"Nicolas Caloia. Born Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1968. Residence: Montréal, Québec. Performer (double bass).

Since 1990 Nicolas Caloia has worked at creating a contemporary music generated by using accurately composed textures to channel collective improvisation. The goal is a music that erases the lines between improvised and composed, pop and avant-garde, good and bad. He hopes this music will satisfy the body, the mind and, above all, the heart. He has worked as a performer, composer, and organizer in Montréal and has toured in North America, Europe, and Asia. He has performed and recorded in a vast array of contexts with the most important members of Montréal's creative music community as well as with internationally renowned musicians like the ICP orchestra, Marshall Allen, John Butcher, Joe McPhee, Steve Lacy, William Parker, Hassan Hakmoun, Tristan Honsinger and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. His concerts and numerous recordings have been critically acclaimed both at home and abroad. Currently, the majority of his work as a composer and improviser finds a voice in: The Ratchet Orchestra - a 30-piece big band; Tilting - the Nicolas Caloia Quartet, Ring - a sextet, Spell - a 10-piece marching band, Trephining - a quintet, Mercury - a duet Lori Freedman as well in solo performances."

"Jean Derome. Born Montréal, Québec, 1955. esidence: Montréal, Québec. Composer, Performer (saxophones (alto, baritone, soprano), flutes (flute, bass flute, piccolo, alto flute, recorders), keyboards, small wind instruments (ocarinas, jew's harp, game calls, toys...), percussion, invented instruments, voice)

One of the most active and eclectic musicians on the Canadian creative music scene, Jean Derome has managed to earn the recognition of a larger public, a rare feat in that field. Thanks to his large-scale musique actuelle projects, his compositions, his work as an improviser, his jazz groups and his music for the screen and the stage, Derome ranks as a major creative force, in Québec and abroad. He is experienced and innovative on both saxophone and flute, and his unique writing style cannot be mistaken for anyone else's. Sensitive and powerful, his music often features a funny strike that makes its complex nature more inviting.

Ever since Nébu (one of Québec's first avant-garde jazz groups) in the early '70s, Derome has been consistently renewing and diversifying his approach of composition. He impressed audience and critics first with the flute, then with the saxophone, as a lead character in the musique actuelle underground. He took part to the various artists' collectives looking for new ways to express themselves freely, without esthetic or social constraints, including the Ensemble de musique improvisée de Montréal. Later, in the early '80s, he co-founded Ambiances Magnétiques, a collective and record label that raised his profile at home and introduced his name to the outside world. Among his numerous projects, let us mention the duos Les Granules, Nous perçons les oreilles and Plinc! Plonc!, the dynamic group Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms, and the large-scale projects Confitures de gagaku, Je me souviens - Hommage à Georges Perec and Canot-camping. Most of these projects are based on a unique form of synergy between composition, structured improvisation and genuine creative madness, all this articulated with unmatched playfulness. In 1992, Derome became the second artist to be presented with the Freddie Stone Award (bassist Lisle Ellis was the first).

Besides improvising on a regular basis with Ambiances Magnétiques' members and appearing in their projects, Derome has also shared the stage with several musicians of international stature, among others Fred Frith, Lars Hollmer, Louis Sclavis and Han Bennink. He performs regularly all over Canada, in the US and in Europe. He received a Prix Opus in 2001 for his exposure abroad.

Lately, jazz circles have been praising his undisputable qualities as a jazzman, thanks to the Thelonious Monk tribute project Évidence, the Normand Guilbeault Ensemble (whose Mingus Erectus CD is devoted to Charles Mingus' music), and the much-lauded Derome Guilbeault Tanguay Trio.

Although Jean Derome writes tirelessly for his own projects, he is much in demand in the fields of film, theatre and dance. A short list of this side of his work would have to include his numerous scores for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), especially for films by John Walker, Jacques Leduc, Fernand Bélanger and animated films by Pierre Hébert, Michèle Cournoyer and Jean Detheux; his incidental music for Théâtre UBU, Théâtre de Quat'Sous and Théâtre du Nouveau Monde; not forgetting his work with several top choreographers, including Louise Bédard, Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood, Daniel Soulières and Ginette Laurin. Other music ensembles have commissioned works from him, including Tuyo, Bradyworks, the Hard Rubber Orchestra from Vancouver and Fanfare Pourpour. Incidentally, Derome is the musical director of the latter.

Over thirty years of music and 70 record credits later, Jean Derome still has sleeves bursting with tricks."

"Gabriel Dharmoo. Born Quebec City, Québec, 1981. Residence: Montréal, Québec. Composer, Performer (voice).

Gabriel Dharmoo's musical practice encompasses composition, improvisation and the research of South Indian Carnatic music.

As a composer, he has studied composition and analysis at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with Serge Provost and finished his studies with a "Prix avec grande distinction", the highest honour to be awarded. He has worked with emerging and established Canadian ensembles (ECM+, SMCQ, Soundstreams, Gryphon Trio, Aventa, Arraymusic, Motion Ensemble) as well as with Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart from Germany. His works have been performed in Canada, the USA, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore and South Africa. In addition to winning 6 prizes from the SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers, he was awarded the 2011 Fernand-Lindsay Prix d'Europe composition prize and the Canada Council for the Arts' 2011 Robert Fleming Prize. He is an associate composer at the Canadian Music Centre as well as a member of SOCAN and the Canadian League of Composers.

