Gwénaëlle Ratouit is a versatile clarinetist active as a chamber musician and orchestral musician in Montreal. Her curiosity now leads her to perform in various projects between classical and contemporary music in Europe and Canada.

After several years of musical studies in France where she perfected her skills with the soloists of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine including Richard Rimbert, Gwénaëlle developed her musical personality and refined her playing alongside Martin Carpentier at the University of Montreal where she obtained her Master of Interpretation. She also holds a French teaching diploma as well as a Bachelor of Musicology.

Winner of several prizes and scholarships, she notably won the First Julie Sirois Prize organized by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne twice in a row in 2021 and 2022.

Playing from the small clarinet to the bass clarinet, Gwénaëlle is a permanent member of the contemporary music ensembles Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Paramirabo and also a member of the reed quintet 5ilience. She can be found in classical repertoire with the wind octet Ad Hoc. She participates in numerous recordings for emerging artists and film music composers in Quebec. She also performs as a supernumerary in symphony orchestras and wind ensembles in France and Canada.

Very involved in the transmission of knowledge, she currently teaches clarinet and bass clarinet in secondary schools.

Photo by Brenden Friesen.

Project 23.6°N, named after the geographic coordinates of the country of Taiwan, consists of KaiChen Cheng (flute), Pin-hui Tsai (cello), and Calvin Hu (piano) who formed the group under their shared heritage and love of Taiwanese culture. As an ensemble, they not only strive to perform the music of Taiwanese composers from past to present, but also to serve as a cultural advocate of the diJerent traditions and stories from the island. From traditional Formosan melodies to contemporary sounds, Project 23.6°N aims to share the sounds of Taiwan with a global audience.

Project 23.6°N is generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Shahriyar Jamshidi, a Kurdish-Canadian kamānche/ kamāncheh player, composer, and vocalist with a pronounced cultural background is renowned for his creative and masterful kamānche improvisations, both as a soloist and in ensembles. He is a graduate of Tehran University of Art and a former artist-in-residence at Banff Centre. Shahriyar has devoted his artistic profession to the preservation and transmission of the Kurdish musical heritage.

Since settling in Canada in 2012, Shahriyar has consistently sought new musical languages, thereby crossing cultures with his kamānche recitals. He already performed at the University of Minneapolis School of Music; Cello Biënnale Amsterdam; University of Glasgow; the 33rd World Conference of International Society for Music Education (ISME), Azerbaijan; Festival du Monde Arabe de Montréal; Canadian Opera Company; McMaster University; Sound Symposium XXI; and collaborated with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra (2019) and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (2024). He released four solo albums - his latest recording “My Sunset-Land ROJAVA” is dedicated to all women who lost their lives to liberate Kobanî, Rojava (Western Kurdistan in Syria) in 2015.

Shahriyar has received several Canadian and international awards including ISME in 2018. 

Shahriyar Jamshidi is generously supported by the David and Peggy Leighton Endowment and Banff Centre Artists' Awards. 

Multi-percussionist Haruka Fujii has become one of the most prominent solo percussionists and marimbists of her generation. She has won international acclaim for her interpretations of contemporary music, having performed numerous premieres of works from luminary composers.  Since 2010 Ms. Fujii has performed as an artist of the Grammy Award winning Silkroad Ensemble, joining a group of international musicians founded by Yo-Yo Ma and serves as the Associate Artistic Director alongside with the new artistic director Rhiannon Giddens. 

Ms. Fujii’s passion for introducing audiences to new percussion music has put her on stage with diverse orchestras and ensembles. She has appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Nationale de Lyon, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. She is a member of San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and Line C3 Percussion Group, also Utari Percussion Duo, a duet project with her sister Rika which actively commissions new compositions from young composers. In addition to her career as a performing artist, Ms. Fujii is a faculty member of San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has been a frequent guest instructor at Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar and several international percussion festivals. She is also a founder and creative director of a nonprofit organization Nippon Kobo, a new cultural event series introducing Music+Culture from contemporary Japan,.
 

Italian pianist Fabio Bidini is one of his generation’s top-flight pianists. His appearances have included performances with London Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican, Philharmonia Orchestra of London at Royal Festival Hall, San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Forth Worth Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra Prague at the Rudolphinum, and Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra at Liszt Academy Hall. He has collaborated with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Carlos Prieto, Max Valdes, Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Ivan Fisher, Jesus Lopez Cobos, JoAnn Falletta, Zoltan Kocsis, Michael Christie, and Gianandrea Noseda.

Fabio Bidini is in great demand as a chamber music partner. He is the pianist of the highly acclaimed ensemble, Los Angeles Piano Trio and has enjoyed artistic collaboration with many ensembles and artists including Trio Solisti, Modigliani Quartet, American String Quartet, Janacek Quartet, Brodsky Quartet, Szymanowski Quartet, Zoltan Kocsis, Alexis Pia Gerlach, Maria Bachmann, Eva Urbanova, Nina Kotova, Dimitri Ashkenazy, and Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker.

Mr. Bidini has repeatedly performed at the prestigious festivals of Europe, including the Tuscan Sun Festival Cortona/Napa, Festival Radio France Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli International Piano Festival, Festival dei due Mondi and most recently, Grant Park Festival.

Fabio Bidini began his piano studies at the age of five. He graduated magna cum laude from Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and studied composition at Florence Conservatory. He has been awarded first prize in eleven of Italy’s most prestigious national piano competitions and has been the recipient of the top prizes awarded in eight international competitions - Terni, Köln, Busoni 1988 and 1992, Pretoria, Marsala, London and the Van Cliburn Fort Worth. He made his North American debut in 1993 with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

In 2015 Fabio Bidini became the first recipient of the Carol Grigor Piano Chair – a new position enabled by a $5,000,000 endowment gift from the Colburn School’s board chairwoman Carol Colburn Grigor in Los Angeles. Mr. Bidini has been Professor of Piano at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, in Berlin, one of Europe’s premiere music conservatories. He also serves as an Artist-in-Residence at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Köln.

Fabio Bidini’s discography comprises thirteen CDs recorded under the labels BMG, Classichord, Musikstrasse, EPR and True Sounds. He is a Steinway artist.

Described by the Los Angeles Times as playing with "blazing enthusiasm, power, and technical  assurance,” Canadian pianist, Micah Yui, has had a versatile performance career.

Yui made her solo recital at the age of ten and orchestral debut at the age of thirteen in Canada.  She has given solo recitals around the world, including venues in Zurich, Tokyo, New York,  Toronto and Copenhagen. Yui has given radio performances on CBC, NHK, and WQXR and  orchestral performances with the Syracuse, Edmonton, Victoria, Montreal Metropolitan, Asheville, and Baltimore Chamber orchestras. As a chamber musician, Yui has performed with many of the preeminent performing artists in the country. She is the recipient of three Canada Council grants, two Ontario Arts Council grants, the Alberta Achievement Award and the Edmonton Civic Award. Her recording with the London Symphony of Ernest Bloch’s concerto  symphonique and scherzo fantasque won “Record of the Year” from Stereophile Magazine.

Yui is passionate about impacting the lives of young people of all ages and levels through music. She has been on the faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Peabody Institute, Music Institute of Chicago, and the Heifetz Institute. Her students have won numerous national and international competitions and have been accepted into prestigious music conservatories and schools of music around the country. Yui is currently on the piano faculty at the Colburn School in both the Academy and the Community School teaching studio piano and chamber music. At the Colburn School, she created the Piano Camp Intensive, a unique summer piano camp for young piano students ages nine to thirteen. She is also the founder and co-director the Colburn Summer Piano Seminar for advanced high school pianists which will be collaborating with Tonebase this summer. She is regularly invited to judge in competitions and most recently was on the screening jury for the Esther Honens International Piano Competition.

Born in Japan of Korean heritage, Yui immigrated to Canada at the age of eight. She is the graduate of the Juilliard School, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, University of Toronto, and the Peabody Conservatory. She has worked with many musicians who have impacted her playing and teaching. Her most influential private teachers were Leon Fleisher, Bella Davidovich, Marietta Orlov, and her first teachers, Boris Zarankin and Inna Perkis. She has also worked extensively with Giovanni Valentini in Pesaro, Italy. She spent six summers at the Banff Arts Centre where she worked on solo and chamber repertoire with Menahem Pressler as well as with John Perry. Her love of lieder has led her to work with renowned lieder pianist, Graham Johnson.

Yui currently lives in Los Angeles

Jennifer Podemski is a director, writer, producer, and actor. Hailing from Toronto but calling Barrie, Ontario, her home, Jennifer's artistic journey has been shaped by her rich Anishinaabe (First Nation) and Ashkenazi (Jewish) heritage. 

A registered member of Muscowpetung Saulteux Nation in Saskatchewan, Jennifer has dedicated her career to amplifying authentic Indigenous stories and perspectives through her work as a storyteller.

Jennifer's acting career took flight with a standout performance as Sadie in Bruce McDonald's iconic film, Dance Me Outside. This breakthrough role garnered critical acclaim and solidified her position as a prominent figure in Canada's film and television canon.

Committed to addressing the underrepresentation of Indigenous voices in the entertainment industry, Jennifer pivoted to producing in 1999. She co-founded Big Soul Productions, a ground-breaking Indigenous-owned and operated full-service film and television production and post-production company. The company went on to produce an array of compelling content, including documentary television series, scripted short films, and the highly praised, all-Indigenous dramatic television series, Moccasin Flats, which aired on Showcase Television and APTN.

In 2005, Jennifer branched out independently, establishing Redcloud Studios Inc., where she continues to create, produce, write, and direct remarkable content. Notable works under her belt include five seasons of the captivating paranormal television series, The Other Side, and the award-winning feature film, Empire of Dirt, dramatic series Rabbit Fall and Unsettled, award winning documentary series Future History and most recently, the award-winning, critically acclaimed limited series Little Bird for Crave and APTN.

Alongside her career as a director and producer, Jennifer has maintained a presence on screen as an actor most notably on shows like Degrassi TNG, Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, Blackstone, Hard Rock Medical, Cardinal, the new Crave comedy series Don’t Even, and the debut feature film from directors Eva Thomas and Ryan Cooper. Among her proudest achievements is her leading role in Empire of Dirt, which earned her a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and recognition for Best Screenplay, breaking barriers for Indigenous women in the industry.

Beyond her artistic endeavors, Jennifer's passion for empowering Indigenous voices led her to establish The Shine Network Institute in 2020, a Canadian not for profit dedicated to advancing the careers of Indigenous women within the screen, media, and creative arts sectors.
Jennifer continues to build capacity and strive for equity and inclusion of Indigenous people within Canada’s screen sector.

Photo by Doug Bedard