Filippo Deorsola (they/them) is an Italian pianist and composer based in Brussels. With a multidisciplinary background spanning music (BA) and Philosophy (MA), their practice is a hybrid encompassing group and solo projects, article publications and composing for diverse setups including chamber ensemble, Javanese Gamelan instruments and smaller electroacoustic line-ups.

Increasingly centered on a rhythmical and conceptual investigation of wood-based piano preparation, the resulting space of expression is kaleidoscopic, yet remains grounded through programmatic experimentation. These take multiple shapes, with one of them being their long-standing piano trio project, Anaphora. Releasing a first album for Auand Records (IT) in 2022, the group’s latest work, [Bloom], mixes jazz with textural and percussive influences from Balinese Gamelan and released on January 2025 for Swedish label Loumi Records.

A multi-awarded artist in solo (Best instrumentalist, Tremplin Jazz d’Avignon 2024) and with Anaphora (Burghausen Nachwuchs-Jazzpreis 2025, Jazz Migration 2025, Keep an Eye 2024, Goethe-Culture Moves Europe 2023, VGC 2023, Italy Music Export 2022) , Filippo has accumulated a variety of experiences both as project leader, composer and side-musician (Domen Cizej Duo with Clean Feed records). They are co-leading EMBAT, an international collaborative project between the gamelan ensemble Sandikala and Anaphora. Supported by Maison de la Musique Contemporaine. 

Filippo Deorsola was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Dhaivat Jani is a Toronto-based, award-winning drummer, tabla player, and composer from Ahmedabad, India. He began his musical journey at age five, focusing on Indian classical music, and achieved his tabla Visharad at 16, earning three gold medals. A Humber College graduate with a Bachelor of Music, Dhaivat has called Toronto home since 2018. 

In 2023, Dhaivat released his debut album Sum // Parts with his contemporary jazz ensemble, Dhaivat Jani PLUS, earning acclaim from outlets like All About Jazz, Paris Move, and Jazz.FM91. Beyond leading his ensemble, he collaborates widely, moving fluidly between drums and tabla across a range of genres. His recent work includes performances with Pat LaBarbera, Hamid Motebassem, Kiran Ahluwalia, Roberto Occhipinti, Rez Abbasi, Mike Downes, and Adam Rudolph. 

Dhaivat’s creativity extends to multimedia collaborations such as Transmigrations with software artist Ryan Kelln, and Offerings at Ishpadinaa with Nova Dance. His accolades include the Nuit Blanche and Aga Khan Museum Fellowships, along with awards from the Government of India, Yamaha Music Canada, and Jazz.FM91. 

Dhaivat’s vision is to push creative boundaries, blending art forms while keeping music at the heart of his work. 

Dhaivat Jani was generously supported by the Denis Jackson Memorial Scholarship Endowment. 

Derek Lewis is a pianist, composer, and educator based in New York City.  Growing up in Buffalo NY, he was exposed to jazz music from an early age by his father and brother, who are musicians as well.  Despite not initially taking to an instrument, he fell in love with the piano at the age of 15, and chose to pursue music from then on.  He is a graduate of The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and will be attending Manhattan School of Music this Fall pursuing a Masters in Music.  He believes strongly in the healing power of music, and in its ability to help people learn more about themselves and others.

Derek Lewis was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Hailing from Brooklyn, Declan Sheehy-Moss is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who artfully blends genres to craft an incendiary fusion of sound. Studying Jazz Performance at New  England Conservatory and Studio Production at SUNY Purchase, his adeptness with digital production and recording techniques, coupled with his instrumental virtuosity, yields a unique digital-acoustic amalgamation.  

Declan’s performances have graced venues like Monterey Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Symphony Space, and The Jazz Gallery. He was also a 2023 recipient of the Composers Now IMPACT Award. He’s released 9 singles and 3 EPs since 2017 and has collaborated with diverse artists from Henry Threadgill to emerging talents like Mavi and Cisco Swank. 

Co-leading the band “More Better” for nearly 8 years, they’ve released two albums, and performed at venues like The Jazz Gallery and JCAL. He’s made his mark as an Audio Engineer at The Jazz Gallery and BRAC, handling sound for artists like Immanuel Wilkins, Sullivan Fortner, Jason Moran, Roscoe Mitchell, and many more. 

