Cikwes is a nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ soul singer songwriter and Juno nominee from Bigstone Cree Nation. Her music explores her Cree language, nêhiyawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ and nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ musical methods that include the hand drum, chanting cahkasinahikanak ᒐᐦᑲᓯᓇᐦᐃᑲᐣ also known as spirit markers or syllabics. Her intimate performances are accompanied with heartfelt stories and laughter. Using percussive breath and the Cree syllabics, she invokes a feeling of comfort similar to that of a wepisowin, a traditional baby swing. A matriarch for the revitalization of the Cree language and Nehiyaw musical methods, her nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ song writing and voice are an emblem of hope and beauty for the continuation of nêhiyawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ.  Her unique blend of Nehiyaw music, jazz, soul, pop, folk, blues has garnered her music awards and nominations internationally, including a Grammy consideration.

Recipient of Marshall M. Williams Endowment.

Sangah Lee is a professional pansori artist, specializing in the Korean storytelling vocal tradition, and is currently based in Canada. Beginning her international performance career at the age of 15, she has toured major cities such as Tokyo, New York, Chicago, and Honolulu, passionately promoting Korean traditional music on the global stage. Lee holds a degree in Korean Music from Ewha Womans University and has received the prestigious Minister’s Award at the National Pansori Competition.

After immigrating to Canada in 2017 to pursue a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto, Lee has become a dynamic contributor to intercultural dialogues. Her growing presence in Toronto’s music scene is marked by recent performances at high-profile events such as ROM After Dark, the Aga Khan Museum Pop-Up Series, the Toronto Korea Festival, and the Canadian Opera Company Showcase Series.

Lee is the founder and artistic director of the Canada Pansori Center and serves as a vocalist for Toronto-based fusion ensembles Haneum and Baejjang-e. Her diverse collaborations include performing with Nagata Shachu Taiko, contributing vocals to Robert Lee’s jazz album Forbidden West, and curating interdisciplinary partnerships with dancers and musicians at her debut pansori concert in Canada, Pan:Sori.

Recipient of Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Eun Ji Kim (Stage name_Kklily) is a Korean traditional percussionist, educator, and cultural entrepreneur. She graduated from the Korea National University of Arts with a major in percussion and earned a Business Marketing degree from Centennial College in Canada in 2024.

As the CEO of Eunji Kim Project, she has planned and produced numerous performances that blend traditional Korean music with contemporary styles. She has performed internationally in Denmark, Sweden, Mongolia, France, Germany, China, and Hungary, showcasing the richness of Korean traditional music on global stages. In 2017, she won the Grand Prize at the Gang Gam-chan Festival National High Court Pansori Contest and has been invited to perform at prestigious venues, including the National Theater of Korea.

Beyond traditional performances, she actively collaborates with jazz musicians and other artists, pushing creative boundaries. She released her single album Remain and is currently performing at major venues across Canada, including Dundas Square, Casa Loma, CNE, and TD Korean Employee Network events. Dedicated to promoting Korean traditional music worldwide, she continues to expand her artistic influence while deepening her expertise in business and marketing.

Recipient of Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

STATHIS//DAVEY//KIM are a Melbourne based collective of three female composers who have an extensive multi-instrumental practice including the use of analogue synthesizers. Their practice spans large scale fully immersive sound installations, to live electronic music performance.

SDK’s site-responsive installations are presented in expansive settings where nature and human-made structures co-exist. They interact with site by using features present (rock faces, bodies of water and architecture) as surfaces from which to bounce sound off, creating delays and rhythms. Furthermore the trio incorporate diegetic sounds as key voices in the work, allowing them to work with, instead of overriding the environment.

Stathis//Davey//Kim’s sound is presented in multi-channel diffusion, sonically mapping a new awareness of the physical space. Audiences are placed directly into the center of their sound worlds, as the work shifts and moves around them. Conceptually Stathis//Davey//Kim explore the paradoxes of site, the beauty and sparseness, the functional and the fantastical, natural and manufactured and in all this question human’s impact on ecologies. Their work allows audiences to experience a unique aspect of site, where sound, nature and architecture interact. For audiences, these types of singular sonic experiences bond the location to memory through the extraordinary experience of immersive sound and music.

Recipient of Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

ረብሻ(Rebsha) is the Ethio-ambient duo created by Feven Kidane and Nebyu Yohannes. Delighted to be invited to Soundweavings at Banff Centre, Kidane and Yohannes fuse their background in ambient and Black American music with their East African heritage, generating a sonic landscape stretching from sub-Saharan Africa to the Pacific Northwest. ረብሻ’s dedication to decolonization while recognizing cultural tradition as members of the Ethiopian diaspora is paramount to their work. With Kidane and Yohannes on a mix of brass, strings, and their recent learnings of traditional Ethiopian instruments, the pair blend acoustic and electronic textures to score the memories of their ancestors (Tizita) and carry these lifetimes into the present, holding them under the light of today’s world.

reb·sha: noun 
1. noise, riot, disturbance.

Recipient of Michael Davies Scholarship Endowment Fund.

