Ben Litzcke was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Ben Litzcke is a BC-based conductor with a particular interest in contemporary wind music. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Island Chamber Winds, a professional touring ensemble based in Victoria. Through Island Chamber Winds, Ben works to make the music of living composers more approachable to audiences.

Ben is the Chair of the Pender Island Concert Society, where he curates diverse seasons featuring musicians from across Canada. He also enjoys teaching school band workshops and guest conducting in community music ensembles.

Ben holds a Master of Music in wind conducting from the University of Victoria, where he also completed a Bachelor of Music on clarinet. He currently lives on Pender Island with his three cats.

Nicholas Lai was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Nicolai is a computer scientist turned musical professional. Classically trained in both piano and violin, Nicolai has composed piano concertos, string quartets, and scored films, in addition to participating in classical music festivals in both Spain and Austria and a techno-arts residency in Southern California. While in college Nicolai also developed a passion for computer science, publishing AI research, working as a professional software engineer and bioinformatician, and garnering a Webby nomination for his algorithmic explainer Algo Theory.

He composes in a style which distinctly merges both orchestral and electronic elements into a one-of-a-kind sound.

Yejin Kwon was generously supported by the Rebecca Levant Performing Artists' Scholarship.

Yejin Kwon is a Korean composer based in Montreal whose work explores the beauty that emerges at the intersections of genres and cultures. She studied Korean traditional music, classical and contemporary music, electronic music, and music for visual media in Seoul, Paris, and Montréal, alongside academic training in French literature. This cross-cultural background informs an artistic practice shaped by movement between musical traditions, languages, and aesthetic contexts.

For Kwon, the final barline of a score does not signify closure, but an opening. Music becomes a point of departure for performers and listeners, unfolding through interpretation, play, or quiet presence. In this sense, encounters within Fuse: Music Residency 2026 hold particular importance within her ongoing practice.

Her work spans both concert and film music, including the orchestral album Biblioteca, the premiere of White Clad by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the Winnipeg New Music Festival, and her selection as one of seven composers for the Character Market at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montréal.

She is a member of the Association of Canadian Women Composers and an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, and is active as a composer of both concert and film music.

Jah'Mila was generously supported by the Lockwood Family Endowment Fund for Music.

Meet Jah’Mila, Juno-nominated reggae singer hailing from Kingston, Jamaica, who now calls Nova Scotia home. A beacon for Jamaican music and culture in Atlantic Canada, Jah’Mila's music embodies the spirit of traditional Jamaican roots reggae music, infused with light elements of jazz and soul. Her journey has led her to tour with renowned reggae acts like The Wailers, Black Uhuru, and Groundation to name a few. She has also collaborated with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Nova Scotia honing her skills as a vocalist and a cultural reggae ambassador along the way.

Her Juno nominated debut album, Roots Girl, released in 2022, is a spirited collection of reggae songs that not only honors her cultural roots, but also serves as a platform for social advocacy. Through her music, she champions a vision of a more inclusive, diverse, and supported arts community.

With the unwavering support of her musical team, Jah’Mila stands poised to light up every stage, continuing to captivate hearts and share her music and culture all across the world!

Carina Gillet de St Christ was generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment.

Carina Gillet is a multidisciplinary circus artist and musician whose work explores the relationship between movement, musicality, and collaborative creation. Drawn to circus for its inherently interdisciplinary nature, they are interested in how technical virtuosity can support expressive storytelling and contemporary performance.
 

They graduated from the New England Center for Circus Arts with a major in straps and a minor in partner acrobatics. Alongside their circus training, they maintain a strong background in music and often incorporate violin and musical structure into their creative process and performances. As a performer, they have worked as a straps soloist, lyra soloist, general aerialist, violinist, and flyer in both duo and group acrobatics. They have performed with companies including Cirque Dreams, Circus Scorpius, Cirque Us, and Cirque Musica.
 

Their creative practice is shaped by an interest in how rhythm, phrasing, and live sound can influence movement and expand the expressive possibilities of circus. They enjoy collaborative creation and are especially inspired by their work with the Gillet Trio, where they develop contemporary pieces that weave together high-level circus technique and musical sensibility. Through this work, they seek to create performances where music and movement function as equal partners, opening new possibilities for contemporary circus as a deeply collaborative art form.

Briana Gillet was generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment.

Briana Gillet is a French-American trumpet player and interdisciplinary artist based in Salt Lake City, Utah. An expressive and innovative performer, she is dedicated to creating immersive musical experiences that merge classical and contemporary traditions with electro-acoustic sound, movement, and visual media. Her work centers on collaboration, exploring how music interacts dynamically with space, gesture, and narrative.

A founding member of the Bridger Brass Quintet and a performer with the NYC-based Chrysalis Rock Orchestra, Briana has appeared in concerts and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. She is also a member of the Gillet Trio, whose interdisciplinary concept Project X integrates original music with aerial acrobatics, dance, and film. The project layers live performance with movement and visual design, creating immersive works that examine how narrative unfolds across disciplines through both structured and spontaneous processes.

