Taylor Burns

Taylor Burns is a soprano from Kingston, ON currently pursuing her Master’s Degree at the University of Manitoba. She recently earned her Bachelor of Music (Honours in Voice Performance) with distinction from the University of Western Ontario. Upon graduating, she was awarded the UWO Gold Medal for receiving the highest academic standing in her program. In 2024, she placed 2nd in the Rose Bowl Competition for the Winnipeg Music Festival. In 2022, she placed 1st in her category in the NATS Vocal Showcase. An avid choral singer, has performed with professional Winnipeg based ensembles Polycoro and Dead of Winter. As a lover of Renaissance music, she is a frequent participant of The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School.

www.taylorburnssoprano.ca

Melanie Hiepler

Melanie Hiepler is a soprano from Surrey, BC. She holds a MMus from the University of British Columbia’s opera program, where she studied under Marisa Gaetanne. 

Recent performance credits include Joseph Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne (First Series), Cendrillon (Dorothée), The Cunning Little Vixen (Rooster, Owl, Cricket), The Florentine Straw Hat (La Modista), and Shadow Catch, among others. 

Melanie is an alumna of NUOVA Vocal Arts and holds a BA Honours in World Literature from Simon Fraser University. Melanie gratefully acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples as the traditional and continued keepers of the lands on which she studies, works, and sings.

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Caroline Barata

Caroline Barata is a rising third year undergraduate studying Vocal Performance at the Eastman School of Music. There she studies under Professor Kiera Duffy. Caroline was featured in the 2024 Eastman Queer Alliance's concert celebrating queer composers, as well as the 2023 Eastman Composer's Concert where she debuted 'The Coming of Old Age' by Payton Brown. In addition to singing, Caroline plays the piano and the guitar. 

Katherine Petersen

Katherine Petersen specializes in the performance of 21st Century repertoire for Voice and Saxophone. Her collaborations with Decho Ensemble include a residency at Ohio University and University of Idaho, performances at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Vienna and the International Saxophone Symposium. Based in Chicago, Katherine performs with Folks Operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, Chicago Opera Theater, and Transgressive Theatre-Opera. Recent roles include Rose Maybud, Ruddigore; Margot, Die Kathrin; Bessie Throckmorton, Merrie England; Brigitta, Iolanta; Contessa, Marriage of Figaro; Sylva Varescu, Csardas Princess; Musetta, La bohème; Valencienne, The Merry Widow; Francesca, Rachmaninoff’s Francesca di Rimini.

K.I. Press

K.I. Press's four books of poetry are Exquisite Monsters (Turnstone), Types of Canadian Women (Gaspereau), Spine (Gaspereau), and Pale Red Footprints (Pedlar). She is originally from Treaty 8 lands in northern Alberta and now lives in St. Vital in Winnipeg, Treaty 1 territory and National Homeland of the Red River Métis. Karen has an MA in English Literature from the University of Ottawa and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She teaches writing at Red River College Polytechnic at its Exchange District Campus in Winnipeg.

For more info: kipress.ca

Kayt (Lackie) Burgess

Kayt (Lackie) Burgess (they/she) is a writer, educator, musician, and researcher in multimodal storytelling. Their novel Heidegger Stairwell won the infamous 3 Day Novel Contest and was shortlisted for the ReLit Award for Fiction. Motel Pictures's feature film adaptation We Forgot to Break Up premiered at the 2024 London BFI Flare festival.  Kayt’s second novel Connection at Newcombe was published in 2021 by Latitude 46 Publishing. They create short fiction, poetry, drama, and popular song forms, as well as community story arts projects and experimental post-digital immersive experiences. This includes writing for the hit augmented reality game, Zombies, Run!

Kayt is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. They hold degrees from Western University and the University of Auckland, among others, as well as a PhD in digital creative writing (multimodal storytelling) from Bath Spa University. 

In addition to writing, Kayt runs a private music studio in Elliot Lake, Ontario (Robinson-Huron Treaty 61 territory). 

For more information: Kayt.ca

Celeste Nazeli Snowber

Celeste Nazeli Snowber, PhD is dancer, poet/writer and award-winning educator who is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Celeste has written extensively and her books include, Embodied inquiry: Writing living and being through the body, three collections of poetry and her most recent book is Dance, poetics and place: Site-specific performance as a portal to knowing. Her last book of poetry, The marrow of longing explores her Armenian identity. Celeste creates site-specific performances in the natural world, including botanical gardens and sites between land and sea. Celeste lives outside Vancouver, B.C., Canada and is a mother of three amazing adult sons. She can be found at www.celestesnowber.com.

Sarah Mercer

Sarah Mercer -  I am a Winnipeg poet originally from the Greater Toronto Area.  As a transcultural adoptee, I have struggled with my identity.  Being a parent of a child with disabilities widens my perspective.  My dabbling in poetry, music composition and singing has intensified recently.

Jess Woolford

Jess Woolford is a writer, literary critic and editor whose poetry has been published in the museum of americana, Book of Matches, Text Power Telling Magazine, The Ecological Citizen, Prairie Fire Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, The Winnipeg Free Press and elsewhere.  Her poetry has also been exhibited in #BeHereWinnipeg, a garden of poetry in ice, and in the Poetry Society of Vermont’s Corporeal Poetry: Poetry in Art and Objects show.  Raised in Vermont, Woolford now lives and writes on Treaty 1 Territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba.    

JCCortens

JCCortens, poet & educator lives, writes & teaches on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations (Vancouver, BC). JCCortens is driven by a passion for the written word, & a belief that the strengthening of personal voice & the articulation of our unique & commonly held histories serves the world as a model of hope, healing & inspiration. 

His poems have appeared in several journals including The Holy Male, The Maynard, Poetry Pause (League of Canadian Poets) and as well as Art & Poetry Anthology, an almost hand beckoning (with J. Swanson). His poem There is in me was selected for an honourable mention for the Delta Literary Arts Society spring contest (2024) Write On!  

As a poet, he seeks to respond to the world from a place of compassion and curiosity. Current obsessions include a series entitled Every Scar is a Story; Mapping the gaymale body a topography of the lives of gay men in fragmented times. Chapbook manuscripts (yet to be published) include Eros & Thanatos: Poems of Love and Death (2024)  and The Imaginary Lover (2019).

for more info: https://jccortens.ca

Gina Friedrich

Gina Friedrich is a fourth-year music major at Concordia University of Edmonton, with an emphasis in composition. She began singing in choir during her first degree, a Bachelor of Science in Biology, also at Concordia. Her enjoyment of choir, along with her newly-developed enjoyment of art song, and her passion for poetry, ultimately encouraged Gina to pursue this second degree. She currently studies composition with Matthew Emery, and also works as an administrative assistant for Choir Alberta, a Choral Scholar at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, and sings with the Concordia Concert Choir and Ariose Choir.

David Miltreiger

David Miltreiger is a drummer/percussionist and composer entering his fourth year of study in MacEwan University's Bachelor of Music Program. Inspired by dramatic and motivic scores from video games, film, and theatre, he is interested in the role of music as part of larger works of art; he seeks to incorporate such aspects of theme and storytelling into the longstanding tradition of Art Song.

Aaron Addorisio

Aaron Addorisio (he/him) is a percussionist, vocalist, composer, and conductor based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan / Edmonton. He is a recent graduate with honours from MacEwan University's composition degree and audio recording diploma programs, and Concordia University of Edmonton’s Church Music & Conducting Certificate. Aaron has strong ties to both the classical and contemporary music communities, and can often be found singing with and/or playing percussion for many choirs, theatre productions, orchestras, and jazz ensembles around the city, and acting as Music Director for Trinity Lutheran Church. Aaron was a 2022 SOCAN Young Composers Award winner for his electronics + drum set piece ‘i need you (to get back to me)’ and was commissioned in the same year by MacEwan University to compose a work for choir and big band to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the institution.

Nathan Wright Bueno de Mesquita

Nathan Wright Bueno de Mesquita is a composer born in Culiacán, Sinaloa in 2003. He is now based in Arlington, Virginia, and studies composition at SUNY Fredonia. He studies horn as a primary instrument but is also proficient on piano. His compositional style combines jazz chord voicings, and French-inspired harmony with modal melodies and scales often borrowed from Jewish folk music.

Owen Bloomfield

Owen Bloomfield is a Cambridge, Ontario based composer and community musician. His music has been performed across Canada, the United States and in Europe, being described as dramatic, lyrical, and deeply moving. Owen writes for a variety of ensembles and soloists, with recent performances by the chamber wind group The _____ Experiment of Do Not Wish For Any Other Life (Kitchener,2024), soprano Mele Santos of the mini-opera Invisible (Halifax,2023), the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra the symphony In Tempore Mutationes (Waterloo, 2022), mandolinist Daniel Ahlert for Reflection for solo Mandolin (Westerdelt, Germany, 2022). Owen also collaborates in interdisciplinary works that include dance, acting and music outside of conventional musical theatre forms (River Flow, and Tilt! with the group SlanT), and has worked in reconciliation projects such as Woman of the Drum with the community singing group Inshallah and the indigenous women’s drum circle Mino Ode Kwewak N’gamowak (the Good Hearted Women).