Declan also works side-by-side with Henry Threadgill, assuming a multifaceted role handling audio engineering, EWI/Saxophone, and additional odds and ends for Mr. Threadgill. Declan has worked intimately on projects “One”, “The Other One”, “BOTH”,  and “Listen Ship”. 

Declan Sheehy-Moss was generously supported by the Denis Jackson Memorial Scholarship Endowment. 

Daniel is a guitarist, improvisor and composer whose work encompasses jazz, free improvisation and electronic music. Whilst he began his career as an astute student of jazz, his affinity for experimentation and freedom has led him to broadening his sonic palette and embrace unorthodox approaches to music making. Daniel completed his bachelor’s degree with Honours at Melbourne University and has studied and recorded in New York and Italy, taking lessons with Tony Malaby, Jay Anderson, Gilad Hekselman and more. Daniels work explores extended technique combined with effects pedal manipulation to create unique sound worlds that extend the typical capabilities of guitar playing. His passion for cultivating unique ensemble identities and his constant search for deeper musical meaning has led him to develop a very distinctive and personal musical voice. 

Daniel is currently performing regularly across Melbourne’s experimental/jazz scene as well as recording on a variety of different musical projects. His debut release Jawbone Arboretum is an experimental record released through Brisbane record label Made Now Music and is currently being toured across Australia. 

Daniel Waddingham was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Awards. 

Álvar Llusá-Damiani (Buenos Aires, 1991) is an Argentinean/Spanish eclectic violinist, singer, guitarist and composer.

Graduated in 2016 as a Professor of Music and Violin from the Escuela Municipal de Bellas Artes "Carlos Morel" from Quilmes. He was awarded a grant by the National Fund for the Arts of Argentina to participate in the III Argentine Meeting of Improvisation and Musical Composition. Then he received a scholarship from the Fundació de Música Ferrer-Salat to pursue a higher degree in composition at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu, in Barcelona, degree that he has finished with honours in 2021.

Has a prolific career in classical and modern music, having played in different orchestras and groups from genres such as contemporary music, jazz, tango and progressive rock. Has collaborated as a sessionist with several artists -including Manu Chao- and worked in music for theater, TV and cinema.

Has released the albums ‘Sciophobia’ (2021), ‘The Locked Room’, ‘En Vivo CC Fylgja’ (2022), ‘Nothing Is Not A Flower’ (2023), ‘Más o Menos a Full’ (2024), ‘Isekai: historia de un secuestro’ and ‘A la Distancia’ (2025), among others. He is currently working on his debut album as a singer/songwriter.

Álvar Llusá-Damiani was generously supported by the Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists' Scholarship.

Alexandre Roux-Dufort stands out in Montreal as a rising talent in saxophone, composition, and arrangement. In 2023, he made his mark on the international stage by winning first place in the Léopold Bellan International Competition in Paris. Alexandre has been lauded as a “saxophonist and composer who has the wind in his sails” (ULaval Nouvelles). 

Raised in France, Alexandre has performed at festivals in Europe and Canada (Cap Ferret Music Festival, Québec Jazz en Juin) and collaborated with renowned artists such as the Lost Fingers, clarinetist Virginia MacDonald and pianist Rafael Zaldivar. As a saxophonist and arranger, he also works with the Montrealbased producer Teuteu, the gypsy jazz Delasalle Trio, and the gender-inclusive big band Jazz Coven. 

His playing experiences have shaped a distinctive approach to composition. Alexandre strives to create a sensitive and personal musical universe by exploring soundscapes that straddle the line between jazz and impressionism. The stylistic hybridization results in music that is streamlined, calm, and colorful. With Yannick Anctil on piano, Alex Le Blanc on bass, and Guillaume Pilote on drums, his quartet released its debut single titled Small Place in early 2024. 

Alexandre Roux-Dufort was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

alejandra borzyk is a Spanish-Belgian saxophonist, composer, performer, and writer based in Brussels. They are mainly active as a musician at the core of the creative and improvised music scene of the city. They are part of projects such as “Sound of Brussels Orchestra,” a collective creation directed by Fabrizio Cassol and Adèle Viret; the octet “I’m not done cooking” by Lara Humbert; and collaborates with artists such as Samuel Ber, Cyrille Obermüller and Diogo Alexandre.  Since 2022, they lead their quartet “bodies”, with whom they released two EPs independently, and performed in prestigious venues such as Ancienne Belgique and Flagey, being a milestone of the city’s emerging bands. They have as well a solo performance, where they explore movement, circular breathing, extended techniques and breath art. 