Having researched Carnatic music with 4 renowned masters in Chennai (India) in 2008 and 2011, his personal style explores the theme of post-exotism and the interplay between tradition and novelty.

As a vocal improviser, Gabriel has sung across Canada (Montreal, Québec, Vancouver, Banff) and in Berlin, Germany. In 2013-14, a development grant from the Canada Council for the Arts allowed him to work with vocalists Phil Minton (UK) and Ute Wassermann (Germany), as well as yodel and overtone specialist Christian Zehnder (Switzerland) and beatboxer Shlomo (UK). Inspired by contrasting vocal expressions in different cultures in time and space, he conceives his voice as both a raw and a sophisticated instrument. His musical language is a blend of diverse classical, avant-garde and traditional elements, mediated by an interest in linguistics and ethno/zoomusicology."

"Lori Freedman. Born Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1958. Residence: Montréal, Québec. Composer, Performer (clarinet, bass clarinet)

Qualified as "a musical revolutionary in the front ranks of the avant-garde" by Alex Varty of the Georgia Straight (Vancouver), Lori Freedman (clarinets) is internationally recognized as one of the most creative and provocative performers. She is a member of a select group known as "renaissance musicians" as her artistic activities cover many fields: performer of written music (well over one hundred works have been written for or premiered by her), composer, improviser, teacher, and on occasion, writer. While managing a full performance schedule of more than 75 public appearances a year, Freedman has been receiving commissions to write music for ensembles such as Orkestra Futura, Arraymusic Ensemble, Ensemble Transmission, Continuum Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble SuperMusique, Ensemble Paramirabo, Upstream Orchestra, Queen Mab Trio, Crowbar Trio, Lott Dance, Oberlander Films, Foresite Theatre, Cooke Productions and Autumn Leaf Productions. Her current discography comprises over 59 recordings, the most recent of which include Greffes (Empreintes digitales), On No (Mode Records), Bridge (Collection QB), Plumb (Barnyard Records), 3 and À un moment donné (Ambiances Magnétiques), Huskless! (Artifact), See Saw and Thin Air (Wig). Highlight collaborations include work with Rohan de Saram, Barre Phillips, Helmut Lachenmann, Frances-Marie Uitti, Monique Jean, Joëlle Léandre, Axel Dörner, George Lewis, the Jack Quartet and Richard Barrett."

"Geneviève Letarte. Born Outremont, Québec. Residence: Montréal, Québec. Composer, Performer (voice, keyboard), Author.

Based in Montréal, Geneviève Letarte is an artist with a unique approach that leads her from literature to singing and back.

Letarte is the author of four novels, including Souvent la nuit tu te réveilles (l'Hexagone, 2002) and Les Vertiges Molino (Leméac, 1996), and a collection of poetry, Tout bas très fort (Écrits des Forges, 2004). She has also recorded two albums of songs, Chansons d'un jour (Ambiances Magnétiques, 2000) and Vous seriez un ange (Ambiances Magnétiques, 1990), and created several shows relying on text, song and music, such as Le Mystère du bois Blanc (Théâtre La Chapelle, Montréal, 2000) and Y a des jours comme ça (Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, 1996).

As a member of the poetry and music collective Le Band de poètes, she has made several tours and recorded one album, Le Band de Poètes (Monsieur Fauteux m'entendez-vous, 2005).

Since 1999, she has been on the editorial committee of the essay and creation magazine L'Inconvénient (Montréal), in which she regularly publishes texts and English-French translations. Recently, she co-authored the presentation and translation of a collection of previously unreleased essays by Virginia Wolf, Une prose passionnée et autres essais (Boréal, 2005).

Letarte has been featured in various international events, including the Festival de poésie Wallonie-Bruxelles (Namur, Belgium, 2006), Festival international de poésie de Trois-Rivières (2005, 1997, 1995), Festival Métropolis Bleu (Montréal, 2005, 2001, 2000), Festival Voix d'Amériques (Montréal, 2005, 2003), Voilà Québec en Mexico! (Guadalajara, Mexico, 2003), Festival Parole ambulante (Lyon, France, 2003), Festival International de la littérature (Montréal, 2003, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997), Women In View (Vancouver, 2001), Les Cartier de la poésie (Lyon, France, 1999), Festival acadien de poésie (Caraquet, New Brunswick, 1999), Festival interculturel La Romeria De Mayo (Holguin, Cuba, 1999), Festival International de musique actuelle (Victoriaville, 1990), and Les Rencontres internationales de poésie contemporaine (Cogolin, France, 1986).

Letarte has been artist in residence at the Leighton Colony (Banff, Alberta, 2006), Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, New York, 1999), Studio du Québec à Paris (Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 1996) and Banff Centre (Alberta, 1992). She was also on numerous artist grant panels in Québec and Canada."