Ann-Kristin Sofroniou is a Swedish/Cypriot pianist, performing artist, researcher and educator that is currently based in Athens, Greece. Her work is characterized by explorations of piano repertoire in inventive ways by integrating elements of improvisation, interdisciplinary collaborations, diverse repertoire from various genres, and new media. Within her practice, she aims to explore the relations between research, piano performance and community engagement practices by creating collaborative and interactive artistic projects.

Ann-Kristin holds a PhD in Creative Practice/Piano Performance (Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London) with the title ‘Recycling Music-Recycling Performance: Exploring the use of existing music in piano works by Rochberg, Goehr, and Sharman’ with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. From 2018-2023, she held the position of ‘Coordinator of Research and Educational Design’ at the Learning & Participation Department of the Greek National Opera. In 2023-2024, Ann-Kristin was an adjunct lecturer at the department of Musicology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for the class “Curating for Music and Culture”. 

Ann-Kristin Sofroniou is generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Adriana began her violin studies at the age of 10 with Prof. Santiago de Angulo (Colombia). Subsequently, her teachers included Ricardo Rodríguez, Norberto Minces, José Bondar, and Daniel Robuschi. She participated in violin and chamber music seminars and masterclasses with renowned teachers such as Felix Olschofka, Jack Glatzer, Haydeé Schvartz , Ulla Benz, Catalyst String Quartet, Marmen String Quartet, among others.

Additionally, Adriana took part in the 2018 Santa Catarina Music Festival (Brazil) in the String Quartet program, under the direction of the Arianna String Quartet (United States). She is currently in her final year of the Bachelor's degree in Musical Arts at Universidad Nacional de las Artes. She has worked as a violinist for the Orchestra of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, and since March 2018, has been a permanent member of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in the first violin section. Since 2017, Adriana has been a member of the Cuarteto Arkhé, performing in various venues in Buenos Aires, including Templo Libertad, Usina del Arte, and Salón de Honor (Centro Cultural Kirchner), among others. Internationally, she has performed at the Teatro del Sodre (Uruguay) and Teatro Pequenho (Santa Catarina).

Adriana Miranda Torrico is generously supported by the Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists Scholarship.

Bruno began his cello studies at the age of 15 with professors Gastón Colloca and Myriam Santucci. In 2007, he entered the Universidad Nacional de las Artes (UNA). In 2011, he continued his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Liège (Belgium) under the guidance of Professor Jean-Pol Zanutel, where he graduated in 2014. Bruno decided to further his education at the Brussels and Antwerp Conservatories and is currently studying privately with Professor Diego Fainguersch.

Since 2017, Bruno has regularly performed with the Sinfónica Nacional, the Orchestra of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, and the Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires. He also collaborates with the Teatro Colón's Chamber Opera and the the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón. He is a founding member of the NEO Ensemble and the Hopper Ensemble (BE).

Since the end of 2016, Bruno has been teaching in the program of the Orquestas Escuelas of the City of Buenos Aires.

Bruno Bragato Diaz is generously supported by the Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists Scholarship.

Esteban began his music education at the Municipal School of Music of Olavarría and the Ernesto Mogávero Municipal Conservatory. At 18, he moved to Buenos Aires to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Composition at the Faculty of Arts and Musical Sciences at the Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA), where he was awarded a scholarship for academic excellence. Simultaneously, he studied composition under the guidance of Julio Viera and Julián Peralta, and viola with Elizabeth Ridolfi, Claudio Medina, Adrián Felizia, Javier Cárdenas, Rolando Prusak, and Rafael Gintoli. Additionally, he completed the Viola program at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes (UNA). In 2020, he obtained a yoga teaching certification.

As a violist, Esteban is currently a member of the Orquesta de Música Argentina Juan de Dios Filiberto and the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Olavarría, where he has also performed as a soloist. He is part of the string quartet Azabache Tango, where he contributes as a composer and producer. He has collaborated as a violist with prominent ensembles, including the Teatro Colón’s Orquesta Estable, the Teatro Colón Chamber Opera, Teatro Avenida Opera, and the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Cuyo, among others. Esteban has participated in renowned festivals and workshops such as the Santa Catarina Music Festival (FEMUSC) and Música Maestra, taught by Diego Schissi. In the past year, he recorded Le Grand Tango and his own arrangement of Vuelvo al Sur, both composed by Astor Piazzolla.

Esteban Fioroni is generously supported by Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists Scholarship.

Born in the Black Forest, she grew up between Germany, Uganda, and Burkina Faso. She began with violin and piano lessons at the age of 6. In 2008, she started her artistic career in violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig and graduated in 2014 with the highest honors. In 2009, she also began Theatre Studies at the University of Leipzig, completing her degree in 2014. 

At the end of 2014, she was hired as a violinist by the Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires where she won a stability position in a competition in 2018. She has been contracted by the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón for various chamber music formats.

Since 2017, she has been a co-founder and concertmaster of the String Orchestra Cuerdas del Plata and is also the composer and director of the string quartet Azabache. With Azabache, she has toured Europe, performing in various venues and festivals, including the Tango Festival in Tarbes (France).