Although the majority of their professional work is in music, their artistic vision and creation span multiple disciplines: slam poetry, theater and performance, with a strong connection to the body and movement in their playing and approach to saxophone. Their research and writing focuses on the link between improvisation and sexuality from a feminist standpoint. 

Alejandra Borzyk was generously supported by the John Linn Memorial Endowment.

Cellist, improviser and composer Adèle Viret (born in 1999) is described as one of the most promising young musicians of her generation. Her singular musical universe was revealed with the creation in 2023 of her very first project, Adèle Viret Quartet, winner of numerous awards (Euroradio Jazz Competition 2024, FoRTE 2024) as well as laureate of the Jazz Migration scheme in 2023. The group has performed at renowned venues such as Jazz in Marciac (FR), Bimhuis (NL), Nuoro Jazz Fes val (IT) and was selected for the Jazzahead! 2025 showcase. The quartet’s debut album Close to the Water, released in October 2024, won the Jazz Magazine’s Revelation and Jazz News’s Indispensable awards. 

From an early age, Adèle studied classical cello at the Montreuil Conservatory, and went on to perfect her skills at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 2023. At the same time, she started playing in improvised music, jazz and world music projects, performing alongside such luminaries as Magic Malik, Fabrizio Cassol, B.C. Manjunath, João Barradas. 

Lulled from an early age by the music of her father, a jazz double-bass player, she quickly developed a sense of improvisation and composition. Her curiosity drives her to join and initiate projects mixing aesthetics and disciplines (dance, literature, theater). In 2019, she created n’Être, a cello and dance duet whose music and choreography are jointly composed by the two artists. That same year, she joined the Medinea network, which brings together young artists from the Mediterranean basin to compose collectively an original repertoire under the mentorship of Fabrizio Cassol. Deeply influenced by the experience of intercultural creation, she created her own collective; Mosaïc in the company of Bulgarian, French, Portuguese and Tunisian musicians whose first album will be released in 2026. More recently she became co-leader of the trio Notes on the memory of notes, with Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch and Fabrizio Cassol. 

Besides her personal projects, she is playing as side-woman in diverse bands : Abhra (from Julien Pontvianne), Kaija String Quartet and internationally with Jawa Manla in the Netherlands, Zé Almeida’s quartet and Apophenia in Portugal as well as occasional guest for Aka Moon (Belgium). 

Alongside her instrumental practice, she was commissioned to compose a piece for solo cello by Les Ateliers du Violoncelle (2023 edition) and in 2025, the Klara Festival (Belgium) asked her to join the “Sounds of Brussels” project, assisting Fabrizio Cassol as artistic co-director.  

Adèle is a laureate of FoRTE (2023), Académie Musicale de Villecroze (2018) and the Prix Marion Bourgine awarded by the Jazz in Marciac summer camp (2017). She received the SACEM fund for auto-production (2025). Adèle is endorsed by Gewa.

Adèle Viret was generously supported by the Fondation David R. Graham Award.

Niran Dasika is a trumpeter, improvisor, and composer based in Melbourne, Australia whose work encompasses jazz, free improvisation, and electronic music. Niran leads an active performing career around Australia and across Japan where he lived for several years. He has released eight albums as a band leader, including the latest ‘Life Forms’ (2025). 

Niran’s live solo performances augment his distinctive trumpet sound with live sampling and processing to create mesmeric, hypnotic patterns underneath his lyrical trumpet playing. Niran’s electronic music releases “Endless Spring, Infinite Summer” and “Assorted Drone Music Vol. 1-3” have explored an expanding sonic world of synthesisers, drum machines and lo-fi electronica. 

Outside of his music practice, Niran works as a music educator, mental health worker and disability support worker.

Niran’s work has been recognised by a number of awards including:

• 2017 National Jazz Awards - 2nd Place
• 2019 Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year - winner
• 2019 APRA AMCOS Professional Development Award - winner
• 2020 Freedman Jazz Fellowship - finalist 

Niran Dasika was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.