarious… sheer visual poetry…” – Monday Magazine

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Page Summary
Catch the haunting world premiere of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Previews Oct 11, 14, 15; world premiere Oct 17.
Exhibition
No
Banff Centre Artist/Practicum/Staff Only
Off
Licensed
Off
Event Tags
Performance Date
Date
Audience View Micro Site URL
https://tickets.banffcentre.ca/Online/mapSelect.asp?BOset::WSmap::seatmap::performance_ids=14F0597C-1479-4E6C-8D21-8AB40960BEFE
Extra Description

Premiere

Audience Advisory: Suggested for ages 12+, mature content, dark imagery, theatrical effects (loud sounds, flashing lights, water-based non-toxic fog/stage haze).  For further advisory information which contains light show spoilers, please click HERE.

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Submitted by Jessica Brende… on
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Man wearing blue button down standing outside with arms crossed in front of chest

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Shahrokh Yadegari, composer and computer musician, has collaborated with such artists as Peter Sellars, Robert Woodruff, Ann Hamilton, Christine Brewer, Gabor Tompa, Maya Beiser, Steven Schick, Keyavash Nourai, Siamak Shajarian, and Hossein Omoumi. He has performed and his productions, compositions, and designs have been presented internationally in such venues as the Carnegie Hall, Royce Hall, Festival of Arts and Ideas, OFF-DAvignon Festival, International Theatre Festival in Cluj/Romania, Ravinia Festival, Ruhr-Triennale, Vienna Festival, Holland Festival, Tirgan Festival, Forum Barcelona, Japan America Theatre, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, and the Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung (Darmstadt).

Yadegari holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, a Master's in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT's Media Lab, and a Ph.D. in music from University of California, San Diego. He has worked at Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), and he is one of the founders and the artistic director of Kereshmeh Records and Persian Arts Society, organizations dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of Persian traditional and new music. Yadegari is currently on the faculty of the department of Music at University of California, San Diego, and an associate director at the Qualcomm Institute where he directs the Sonic Arts Research and Development group.

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Description

Join us to learn how to make a medicine pouch during National Indigenous History Month with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and artists Elder Ekti Margaret Cardinal and MJ Belcourt. 

We invite you to join artist MJ Belcourt Moses for a hands-on workshop grounded in Indigenous cultural teachings and practice. Participants will create their own pouch using smoked, tanned deer hide while learning about its role in carrying sacred medicines and personal items. All materials are provided.

Registration required. Availability is limited, as there are supplies for 9 participants. 
Open to all ages, backgrounds, and levels of experience. 

This course is now full. 
If you are confirmed but can no longer attend, please email box_office@banffcentre.ca 
The waitlist is also full. You will be contacted on the waitlist if a spot becomes available.

Join Banff Centre throughout the month of June for National Indigenous History Month. Other free events include a dance workshop, storytelling, online film screenings, and a Virtual Art Marketplace.
 

 

Medicine Pouch Workshop, National Indigenous History Month at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Page Summary
Join us to learn how to make a medicine pouch during National Indigenous History Month.
Exhibition
No
Banff Centre Artist/Practicum/Staff Only
Off
Licensed
Off
Performance Date
Date
Expandable Content
Faculty Biographies

MJ Belcourt and Ekti Margaret Cardinal

Melissa-Jo Belcourt (MJ) comes from a rich Métis ancestry and possesses a wealth of cultural skills, acquired from Métis and First Nation Elders and Knowledge Holders throughout northern and central Alberta. Her passion lies in her cultural heritage where she continues to research to find better understanding of her ancestral legacy she follows. As a certified instructor, she has taught decorative arts and creative skills within Indigenous cultural art programs and continues to support the community both aboriginal and non-aboriginal in facilitating workshops to teach both the history and traditional art skills. Recognized in November 2006 with the city of Edmonton Salute to Excellence Citation and Performance Award for representing Alberta at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival by exhibiting and demonstrating her Metis roots in art. In 2009, MJ was awarded the Aboriginal Role Model of Alberta Art Award for her work as an Artisan and as a recognized cultural art instructor. On September 8th, 2018 through the initiative of Canadians for a Civil Society MJ received the Daughter of the Year award. January 2019 MJ accepted the role as Edmonton’s Indigenous Artist in Residency.

Elder Ekti Margaret Cardinal, is an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper from Saddle Lake First Nations in north eastern Alberta who was raised in a family which maintained, practised and taught the values of Traditional Cree culture. She is a well-known Tipi and Tent Maker, who has taught and sold TIPIS at Lubicon/ Little Buffalo Band # 453, Blue Quills University, Ashmont School, Fringe Festival, Edmonton Folk Festival, Saddle Lake Education Authority, and Private individuals for personal use. She has developed and taught courses in a wide variety of indigenous traditional skills such as horse and moose hair wrapping, quill work, fish scale arts, caribou and moose tufting, various forms of bead works, moccasin making, talking sticks, mini-sweet grass basket making, beaded turtles, bears, buffalos, horse amulet pouches and their teachings, and hosts women’s gatherings yearly. Margaret Cardinal is a “Resident Kokoom”, one of the Elder and Knowledge and Language Holders at the Faculty of Education, at the University of Alberta.