Briana serves as Adjunct Professor of Trumpet at Utah Valley University and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Trumpet Performance at the University of Utah, where she studies with Dr. Peyden Shelton. She earned her Master of Music degree from Shenandoah Conservatory with Mary Elizabeth Bowden and her bachelor’s degree from Montana State University with Dr. Sarah Stoneback.

Heidi Gielczynsky was generously supported by the Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists Scholarship.

Heidi Giel (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1991) is a pianist, accordionist, and composer. A graduate of the Escuela de Música de Buenos Aires and student of prominent mentors, she creates, performs, and records her own works while also participating in collective and orchestral projects. Her practice explores jazz, electronic music, tango, free improvisation, and real-time composition.

She has performed at venues such as ArtLab, Palacio de la Cultura, Planta Inclán, Tecnópolis, Teatro Margarita Xirgu, Teatro Colón, and Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires. Between 2013 and 2017, she studied film direction alongside music, expanding her approach to staging and transforming concerts into performative and installation-based operas.

This interdisciplinary approach is reflected in her long-term project Arcanas XIII (2019–2024). Her work is best described as “electroacoustic music”, focusing on compositions that can be improvised or fragmented and later processed through pedals or modular systems. Her influences draw from impressionistic sound, which sought to recover a modal, landscape-like, and ritual quality rooted in ancient perceptual worlds.

She currently works as a teacher at UNA (National University of Arts), and as a composer, session musician, producer, and performer for Sonosfera. She is preparing the release of her first solo album, Hora Azul.

Ian Foster was generously supported by the Frelyn Memorial Endowment.

Ian Foster is a multidisciplinary artist and composer from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. A multiple MusicNL and ECMA Award Winner, including Sound on Screen Composer of the Year (2025), he has released eleven albums of original material and toured all over North America and Europe. He has composed for award winning short films and features that have premiered at TIFF, The Atlantic Film Festival and others. His score for SONS was the most streamed film on the National Film Board’s website in 2025. He was recently commissioned by CBC Radio to develop music for the 2025 Canada Games, and will present a unique sonic exhibition at multiple Canadian art galleries in 2026. He remains committed to a lifelong journey in sound and image. 

More at www.ianfoster.ca and naracommunity.ca

Adanya Dunn was generously supported by the Carolyn Tavender Endowment.

Adanya Dunn (she/they) is a Canadian-Bulgarian opera singer (mezzo-soprano), interdisciplinary artist, and creative entrepreneur. As a singer, Adanya’s performed with the Canadian Opera Company (Sulie/Suzie in Pomegranate, premiere - Marshall/Hale), Santa Fe Opera (Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Barbara Hannigan (Soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Mallarmé), Warsaw Chamber Opera (Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito), City Opera Vancouver (Anna in Sophia’s Forest, Canadian premiere - Moscovitch/Beecher), and Festival 20-21 (Berio’s Sequenza III).

Beyond the stage, Adanya is a curator, creator, and producer. Their work and practice is rooted in queer embodiment, community, and a commitment to collaboration across disciplines and identities. They are the co-founder of two different Amsterdam-based organizations: HXSSY and Red Light Arts & Culture (RLAC, est. 2020), a not-for-profit foundation that connects residents, local businesses, artists, site-specific locations, and social organizations, promoting and enriching the area’s cultural diversity.

Adanya composes classical/electronic music, writes poetry, paints watercolour, builds and designs websites, does photography, and performs pole, burlesque, and contact dance. They are a 500hr Yoga Teacher and are currently completing a multi-year Alexander Technique-based Yoga training.

www.adanyadunn.com & www.redlightartsandculture.com

Nicolás Castañeda Lozano was generously supported by the Ken and Marie Madsen Endowment Scholarships.

Nicolás Castañeda Lozano is an award-winning Colombian harpist and composer representing a new wave of Hispanic American musicians who balance innovation with tradition. Born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1989, he has dedicated his career to expanding the artistic possibilities of the arpa llanera, developing a contemporary sonic identity through genre-crossing composition and improvisation.

Mr. Castañeda’s work has been presented at international festivals and academic engagements, including Florida State University (USA), Somerset Folk Harp Festival (New Jersey), Nomads Festival (Helsinki, Finland), and Sonamos Latinoamérica (Copenhagen, Denmark), among others. His performances reflect a commitment to dialogue between Colombian traditions and global music practices.

He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he earned his Cum Laude degree in Jazz Composition. His first EP, Renacer, showcases the harp’s versatility through original works that blend folk, jazz, and contemporary music. He is currently developing his second album, featuring solo pieces and ensemble collaborations.

In addition, Mr. Castañeda’s master’s research at the Sibelius Academy, Uniarts Helsinki investigates creative musical notation systems designed to support intercultural collaboration without limiting artistic identity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Colombia and comparative analysis of notation methods, his work proposes approaches that foster shared creative ownership across cultures.