Tomasz Januchta is a double bassist of the orchestra of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera. From 2005 to 2021, he was a musician with the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, performing in numerous concerts and recordings. A laureate of national double bass competitions, he graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

He is an active soloist and chamber musician, having performed at Poland’s most renowned classical music festivals. Passionate about education, he teaches double bass at music schools and chamber music courses. His artistic pursuits also include composing music for films, video art, and theater.

He has made numerous recordings of premiere performances of works by contemporary Polish composers for double bass.

As an improvising musician, he collaborates with avant-garde Warsaw-based ensembles such as STOP, INLY TOUCH, USTA, and TRIO MARZENIE. In 2021, he recorded and published online J.S. Bach’s complete cello suites, arranged for double bass by T. Pelczar, thanks to a Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship.

Recipient of Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Alexandra Ivanova is a Berlin-based pianist and composer, born in Austria with Bulgarian roots and having called France, the Middle East and the Gulf her home. The range of cultural influences she has experienced gives her an “unorthodox approach to her compositions” (All About Jazz). She was classically trained at the piano as a child and is primarily self-taught in jazz, performing with her trios since the age of 16 before finding a mentor in pianist Tarek Yamani (US/LEB). In the recent years, she has also dedicated herself to learning the Arabic Qanun.

In 2023, she released her debut album “Beauty in Chaos” with her Berlin-based trio, combining jazz with influences from Maqam-based traditions, Arabic classical music, odd metres and Afro-Cuban claves. The trio toured Saudi Arabia and Europe, showcased at jazzahead! 2024 and opened Cairo Jazz Festival 2023 with guest vocalist Lynn Adib (FR/SYR) who is featured on the album’s title track.

Alexandra has received various scholarships for her composition work. She has performed her music at the Havana Jazz Plaza Festival, Unterfahrt Munich, Porgy & Bess Vienna, Reykjavik Jazz Festival and on further stages in Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, France, the Netherlands, the UK and the UAE. 

Recipient of Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Alexis Emelianoff is a sound artist based in Montréal, Canada, inventing and performing with acoustic and electronic instruments. Her approach is highly divergent and dependent on exploration in material research and physics; temperature changes, magnetism, and water conductivity have all animated installations. She designs systems to allow the ‘breakthrough’ of the electrical medium and its sonic form, whether periodic, arrhythmic, abrasive, obstinate... Current projects include hybrid sound output systems and adapting the Western piano to Persian music. 

She has performed in Canada, Europe and the United States, including the MuSA Symposium for Sonic Arts (Germany), Columbia University New York, the Banff Centre, and the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at UC Berkeley; and has published in Leonardo Music Journal. She was a member of the Topological Media Lab and the Balinese Gamelan group Giri Kedaton.

Currently Alexis is a member of the research organization Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) and was recently invited as the first artist in residence at the École de Technologie Supérieure in Montréal.

Recipient of Robert L. Jamison Endowment.

Trio Marzenie (Januchta/Bikont/Duszynski) explores the realms of improvised music, creating unique soundscapes that bridge minimalism with Eastern European musical traditions. As artists-in residence at Uśpiona Księgarnia bookstore in Warsaw, where they regularly organize concerts and performances, the trio has established themselves as innovative voices in Poland's experimental music scene.

Jan Duszynski's minimalist approach on the synthesizer interweaves seamlessly with Tomasz Januchta's powerful yet lyrical double bass, processed through multiple effects. Maniucha Bikont completes the ensemble with her versatile vocals, clarinet, and various sound objects. Her musical language draws from extensive studies with singers and musicians across Eastern Europe, incorporating their scales, timbres, and musical narratives into her unique expression.

In recent performances, the trio has demonstrated their versatility across various Warsaw venues, including a memorable show at the Open Cultural Center in Jazdów, where they performed alongside archival family footage by Jakub Duszynski. They also marked the opening of Uśpiona Księgarnia on Stalowa 1 and performed at Plac Zabaw by the Vistula River, accompanying the screening of Jerzy Kukuczka's archives.

Recipient of Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Maniucha Bikont is a singer, musician, performer. She composes songs, creates and performs music for films and theater performances. Participant in field research in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, PhD in humanities. She practices traditional, folk, modern impro and composed music, and plays the tuba.

Her solo album “Porządki”, was released 2024. She co-created the bands: Trio Marzenie, Maniucha i Ksawery, Tęgie Chłopy, Dom, Dziczka, Niewte. She collaborates with artists from the circles of avant-garde, improvised, traditional and film music, such as Mats Gustafsson (Ensamble E), Assaf Talmudi (BOTZ, “Porządki”), Seigo Matsunaga (IMA Songlines), Eyal Talmudi (Malox, JCF), Cezary Duchnowski (Devil's Violin), Bartek Weber (DOM), Jan Duszyński (Trio Marzenie), Anna Smolar (performance “Antigone from Molenbeek”), Małgorzata Kozera (film “Twarze Agaty”), Marcin Wicha (“Porządki”), Bastarda Trio, Prusinowski Kompania, Lautari, or Radical Polish Ansambl.

She performs in Europe, Asia and America. Winner of the True Musicians Tournament (2014), two-time winner of the Nowa Tradycja competition (2016, 2017), nominated for the Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej award (2020, 2021). Her album “Oj borom borom” was awarded by Polish Radio and presented at Lincoln Center in New York.

Recipient of Banff Centre Artists' Awards.