JUAN OLIVARES CO-FOUNDER

Puerto Rican-Canadian clarinetist Juan Olivares is an accomplished classical soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and music educator. He has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra, and Toronto Concert Orchestra and has has been a featured soloist with the Canadian Opera Company.An active performer of contemporary classical music, Juan has toured with Thin Edge New Music Collective, premiered numerous works with Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, has worked with CONTACT Contemporary Music, and performed with the Klangspuren Festival hosted by Ensemble Modern. He recently recorded with the Ulysses Ensemble and Ensemble Intercontemporain and his work on AYRE live with Miriam Khalil and Against the Grain was nominated for a 2018 Juno Award. Recently, Juan was a Civic Fellow for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was invited to tour with the Ulysses Ensemble of the Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics/Music in Paris, France. He is a DMA Candidate at the University of Toronto, where his research explores new directions in contemporary music programming.

MEGHAN LINDSAY CO-FOUNDER

Meghan is a Canadian opera singer, creator, and researcher. She has performed to critical acclaim in Canada and internationally, most recently with The Harris Theatre Chicago, Opera Atelier, Odyssey Opera Boston, The Royal Opera Versailles, The Glimmerglass Festival, Carnegie Hall, and Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Winner of the Ottawa’s Brian Law Competition, Meghan was nominated for a Dora award for Outstanding Performance in an Ensemble and has recorded for Grammy-nominated ensemble Ars Lyrica. Meghan is a researcher with the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative and a PhD Candidate in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, where her research investigates how issues of race, gender, and class manifest in classical music organizational structures. She holds a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Leadership from Carleton University, has both moderated and curated academic panels on Canadian arts practice, and is an OGS recipient for her research on classical music organizations in North America. Meghan is a proud recipient of the Ottawa Arts Council Mid Career Award for artistic achievement.

LUIS FERNANDO AMAYA

Born in Aguascalientes, México, Luis Fernando Amaya is a composer and percussionist. Topics such as collective memory, "flaw," and the relationship between humans and non-human others (such as plants and animals, imaginary or not) are commonly present in his work. He studied composition and music theory at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Musicales (CIEM) in México City. Currently, Luis Fernando is pursuing a Ph.D. in composition at Northwestern University.Amaya's music has been performed throughout North America (México, the US, Canada), South America, and Europe. Performers of his music include the Arditti Quartet (UK), Yuko Yoshikawa (Japan), CEPROMUSIC (México), Quartetto Indaco (Italy), Spektral Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente (USA), amongst others. He is the recipient of various awards and fellowships such as the Fonca-Conacyt Scholarship, Presidential Fellowship (NU,) and representing México in the 61st International Rostrum of Composers of the UNESCO in Helsinki, Finland.

As a performer, Amaya is a member of the collective composition and free improvisation trio Fat Pigeon. His scores are published by BabelScores.

KRISTS AUZNIEKS

Krists Auznieks is a New York based Latvian composer. His quintet was featured in The New York Times among the week’s best classical music moments. His opera NeoArctic, co-written with British techno producer Andy Stott, won Danish Reumert Prize and had its US premiere at The Kennedy Center.

​Recent commissions include works for Atlanta Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Cappella Amsterdam, Latvian Radio Choir, Contemporaneous, and Sinfonietta Riga. Auznieks’ music has been performed at The Lincoln Center, The Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Royal Danish Theatre, Beijing National Arts Centre, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, London’s Southbank Center and featured in Gaudeamus, MATA, World Cultures Festival (Hong Kong), and UNESCO International Rostrum in Finlad. Recognitions include Jacob Druckman Prize, Latvian Grand Music Award, fellowships from Aspen, Norfolk, Bennington, NEXT festivals, American Academy of Fontainebleau, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Serenbe Institute, and ACO Earshot. He has served on the faculty of Yale School of Music, Montclair State University, and has taught for NY Philharmonic's Very Young Composers Program.

CARSON BECKE

Canadian Pianist Carson Becke (www.carsonbecke.com) has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician around the world. He is also the co-director of Pontiac Enchanté, a concert series in Luskville, Quebec. Carson completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and his master’s and doctorate degrees in performance and musicology at the University of Oxford, made possible by the generous support of the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund. After living in the UK for fourteen years, Carson returned to Canada in late 2019 and currently resides in Ottawa, where he continues his work as a freelance pianist. He has two albums that are available on all online streaming platforms.

RACHEL FENLON

Canadian soprano Rachel Fenlon is a frequent performer of the operatic repertoire of Mozart, Handel, and Rossini; in the vast lied repertoire, from French and German to contemporary English works, and in demand as an oratorio soloist. A trained pianist, Rachel enjoys a diverse and uniquely varied solo career, exploring art song from the piano, and accompanying herself in recital. Upcoming recital debuts for Fenlon and Fenlon include Oper Leipzig and Vancouver Opera.

Recent career highlights include Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance) with Vancouver Opera; Nannetta (Falstaff) and Queen Guinevere (Camelot) with Pacific Opera Victoria; Lisa (Das Land des Lächelns) with the Vancouver Symphony, and Mimi (La Boheme) with Bard on the Beach Festival. As an oratorio soloist, Rachel’s recent projects include Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonelle with Maestro Alberto Zedda, Handel’s Messiah with the Victoria and Vancouver Symphonies, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Brahms’ Requiem with the Vancouver Bach Choir, Bach’s Magnificat with Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Bach’s Cantata 51 with Early Music Victoria, and Eriks Esenvald’s Passion and Ressurection with the Borealis String Quartet at the Chan Centre. The passionate recitalist Rachel is, she has performed countless recitals over the past few years, exploring repertoire from Schubert and Berg, to Messiaen and Britten. Most recently, Rachel performed Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Nine Settings of Lorine Niedecker with cellist Adrian Brendel in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and a recital of Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliées at Pacific Opera Victoria’s Baumann Centre

GREG GALLAGHER

Greg Gallagher began his musical career in his hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick. Greg arrived in Ontario to continue his cello studies at Western University before attending the Glenn Gould School of Music and the University of Toronto. He enjoys performing with several orchestras and chamber groups locally, as well as abroad with Quartetto Gelato. Committed to musical education, Greg currently holds the position of Strings Director at the Bishop Strachan School in Toronto and has helped build music programs in schools across the GTA.

KATIE GORRIE

Katie Gorrie is a poet, curator, educator and cultural organizer based out of New Brunswick. Katie’s background is in English Literature  with an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Her poetry and creative non-fiction works have been published in Good Letters, Grain Magazine, The Rain, Party & Disaster Society, and The New Quarterly, and she has performed in Montreal, Vancouver and New Brunswick. Her libretto poetry work has been featured at Saw Gallery in Ottawa, and at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival.

She co-founded and ran the literary and arts magazine and cultural initiative, The Filid Society for Aesthetics, where she curated and led community-based events and programming across Canada, the US, and Europe. Katie also curated and facilitated the Bonfire Arts festival, which featured free music, arts workshops, and guest speakers, contributing to the vitality of smaller communities in Charlotte County, New Brunswick. Her work as an editor focuses on collaborative projects in non-fiction, poetry, fiction and playwriting. Katie’s years as an educator deeply influence her work and practice as a writer. Her feminist writing practice is rooted in vulnerability, embodiment, transformation, and the alchemy that occurs through collaborative work.

ERIN LINDSAY

Erin Lindsay is a Montreal-based writer and creator who is interested in art and theatre’s potential for social change. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre and Ethics (University of Ottawa) a Graduate degree in Communications (Concordia University) and is completing her Master in Creative Writing (University of British Colombia.) Erin has worked for not-for-profit arts organizations throughout Montreal including the English Language Arts Network, Repercussion Theatre and Black Theatre Workshop. Erin also facilitated and led a play written and performed by McGill medical students that was aimed at increasing empathy and understanding through the process of collective creation. She is a frequent performer with Montreal fringe, and recently wrote and self-produced the Hysteria Tryptich for the Revolution they Wrote Feminist Theatre Festival.

TALA KAMEA

Filipina-Hungarian artist Tala Kamea crafts beautifully textured electropop that is airy, emotive, and defies classification. Drawing from indie, R&B, and pop influences, her experience in classical, contemporary and folk music has culminated in work as the creator of PANQUEQUE- an electronic ode to ancestry and self love.

MATTHIAS MCINTIRE

Matthias McIntire is a composer, violinist, violist, electronic musician, improviser, and music educator active across a broad spectrum of contexts. Currently pursuing his DMA in Composition at the University of Toronto with Christos Hatzis and Eliot Britton, Matthias’ compositions have been recognized with numerous awards and achievements. Highlights include upcoming performances of his Cathedral Grove (and the Gray Jay) for violin and live electronics at Robert Aitken’s New Music Concerts, in a TEDxUofT talk, and at the Center for New Music in San Francisco (SF). The One Found Sound Woodwind Quintet will premiere his 6 Miniatures in SF in April. Additionally, in 2016 he won the Costello Competition for Composition (Philadelphia), and he has received the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for three consecutive years: 2016, 2017, 2018.

ALEX MCLEOD

Alex McLeod (b. 1984). is a Canadian visual artist informed by simulation and the transition of matter. His overall practice explores lifecycles, connectivity, and empathy to space. As a digital artist, he uses computer software to create 3D rendered environments, producing forms without the rules and boundaries of the material world. Through print, animation and sculpture, McLeod’s work pushes unnatural phenomenon into this dimension - opening up an alternate view or portals, into experiencing time and space in a non-linear way. 

Alex McLeod has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ontario College of Art and Design (2007), and a Masters of Digital Media (2016) from Ryerson University. His print and video work is collected by several major corporate and government institutions, including Global Affairs Canada/ Affaires Mondiales Canada. 

He is represented by Division Gallery Toronto | Montreal.

JAMIE ALEXANDER MCMILLAN

Jamie Alexander McMillan is a Toronto-based artist and filmmaker exploring the spaces between art, cinema and science. In his practice, he uses video, photography, drawing, sound and sculpture to explore the relationship between tangible and intangible, conscious and subconscious. Jamie has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University and a Master of Design from the Glasgow School of Art. He has ongoing curatorial projects that focus on installation and moving image arts, such as the screening series Augmented Cinema. Jamie works as a freelancer producing videos, graphics, photo and print work for artists, creatives, and community organizations.

JENNIFER NICHOLS

Jennifer Nichols, choreographer, director and professional dancer, is also founder and director of The Extension Method and Co-Artistic Director of the dance entertainment firm Hit and Run Dance Productions, producing dance works across Canada and internationally. Jennifer holds extensive choreography and performance credits, including FAWN Chamber Creative- ‘Pandora’ (2019), Toronto Summer Music Festival- ‘L’Histoire du Soldat’ (2018), Or-egon Music Festival- ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ (2018), Esprit Orchestra- ‘Lilt’- world premier col-laboration with composer Matthew Ricketts (2018), Toronto Symphony Orchestra-‘Seven Deadly Sins’ (2017), Against the Grain Theatre- ‘Messiah’ (2013, 2015-winner of the 2016 Dora award for Outstanding Ensemble Production) and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory-‘La Belle Helene’ (2015).

She has also been commissioned as choreographer and dancer for the Art Gallery of Ontario (The Mystical Soul), Canadian Art Song Project (Sewing the Earthworm), Opera 5 (Die Fleder-maus), FAWN Chamber Creative (Pandora, Synesthesia IV), Bicycle Opera Project (Sweat) and Loose Tea Theatre. Jennifer acted as stage/film director for Hausmusik’s ‘Traverseé’ with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (2017).

For television and film, Jennifer is currently head choreographer and dance consultant on the Netflix series ‘Tiny Pretty Things’ and holds choreographer credits for all four seasons of ‘Reign’ (CW Network), ‘Titans’ (DC Universe), ‘Glamorous’ (CW), ’Salvation’ (CBS), ‘Mary Kills People’ (Global TV), ‘Falling Water’ (USA Network), ‘Transylvania’ (CW Network), as well as the feature film ‘Barney’s Version’ (Serendipity Point Films).

ANDREW RASMUS

Andrew Rasmus is timpanist with the National Ballet of Canada and currently working as a percussionist/timpanist in and around the Toronto area. Along with classical percussion, Andrew has also performed in various styles from jazz to traditional Turkish classical music.

Mr. Rasmus is an active percussionist and timpanist, having performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and recently appointed the Principal Percussionist of the National Ballet of Canada. In addition to orchestral playing, Andrew also has several chamber music pursuits including the Imagine ensemble, the Metis Fiddler Quartet and is a founding member of the Spectrum Percussion Quartet.

In the near future, Andrew will be performing with various ensembles in Toronto and will serve as Principal Timpanist with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra.

JONATHAN STUCHBERY

Jonathan is an artist engaged in inspiring and educating audiences as diverse as his musical interests. Whether it be on the lute and period instruments, classical, or electric guitar, his performances offer "exciting and technically brilliant" (Marvin Dickau) displays of the wealth of the musical language. Solo performances have included concerts with the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble and for the Governor General of Canada. He is active in the rich early music scene in Eastern Canada, and can be seen performing music on period instruments, solo and with ensembles such as Les Méandres (Montréal), Theatre of Early Music, Aureas Voces, Melos Choir (Kingston), and Cor Unum Ensemble (Toronto).

He is a founding member of the Cygnus trio (flute, violin, guitar), which places an emphasis on performing not only in traditional venues, but in reaching out to the community through events such as visits to women's shelters, house concerts, and children's programs. The trio recently toured their program 'Lost Islands' through Ontario, featuring new music and poetry by Canadian artists, in collaboration with actors Paul Hopkins, and Blair Williams, and composer Arie van de Ven. The trio's debut album 'Amalgam' was released in December 2018, and features new works and arrangements written specifically for them.

MAGDALENA VASKO

Magdalena is a Polish/Canadian citizen who lives in Toronto, Canada. She has worked as a professional dancer with Opera Atelier and as a photographer, designer and Artistic Associate to the director at DNA Theatre. She has directed, designed, choreographed and performed in many theatre, dance and opera productions, most recently with the Nuit Blance Festival Toronto. Magda is a former dancer with the National Ballet of Canada and is currently freelancing, working on a variety of graphic design projects while continuing her performance, photography and artistic endeavours. She speaks Polish, English and some Hungarian.

GAVIN WHELEHAN

With an extensive background in sound design for film, television, and multimedia, Whehlehan has worked with a wide variety of talents including fine artists Nep Sidhu, Rajni Perera, and Alex McLeod, musical artists Joseph of Mercury, DATU, TiKA, film makers and animators such as Thought Café, Headgear Animation, Sammy Rawal, and Sara Elgamal, as well as comedians The Templeton Philharmonic, Tony Ho, and Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll. He is is a founder of the popular “Practice” series held at the Drake Hotel for the past 4 years, stewarding a platform to highlight a diverse cast of the best instrumentalists in Toronto, with improvised music as the centrepiece.