In February 2023, she won the position of tango violin teacher in the advanced cycle at the Escuela de Música Popular Avellaneda (Empa). She conducts tango seminars for string players in Argentina and abroad. 

Katharina Deissler is generously supported by the Frederick Louis Crosby Memorial Endowment.

Eleanor Stalcup (they/he/she) is a Boston-based contemporary composer, sound designer, and audio engineer. They specialize in audio-visual and electro-acoustic composition and are excited to explore the natural soundscapes of Banff as a composer in residence. They attended the Atlantic Music Festival in 2023, where they premiered four original works. He is also an avid theater-maker and has worked on productions with the Stanford Shakespeare Company (Twelfth Night, Titus Andronicus… And Zombies!, Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Noble Kinsmen), the Stanford Asian American Theater Company (Mary Magdalene, Daughter, Boatperson), and Golden Thread Productions (Pilgrimage), primarily as a Sound Designer and Producer. They are currently producing an EP with the Stanford Shakespeare Company and will be completing an apprenticeship at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in May 2025.

Eleanor graduated from Stanford University in 2024 with a B.A. in Music Composition and Political Science, where he studied composition with Giancarlo Aquilanti and Eric Ulman, and oboe with Robin May. They are currently studying Film Scoring Technology at Berklee College of Music. 

Eleanor Stalcup is generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Isa Holmgren is a vocalist and dancer working in the field of traditional Swedish and Norwegian folk music and improvised music. With a background in the traditional dance scene, her solo performances revolve around the asymmetrical rhythms and melodies of the fiddle music from the border regions between Sweden and Norway. Her music centres the voice, and rests on astonishingly accurate transcriptions of the sound and characteristics of the fiddle as well as on thorough research of vocal traditions. Her first solo record, the EP Efter Eda , was released in 2019 at Ransäterstämman Festival (SE) and was well received. She also works and collaborates with groups such as Staerna (SE/NO/FI) and Aerialists (CA). 

She has a Bachelors degree from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg (SE) and a Masters degree in Traditional Nordic Folk Music from the Academy of Music in Oslo (NO), where she is regular guest teacher in traditional music and dance. Isa also works with choirs and ensembles focusing on traditional music, both as a conductor and composer. 

Her latest album Dans med meg, released in 2024 on the label Melovitten (NO), features dancers and explores the musical and audible connection between the movements and sounds of the voice and the dancers.

Isa Holmgren is generously supported by the Isobel and Tom Rolston Fellowships in Music Endowment, and the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

JUNO nominated, Canadian Folk Music Award winning fiddler and violinist Elise Boeur explores the outfields of contemporary folk music with a deceptively light touch. Her music is grounded in aural folk traditions, with a particular interest in the expansive forms and elasticity of time in Norwegian hardingfele music.

As a bandleader, she currently concentrates on her prog-trad quintet Aerialists, using the group as a playground to explore permutations of minimalist, pop, jazz, and post-rock sounds and structures reflected onto traditional celtic and nordic fiddle music. Another current focus is playing for community folk dances in several genres, as a more direct communication of fiddle traditions born out of decades of social music making.

Elise also works as a chameleonic collaborator on stage and in the studio, where her work as a side-person with songwriters and poets has shaped a sonic sensitivity and impressionistic approach to string playing.

Elise Boeur is generously supported by the N. Murray Edwards Family Fund. 

b. 1987, Utah

Crossing boundaries is a feature of Hannah Epperson's life and music—from residence in the US and Canada to nearly 400 live performances in North America, Europe and the Middle East. Singled out by Bandcamp as “one of the most stunningly unconventional artists making music today,” renowned musicologist/critic Ted Gioia chose her debut album Upsweep as one of the Top 3 recordings of 2016, calling it “unique, haunting, addictive.” Classically trained, her genre-bending violin looping and singing was enriched by apprenticeships with the fiddler of acclaimed Deseret String Band and studio work and performances with Fleet Foxes, Julianna Barwick and Ry X. A graduate in Human Geography, a member of Canada’s world champion Ultimate Frisbee Team, Hannah embodies music as a bridge, gathering soundscapes and people together in transfiguring moments of live and studio performances.

Hannah Epperson is generously supported by the N. Murray Edwards Family Fund.

Hiroki Tanaka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and composer. Formerly lead guitarist of YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN, he has embarked on a solo career that infuses elements of his Japanese-Canadian heritage with lyrical, conceptual folk, and indie rock. 

His debut solo album, Kaigo Kioku Kyoku, was built from Tanaka’s experience as a caregiver for his grandmother with Alzheimer’s, and uncle with terminal cancer. Kaigo Kioku Kyoku makes music out of meaningful objects, voice recordings of his relatives, and are structured off of hymns and Japanese folk songs. 

During the pandemic, he collaborated with Prof. Megan Davies (York University) on Covid In The House of Old, a traveling exhibit meant to shed light on those “who either died or were severely impacted by COVID-19 while living in long-term care”. 

His work with YT//ST was nominated for the 2018 Polaris prize, and toured extensively in Canada/US and Western Europe. He continues to write, record and perform his own music while based in Toronto.

Hiroki Tanaka is generously supported by the OK Gift Shop Endowment and Banff Centre Artists' Awards.