Owen is a member of the Canadian League of Composers and an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre. He has a BMus in composition from Wilfrid Laurier University and a MMus from the University of British Columbia.

www.owenbloomfield.com

Patrick McGraw

Patrick McGraw has made Toronto, Canada his home since immigrating from the United States in 2001. An early interest in the sciences led him to a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology, but the pull of his other great love, music, proved irresistible. He returned to school and completed a DMA with Gary Kulesha at the University of Toronto. His chamber, vocal, operatic, electroacoustic and wind ensemble works sometimes draw direct inspiration from his physics background but the influence is often subtle, reflecting a deep appreciation for nature’s beauty and a fascination with the connection between abstract patterns and embodied, sensory experience. He remains active in the sciences as a teacher, finding unexpected overlaps between the two endeavours.

for more info: https://www.patrickmcgrawcomposer.com/index.html

Margaret King

Margaret King (B. Mus, ARCT) is a piano teacher, collaborative pianist and composer, living in Edmonton, AB. The interplay of words and music led Margaret to write choral music. Her latest commissions include an SSAA work, ‘Reflections’, for Belle Canto (2020), a TTBB score, ‘Heart of Night’, for the ‘New Choral Works for the Edmonton Community’ project commissioned by Pro Coro Canada (2020), ‘Compass Rose Suite’, a set of five pieces (2020) for the Calgary Girls Choir, and ‘Elegy’, an SSAA work, for Sirens Choir (2022). Going forward, she is keen to hone her technique and explore writing art song!

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John Kuntz

The music of composer and pianist John Kuntz (b. 1996) ventures within timbral extremes, pursuing dissonant, emotive and expressive depths, theatrical magnetism, as well as electronic soundscapes. He is currently a freelance composer in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His works have been performed at Western University, Berklee College of Music, the University of Memphis, and Luther College. Recently, Kuntz completed a year-long composer-in-residence program with the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, which culminated with the premiere of Remembering in spring, 2023. Kuntz holds degrees from Luther College and the University of Memphis in composition and piano.

for more info: johnkuntzmusic.com

Aaron Price

With music described as "beautiful" and "radiant" by Fanfare Magazine, Aaron Nathan Price infuses lyricism and whimsical, jazz-influenced sensibilities in both his compositions and performances. He is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Connecticut Summerfest, and tours internationally as a composer, clarinetist, educator, and ludomusicologist. Aaron currently teaches in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, and previously served as a Visiting Lecturer in Music at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

For more info: www.aaronpricemusic.com

Pianist, Laura Loewen

Praised for expressivity, virtuosity, and committed playing, Canadian collaborative pianist Laura Loewen has appeared in concerts throughout North America and in Europe, Asia and South America. Dedicated to sharing her passion for ensemble playing and coaching, she is Professor of Collaborative Piano and the Vocal Coach and Associate Dean (undergraduate programs) at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music. She was a founding faculty artist of VISI (Vancouver International Song Institute), and is a long-time faculty member of the NUOVA opera training program in Edmonton, Alberta.

An extremely versatile pianist, Dr. Loewen has performed extensively with singers, instrumentalists and chamber ensembles, and is equally comfortable in traditional and contemporary idioms. She has appeared in concert with artists such as Charles Castleman, Tracy Dahl, Wendy Nielsen, Kimberly Barber, Jasper Wood, Eugene Rousseau, and William Bennett. She is a regular recital partner of fellow University of Manitoba faculty members baritone Mel Braun, soprano Monica Huisman, violinist Oleg Pokhanovski, and cellist Minna Rose Chung.

Loewen and duo partner, saxophonist Allen Harrington, have been performing together for more than a decade and are acclaimed for their virtuosic, musical, and electrifying performances. Loewen is also a founding member of The Galileo Trio with Kerry duWors, violin and Mark Rudoff, cello (“an enlightened idea” – Winnipeg Free Press). and Emerado with Rosemarie van der Hooft, mezzo-soprano, and Mel Braun, baritone (“true camaraderie and rapport” – Winnipeg Free Press).

Teaching and mentoring is an important element of Dr. Loewen's career. She shares her love of ensemble playing through teaching at the University of Manitoba, and at summer festivals and masterclasses. Her work as a vocal coach with both professionals and students is characterized by her philosophy of “Passionate Diction”. Her lectures on Diction and Ensemble were a yearly event at VISI, and she has spoken about Diction at NATS events and at Podium, the bi-annual Canadian Choral Conference. Dr. Loewen's articles on Health and the Collaborative Pianist and Diction can be found at Sparks and Wiry Cries.

Dr. Loewen has received several grants and awards, including the Rh Award for Creative Work, University of Manitoba; Creative Works Grants, University of Manitoba; a Special Opportunities Grant, Manitoba Arts Council; and grants for commissioning Canadian compositions through the Canada Council for the Arts and the Manitoba Arts Council. Dr. Loewen holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Accompanying/Coaching from the University of Minnesota, where she was a fellowship student of Margo Garrett and Karl Paulnack.