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.

Riva Symko (she/her), is a white settler from Treaty 6 Territory in Alberta. As the Head of Collections and Exhibitions, and Curator of Canadian Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq, she is particularly committed to breaking down the historical hierarchies of the art world which positions women, Indigenous, and racialized persons as objects of consumption rather than as active cultural contributors. She has lived and worked across the continent – from Newfoundland to Alaska, holding posts with institutions such as the Kimura Gallery, University of Alberta Museums, [x]curated curatorial collective, and Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre. Her current areas of critical and curatorial concern include gender equity, climate change, and anti-racist pedagogy and methodology.

India Gailey (she/they) is a cellist, composer, vocalist, and improviser who appears most often in the realms of classical and experimental music. Named by CBC as one of “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30,” India moves fluidly as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborator with various disciplines to create works of exploratory art. She has worked with numerous living composers, including Nicole Lizée, Amy Brandon, Philip Glass, Fjóla Evans, Andrew Noseworthy, and Michael Harrison. India’s album to you through (Redshift Records), was praised as “a truly exceptional display of unparalleled talent” (Take Effect) that “flows like poetry” (The Whole Note). Problematica (People Places Records, 2024) presents a series of commissioned works written especially for India.

As a composer, India has written music for concert, film, dance, and theatre, often exploring environmentalism and magical realism in her work. In 2022 she composed music for Symphony Nova Scotia to illustrate Mi’kmaw poet Rebecca Thomas’s children’s book I’m Finding My Talk, followed by her own cello concerto Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth in 2024. India is the recipient of numerous honours, including awards from Arts Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, the Canada Council for the Arts, Upstream Music, and Acadia & McGill Universities. India is currently based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia). 

India Gailey is generously supported by the N. Murray Edwards Family Fund.
 

Miranda Currie is a captivating northern Indigenous singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, living and working among the Dene people in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She walks in two worlds, with one foot in her Swampy Cree heritage and the other foot in her Euro-Canadian ancestry.

In 2022, she was awarded Indigenous Artist of Excellence by Music NWT. Her solo debut album Up in the Air was nominated for Aboriginal Songwriter of the year by the CFMA’s in 2015.

In 2025, Miranda will be Sub-Arctic Sing-A-Long! This, her third children’s album, introduces listeners to different genres of music, all from a northern indigenous lens. Songs like “My Ribbon Skirt” are up-beat and celebratory while “Do You Know Why?” speaks sensitive truths about why we wear our orange shirts on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Miranda’s songs are interactive and include indigenous language and stories that will delight family audiences.

Miranda has graced stages of festivals, including Folk on the Rocks, Canmore Folk Festival, and Snowking's Winter Festival, and showcased her artistry at Breakout West. Her performances are infused with passion and authenticity, leaving audiences spellbound with her unapologetic vocals and storytelling prowess. Through her music, Miranda Currie attempts to change the Indigenous narrative in Canada in a positive way

Miranda Currie is generously supported by the Jenny Belzberg Endowment and Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Described as “darkly lyrical” by the New York Times, an awardee of 2023 Chamber Music America Commissioning Grant, a winner of 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation Competition, and a 2019 recipient of Opera America’s Discovery Grant and National Sawdust Hildegard Commission Award, Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s music has been commissioned and performed by Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic musicians, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, International Contemporary Ensemble, Camerata Pacifica, Library of Congress, Center for Contemporary Opera, National Sawdust, New Music USA, Shriver Hall, Forward Music Project, PUBLIQuartet, Loadbang Ensemble, Calidore String Quartet, Cassatt String Quartet, Akropolis Reed Quintet, and Ensemble Connect at numerous festivals and venues including BBC Proms, Ojai Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Washington Kennedy Center, Mostly Mozart Festival, and many more. A founding member and co-director of Iranian Female Composers Association, Nilou is a strong advocate of music education. She currently teaches theory and composition at Longy School of Music of Bard College and Berklee College of Music. Nilou also regularly performs with her ensemble, Decipher.

Niloufar received a Ph.D. in music composition from Stony Brook University under the supervision of Sheila Silver.

Niloufar Nourbakhsh is generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

The Pandan Quartet is a dynamic young string quartet based in the Oberlin Conservatory of Music since 2023. They have been the recipients of Flint Initiative, Shansi, and Oberlin Winter Term Grants. The Pandan Quartet was invited to participate in the 2024 Singapore Chamber Music Festival, where they performed to critical acclaim for local audiences, renowned artists, and various international embassies. They are honored to have had the opportunity to pave the way for more academic, musical, and cultural exchanges between East Asia and Oberlin College. Later in 2024, the Pandan Quartet was invited to be the Artists in Residence for the Off The Hook Arts: Music Spoke Concert Series, located in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Working alongside the Dalí Quartet, the Pandan Quartet performed a range of different concerts, including multiple educational and outreach performances for families and children, various donor events to help support the festival, and more formal concerts. The Pandan Quartet was invited to Banff Center for the Winter 2025 Musicians in Residence where they will work with the Kronos Quartet among other renowned artists. Other quartet projects include learning two of the Kronos Quartet’s “50 for the future” pieces and performing in senior care facilities. 

The Pandan Quartet has worked with a host of incredible artists, including Tabbea Zimmerman, the Takacs Quartet, the Dalí Quartet, the AOI trio, the Verona Quartet, Sunny Yang (Kronos Quartet), Kirsten Doctor (Cavani Quartet), Sibbi Bernhardsson (Pacifica Quartet), Bill van der Sloot (Villa Marteau Quintet), Peter Slowik, and Leslie Tan.

The Pandan Quartet is generously supported by the Cyril and Elizabeth Challice Fund for Musicians, and the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.