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.

Liz Page was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

YOU’RE is a creative storyteller based in Brooklyn. Primarily a vocalist and composer, she creates sonic expressions that are influenced by jazz, ambient, folk, and more. YOU’RE often performs her work in tandem with video projections that she designs using digital and film images. As an ethnomusicologist with degrees from the University of Oxford and New York University, YOU’RE also utilizes her research and field recording background to add additional layers of depth to her art.

YOU’RE has created and collaborated on works that have been presented in London (The Tate Modern), Montreal, New Orleans, and more. Her work examines various perspectives, such as the mental effects of familial hierarchy and its social expectations, or a tree’s internal monologue during deforestation. Her desire to self-reflect through different lenses comes from her Soulaani roots, whose traditions she uses throughout her work.

These traditions taught her that we don’t exist to understand and serve only an individual self, but rather try to understand and love all that exists as if we are one collective self. She strives to use her art to communicate this while highlighting the breadth, complexity, and richness of the Soulaani culture itself.

Janika Mueller was generously supported by the Michael Davies Scholarship Endowment Fund.

Janika Mueller is a German-Taiwanese Canadian violinist, composer, and interactive multimedia artist based in Vancouver, BC. Her practice sits at the intersection of music, technology, and performance, exploring how real-time data and digital systems can shape immersive musical experiences. Trained classically as a violinist, Janika’s work has evolved toward interactive composition and audiovisual performance, blending acoustic instruments with software-driven environments.

She composes across orchestral, electroacoustic, and popular genres, using tools such as MaxMSP, Logic Pro, and MuseScore to create responsive works that engage both performers and audiences. Her interactive pieces have been presented at UBC Bang! Festivals, and she has collaborated internationally through residencies such as the UBC Laptop Orchestra’s project at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Currently, Janika is developing H-CAT (Heart-Controlled Active Tempo), an interactive system that uses real-time heart-rate data to manipulate musical tempo, pitch, and visual forces, reflecting her interest in embodiment and human-machine interaction. Alongside her artistic practice, she works in digital marketing and strategy within arts organizations, positioning her to bridge experimental music technology with popular media, education, and entertainment.

Janika aims to bring interactive music and multimedia performance into wider cultural and commercial streams.

Benjamin Mizrach was generously supported by the Ada Bronstein Endowment Fund.

Ben Mizrach is a saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator based in Brooklyn.

Ben began playing piano at age 5 and saxophone at age 9. In high school he attended the Jazz House Kids summer workshop, where the inspiration of mentors Bruce Williams and Christian McBride would encourage him to study jazz saxophone at New England Conservatory, and physics at Tufts University.

Ben draws from a sprawling palette of influences, from Stephen Sondheim to Anthony Braxton. Alongside creative partner Harrison Clark, Ben wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Almanac – a stage musical exploring the artistic struggles of three black musicians studying at a predominantly white college. The musical, inspired by the work of composer T.J Anderson and American minstrel shows, premiered in Somerville, MA to a sold-out crowd in November of 2021.

In December 2023, Harrison and Ben reunited to develop and produce Orbiting Lovers & Contraband as part of the Office Hours Residency Program at the Kennedy Center. The project explores connections and disconnections - with each other, our environments, our ancestors, and ourselves.

Ben regularly performs in New York with his quartet, Zohar & Adam, and other projects.

He works as an educator at Jazz House Kids NYC, Brooklyn Friends School , and as a private lesson instructor.

Ryan McGeorge was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Ryan McGeorge is a Nashville based musician, composer, and educator specializing in Euphonium and low brass. As a former member of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band, he performed extensively in chamber, solo, and jazz settings, introducing Jazz Euphonium to the White House where he performed for countless dignitaries. His work has been featured at numerous International Tuba and Euphonium Conferences and festivals, and he has appeared as a guest artist and clinician with ensembles including the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble.

Ryan is known for expanding the expressive role of the euphonium through original compositions, improvisation, and the use of electronic effects. His work explores texture, timbre, and genre blending approaches drawn from jazz, fusion, rock, and experimental music. He has contributed as an arranger and composer to award winning recording projects and has performed across a wide range of collaborative and solo contexts.

Following his transition from military music, Ryan is re-exploring his creative identity and artistic direction. He is currently preparing the release of his debut solo album, Kuranes, a jazz fusion recording of original compositions and arrangements for euphonium and rhythm section, scheduled for release in 2026.

Amanda Raquel Martinez was generously supported by the Susan and Graeme McDonald Music Endowment.

Amanda Raquel Martinez is a Puerto Rican interdisciplinary artist drawing from the realms of songwriting, theatre, opera, yoga, circus, astrology, and dance to create multifaceted work. Originally from the Bronx, she has made her home in Chicago's performing arts scene over the last decade, most recently creating an album and presenting some of her original work with Physical Theatre Festival.

Chicago credits include: Circus Quixotic (Actors Gymnasium); Somewhere Over the Border (Teatro Vista); American Mariachi (Goodman Theatre); American Bottom; 33 to Nothing (A Red Orchid Theatre); Ghost Quartet* (Black Button Eyes Productions); La Ruta (Steppenwolf); Big Lake, Big City (Lookingglass Theatre); Cinderella at the Theater of Potatoes (Hypocrites); As You Like It; Love, Loss and What I Wore (First Folio Theatre); For the Love Of (Pride Films and Plays); Even Longer and Farther Away (The New Coordinates); El Stories: The Holiday Train (Waltzing Mechanics.)

Regional Credits include: Kitty Hawk (Adrienne Arsht Center) Frankenstein (The McCarter Theatre in association with Lookingglass Theatre) Pirates of Penzance (Skirball Theatre Center); Resurrecting Wildflowers (HERE: Arts Center); Pirates of Penzance (Pasadena Playhouse); Pirates of Penzance; The Mikado (Olney Theatre Center.)

*Recipient of a Joseph Jefferson Award for her role in this production.

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.