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Banff Centre's Mountain Culture and Indigenous Arts programs invite you to join us for a pair of films directed by Blackfoot documentarian Trevor Solway. Both films feature his community of Siksika Nation. One spotlights a climber's journey of self-discovery through the sport, and the other explores Indigenous masculinity. 

Iikaiksimatsa'pao'p (Grateful to Be on the Land) Canada, 2025, 13 min
Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man Canada, 2025, 77 min

This event is free and all are welcome. Cash bar available. 
In case of inclement weather, this outdoor screening will take place in the Margaret Greenham Theatre.

Please note that Maclab Bistro will be closed September 10-11 for a private event, but on-campus dining is still available at Vistas Dining Room. Guests may use the washrooms in the Max Bell Building during film screening. 

 

With support from 

Banff Canmore Foundation Logo

 

From the film Iikaiksimatsa'pao'p (Grateful to Be on the Land)
Page Summary
A night under the stars celebrating Indigenous films! Join us for two films by Blackfoot documentarian Trevor Solway.
Exhibition
No
Free
Yes
Banff Centre Artist/Practicum/Staff Only
Off
Licensed
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Description

Bring a blanket and the whole family for this first of two nights of inspiring mountain films under the stars! 

These inspiring fan-favourite films from the 2025 Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour will take you on a journey spanning ski slopes, bike trails, glaciers, and beyond. 

Cold Calls - Japan (Tour edit) USA, 2025, 6 min
The Hive Architect UK, 2025, 12 min
Best Day Ever USA, 2025, 47 min
2025 Audience Choice Award Winner
Deluge Canada, 2025, 2 min
A Baffin Vacation, Love on Ice Canada, 2025, 26 min

This event is free and all are welcome. Cash bar available. 
In case of inclement weather, this outdoor screening will take place in the Margaret Greenham Theatre.

Please note that Maclab Bistro will be closed September 10-11 for a private event, but on-campus dining is still available at Vistas Dining Room. Guests may use the washrooms in the Max Bell Building during film screening. 

From the film A Baffin Vacation: Love on Ice, photo by Eric Boomer
Page Summary
Bring a blanket and the whole family for a lineup of inspiring films from the 2025 Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour..
Exhibition
No
Free
Yes
Banff Centre Artist/Practicum/Staff Only
Off
Licensed
Off
Performance Date
Date
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1789092000
Description

In celebration of National Indigenous History Month, watch a curated lineup of short films from Indigenous filmmakers sharing Indigenous cultures, stories, and voices, from the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.

These films were available online from June 21-27 | FREE
Only 500 views were available, so order in advance to guarantee your chance to watch these films. 

Borrowed from the Earth – 15 min (USA) 
Throughout their respective histories, both horse and Indigenous people have been corralled. Fences put horses in pens and the Blackfeet on reservations, but the centuries-long attempts to subdue both was also successful in strengthening the connection between horse and man.

En Plein Air – 15 mins (CAN)
Two decades after the expedition that launched his art career, Indigenous painter Alfred Villeneuve returns by canoe to paint in the wilderness, where nature is both subject and guide.

The Hard Way – 16 mins (USA)
Matt Mendes, is a Warm Springs tribal member and guide whose life is intertwined with the cycles of the Deschutes River. Taught by his grandfather, the first Native American guide on the river, Mendes has spent years carving his own path—one defined by patience, hard work, and an unshakable connection to the water and land.

Iikaiksimatsa’pao’p (Grateful to Be on the Land) – 13 mins (CAN)
Cassie Ayoungman, founder of Soul of Miistaki and member of the Siksika nation, embarks on a journey to bring the healing power of the mountains to those within her community. Breaking down barriers to climbing, and integrating Indigenous teachings and land-based learning, she raises questions about representation and redefines what it means to be on the land.

Shaped by Land – 16 mins (USA)
Adam Kjeldsen is one of the only Inuit ski guides operating in Greenland, a destination dominated by foreign operators. Shaped by Land follows his pursuit of a more sustainable vision for ski tourism—rooted in deep connection to land, community, and culture.

Join Banff Centre throughout the month of June for National Indigenous History Month. Other free events include jewelry and dance workshops, storytelling, and a Virtual Art Marketplace. 
 

 

With support from 

 
From the film The Hard Way
Page Summary
Watch a curated lineup of short films by Indigenous filmmakers sharing cultures, stories, and voices from the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.
Exhibition
Yes
Free
Yes
Banff Centre Artist/Practicum/Staff Only
Off
Exhibition Dates
-
Licensed
Off
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