Joanna Croston grew up and went to university in Eastern Canada and moved to the Canadian Rockies permanently in 1998. She has climbed many of the classic 11,000 ft peaks in the area and is an avid backcountry skier having toured throughout North America, The Alps, Japan, Kashmir and the Indian Himalaya.    As a voracious reader of mountain literature and a die-hard film enthusiast, she is the Director for the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival and World Tour.  Her writing has appeared in Highline Magazine, Gripped, The Canadian Alpine Journal, The Canadian Rockies Annual, Mountain Life and Alpinist. She is the author of Breaking Trail: The Chic Scott Story and her work is part of the Waymaking anthology, an award-winning collection of women’s adventure writing published in Autumn 2018. She is the former North American representative for the International Alliance for Mountain Film. Her book Mountaineering Women will be released in September 2025.

Well Travelled Collective is a boutique, women-owned, production studio working with brands, agencies and nonprofits to create and tell unique visual stories. Our specialty lies in the outdoor and adventure space.

Peter Padbury is one of Canada's most experienced futurists. Over his career, he led hundreds of foresight projects that developed vision, policy and strategy with federal government departments, NGOs, business and UN agencies on a wide range of themes. Between 2008 and 2021, he played a leadership role in building a foresight centre in the Canadian federal government called Policy Horizons Canada - one of the leading government foresight centers in the world. In September 2021, he retired as Chief Futurist from Policy Horizons Canada, although he continues to have an advisory role there as a “fellow”. In addition, he runs a "boutique" foresight center to assist governments and NGOs with capacity-building, advice, mentoring, evaluation as well as foresight and vision-building for transformative change. In 2024, Peter was among the 10 international experts appointed to the OECD's Advisory Committee on Foresight. Peter has a MSc in Future Studies from the University of Houston (with a focus on participatory foresight methods). Over his career, he had extended work assignments and work-related travel in more than 50 countries. He has been on the board of directors of a number of organizations and is a founding member of the Association of Professional Futurists.

Carolyn Warren has helped shape the cultural ecosystem in Canada over three decades of senior leadership roles with CBC/Radio-Canada, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Canada Council for the Arts. At the Council, she has led major arts investment strategies, national cross-sectoral partnerships and landmark digital and innovation programs supporting transformative change in the sector. At Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, she directed multidisciplinary programs and forged global partnerships that expanded the reach of Canadian artistic practice. Earlier in her career with CBC/Radio-Canada, she developed award-winning cultural programming across radio, television, and digital platforms. Known for her strategic vision, collaborative leadership and commitment to the role of culture in society, she is a trusted voice shaping the future of the arts.

Robin Sokoloski (she/her) is a dedicated arts and culture professional based in Tkaronto/Toronto with over two decades of experience in the field. Currently serving as the Director of Research and Programming at Mass Culture, she collaborates with academics, funders, and arts practitioners to mobilize the creation, amplification, and community-informed research that supports the arts sector’s growth and sustainability. 

At Mass Culture, Robin has spent the last three years project managing Research in Residence: Arts’ Civic Impact, a national research initiative that led to the development of three qualitative arts impact frameworks. These tools help arts organizations better understand their civic impact through qualitative indicators. She also leads Mass Culture’s Evaluative Thinking Initiative, which supports a culture of reflection and continuous learning across the arts sector, and stewards the DNA: Data Narratives for the Arts program, which integrates data practices into the daily work of arts organizations through training, tools, and collaborative learning. 

Robin currently serves on the Board of the Toronto Arts Council and as a member of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Free Expression’s Steering Committee. She has recently taught a course on Art Policy, Equity, and Activism for Centennial College’s Arts Management program, and developed and taught a course on Cultural Entrepreneurship for MacEwan University’s Arts and Cultural Management program. 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinsokoloski/

Soni Dasmohapatra is a consultant who works with individuals, groups, public service institutions and community agencies to facilitate the development of tools that focus on building inclusive platforms that incorporate strategy, design, wellness and art for transformative change. She has thirty years of experience working internationally, nationally, provincially and municipally across arts, culture, heritage, health, and community sectors. She is a Doctor of Social Sciences candidate at Royal Roads University, holds a Master of Public Administration from University of Victoria, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Alberta and a certificate in Gender and Human Rights from Oxford University, UK. Soni’s expertise lies in developmental, participatory, and equity-focused evaluation, with a commitment to centering lived experience, arts based research methods and community knowledge. She has led numerous evaluations advancing social impact, equity, and cultural vitality, and currently is an assistant professor in Arts and Cultural Management at MacEwan University. She is an active member of Mass Culture,  and is Kathak dance practitioner. 

www.sonidasmohapatra.com

Composer Nick DiBerardino welds the weird machinery of music’s past to the post-genre present, crafting whimsical and thought-provoking sonic stories for our time. His inspirations span science, literature, and everyday life — from reef-saving coral research and Da Vinci’s failed flying machines to his morning coffee and favorite episodes of Star Trek. A Rhodes Scholar, he has received commissions from leading artists and institutions including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Sandbox Percussion, PRISM Quartet, New College Choir, Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, and Star Trek’s John de Lancie. Nick is Provost and Dean of the Conservatory at Curtis Institute of Music, where he directs the Curtis New Music Ensemble and holds the Milton L. Rock Chair in Composition Studies. He also serves as a composition faculty member and program coordinator at the Tanglewood Music Center. He holds degrees from Oxford, Yale, Curtis, and Princeton.

Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch is a composer and sound artist. His interests goes from pure electronics to compositions for theater and dance, from soundtracks for images to interactive installations. In his compositions his interest is always focused on the idea of establishing new connections between elements that are otherwise distant : with projects outside Western aesthetics, such as those with Ballaké Sissoko or Amir Elsaffar, or with sound installations based on the inherent exoticism of environmental recordings, such as those for the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, or with compositions for contemporary dance for choreographers such as Michele di Stefano, Richard Siegal, Stijn Celis, or directors such as Adolphe Binder, which immerse the audience in a new soundscape through sound, but also through movement and, above all, space. In this sense, a large part of his work is devoted to 3D sound, multichannel and holophonic composition. He has received commissions from various institutions: Ircam-Center Pompidou, Musical Research Group (GRM), Venice Biennale, Gothenburg Opera, Musée du Quai Branly, Saarbrucken Opera, Ballet National de Marseille, RhurTriennale, Royaumont Foundation, Face Foundation, and many others … and has performed all over the world. 

He graduated in architecture (Italy) and composition (France) he moved to Paris. He founded the Label Ornithology Productions in 2022. He’s associated artist at Ircam – Centre Pompidou from 2019 – 2023. He is professor of Electroacoustic Composition at the Conservatory of Montbeliard, France. 

David Kaplan, pianist, has been called “excellent and adventurous” by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard. As orchestra soloist, he has appeared with the Britten Sinfonia at London’s Barbican, Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin at the Philharmonie, and with the Symphony Orchestras of Hawaii and San Antonio. As recitalist, he has performed at the Ravinia Festival, Sarasota Opera House, Music on Main in Vancouver, Strathmore, Washington’s National Gallery, and New York’s Carnegie and Merkin Halls.

Kaplan has consistently drawn critical acclaim for programs that creatively interweave classical, contemporary, and newly commissioned works. As a guest artist of Piano Spheres at Los Angeles’ Zipper Hall, he recently premiered “Quasi una Fantasia,” a program exploring the gray area between composition and improvisation through works by Anthony Cheung, Christopher Cerrone, and Andrea Casarrubios, together with Couperin, Beethoven, Schumann, Saariaho, Ligeti, and his own improvisations. Kaplan’s “New Dances of the League of David,” a recital infusing Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze with 16 new works by composers including Augusta Read Thomas, Marcos Balter, Caroline Shaw, and Andrew Norman was cited among the “Best Classical Music Performances of 2015” by The New York Times. The “New Dances” album was released in 2024 on the New Focus label, immediately garnering raves in Gramophone, Fanfare, and the Financial Times.

Balancing solo performances with meaningful collaborations, Kaplan has played with the Attacca, Ariel, Enso, Hausman, and Tesla String Quartets. As a core member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, he performs frequently in New York’s most exciting venues, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to National Sawdust, as well as creating innovative residencies as far away as Abu Dhabi, Mexico, and Scotland. The ensemble’s self-titled debut album was recorded at Tippet Rise Art Center, and has been nominated for a 2024 GRAMMY for the premiere recording of Valerie Coleman’s “Revelry,” originally composed for Decoda in 2018.  

He is a veteran of numerous distinguished chamber music festivals and series, such as the Seattle Chamber Music, La Jolla, Bard, and Mostly Mozart Festivals, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and Barge Music. He is an alumnus of Tanglewood and the Ravinia-Steans Institute, and performs regularly as an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program, including with Itzhak Perlman at Miami’s Arsht Center. He serves as Co-Artistic Director of Lyrica Chamber Music, a community series in Morris County, NJ currently in its 36th season.

In addition to last year’s debut solo album, Kaplan has recorded for Naxos and Marquis Records, as well as for Nonesuch as part of his longstanding duo with pianist/composer Timo Andres. Performing often with his wife, flutist Catherine Gregory, the duo released “Vent” in 2023 on Bright Shiny Things, including music by Gabriela Lena Frank, David Lang, Mr. Andres, Schubert, and Prokofiev.

Kaplan was a student of the late Claude Frank, and previously studied with Walter Ponce and Miyoko Lotto. His mentors over the years have included Anton Kuerti, Richard Goode, and Emanuel Ax. He studied conducting at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Lutz Köhler, under the auspices of a Fulbright Fellowship from 2008-2010. The recipient of a DMA from Yale University in 2014, Kaplan earned his Bachelor from UCLA, where he has also served on the faculty since 2016, and now is the Associate Professor and Inaugural Shapiro Family Chair in Piano Performance.

David is proud to be a Yamaha/Bösendorfer Artist, and when at home in Los Angeles, he enjoys practicing on his childhood piano, a 1908 Hamburg Steinway model A. Away from the keyboard, he loves cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars.