"Laura Swankey, Toronto, Ontario is an eclectic and skilled vocalist, Laura draws influence from many places. She is a natural improviser and writes with honesty and integrity, always stretching her capacity to create new sounds. She has worked with artists such as Mike Murley, Mark Feldman, Ralph Alessi, Elio Villafranca, Poet Laureate Dennis Lee, and studied under Christine Duncan, Jim Lewis, Terry Promane and Allan Gilliland."

"Tova Kardonne is a Toronto-based composer, improviser, vocalist, and violist, with a practice of dance/music co-creation. Her compositions have toured the world as part the Vox Novus 60X60 project, and been included in the International Computer Music Conference, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art Microtonal Music series, and the Toronto Sound Symposium among others. She has scored film installation and accompanied works of theatre, dance, and performance art in Toronto and internationally. Her performance art has been commissioned for Toronto's Nuit Blanche, she Musical Directed the Juno-nominated Obeah Opera (b current/Theatre Archipelago). She is a chorister in The Element Choir, Alex Samaras' GREX, and Andrea Kuzmich's Brou-la-la. The main vehicle for Tova's composition is The Thing Is, her 8-piece World Jazz fusion ensemble (www.myspace.com/thethingismusic) which released its first CD in April 2012; it's next album, "The Lanka Suite", is scheduled for release in the fall of 2018. She has also sung with the Max Senitt Jazz Ensemble, the Composers' Collective Big Band, and creates vocal accompaniment to dance in the coexisDance series and for the REAson d'être Contact Improvisation Jam . Her new ensemble, the Tova Kardonne Quartet, is comprised of herself on voice and compositions along with Ali Berkok on piano, Luan Phung on guitar, and Nick Fraser on drums, and sounds like a groove kaleidoscope. She teaches music lessons from her home."

"Felicity Williams (b. 1954) was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. She still lives there with her husband, Grant, and their two children, Clemency and Samuel. Felicity holds a B.Mus. (Hons) degree in composition from the University of Canterbury as well as performance diplomas in violin, piano, and voice. She also holds a Diploma in Teaching from Christchurch College of Education. In 1988 she was appointed National Composer-In-Schools, a one year residency designed to stimulate original composition for and by young people. Her list of compositions is diverse, from songs and rhythm games for early childhood through full length musicals and ballets. In 1994 she established her own school, "Mozarts", which encompasses a Performing Arts Pre School, as well as (in 1995) a Performing Arts Centre offering classes for students aged five years through adult. She is also Composer-In-Residence at Elmwood Primary School, where she writes original music for each class in the school, composing for the specific abilities of the class in question."

"Lieke van der Voort: was born in The Netherlands and moved to Toronto in 2009. She is a versatile vocalist and composer with a heavy focus on improvisation and unconventional vocal use. Past activities include Veryan Weston's "Make", Schafers' "Apocalypsis", the soundtrack of movies "The VVitch" and "Clara" and various Tanya Tagaq shows (Massey Hall, Trinity St. Paul's United Church) with Christine Duncan's Element Choir. She leads her own Kontraband Kollektif and is artistic associate at Spectrum Music. She recently finished her undergraduate music degree at Humber College, having studied with Christine Duncan, Geoff Young, David Occhipinti and others.

Composer: Works for The Heavyweights Brass Band, Jumblies Theatre's Ground Floor Community Choir with Soundstreams, Toronto Creative Music Lab participant.

Vocalist: Lieke is active in multiple ensembles and projects in Toronto: Wish Tank (Nick Marshall), The Band named Crow, Near Distant Ensemble (Thomas Upjohn), Element Choir (Christine Duncan), Burble Choir (Christine Duncan, Juliet Palmer). International ensembles Functional Nudity and Red Exit.

Educator: Lieke currently teaches voice and composition at Singer's Edge and Toronto Arts Academy. She is also available for private lessons."

"Alex Samaras is recognized as one of North America's leading singers in the jazz and new music idioms. He has performed with Meredith Monk, Brent Carver, Jackie Richardson, Zac Brown Band, Martha Wainwright and a number of other notable performing artists. Alex leads his own vocal group GREX, exploring the extremes of the human voice in the context of ancient music and his own original compositions. He performs in well known Canadian groups such as The Queer Songbook Orchestra, A Sondheim Jazz Project and Twin Within. These groups have released records to critical acclaim and you can find more about them at their websites. Alex will be releasing his first solo album this year under the name TRYAL.

Alex teaches singing at The University of Toronto Jazz Department, Jazz Works Music Camp and National Music Camp. He is also the conductor of the PAL Chorale at the Performing Artists Lodge in Toronto."

"Jocelyn Barth is one of Canada's exciting emerging vocalists. As a jazz singer, Jocelyn is known for her emotional expressiveness and sensitivity. She delivers a lyric with intention, depth and authenticity while maintaining the playfulness of phrasing that comes from her instinctively instrumentalist-like approach to singing. While happy to keep things simple and straight-ahead, she loves to stretch out into an explorative, improvisational adventure with her bandmates, often pianist David Restivo and bassist George Koller. Jocelyn's innate musicality and versatility have put her in increasing demand in a variety of settings as both a featured artist and a session musician.

Jocelyn recorded on Canadian music icon Jane Siberry's albums Ulysses' Purse and Angels Bend Closer and performed with Siberry at the launch of Ulysses' Purse in Toronto in 2016. She has worked with experimental vocalist and conductor Christine Duncan on multiple projects, including the soundtrack for the award-winning feature film The Witch. Additionally, with Duncan's improvising mass choir The Element Choir, she performed with Inuk throatsinging dynamo Tanya Tagaq at Massey Hall, Nathan Phillips Square and The Great Hall and recorded on Tagaq's latest album, Retribution.

Jocelyn has performed at the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, the Guelph Jazz Festival and the SING! Toronto Vocal Arts Festival. She sang at the inaugural Kensington Market Jazz Festival with George Koller's free improvisation ensemble Victory for Freestyle. In January 2016, she was a featured vocalist performing the works of Paul Simon in Jazz FM 91's Songwriter's Series. Jocelyn sang with New Lineage, a collective of eight improvising vocalists which held a weekly residency at the Art Gallery of Ontario for June 2016. In November 2017, she performed Holly Small and Robert W. Stevenson's dance and sound poetry piece "Cheap Sunglasses" at Harbourfront Centre Theatre for Danceworks' 40th Anniversary Celebration. Jocelyn performs regularly with contemporary jazz outfit The Marie Goudy 12tet and is featured with an original song on Volume Two by Toronto recording project Collective Order."

"Mingjia (pronounced MING-jee-yah) is an improvising vocalist, composer, lyricist and teacher an active contributor to the ever-growing Toronto music scene. Ever since she began playing piano, singing, and making art at the age of 4 in her beautiful hometown of Beijing, China, Mingjia has been fascinated by humanity's tendency towards creativity. From composing music for her 13-piece chamber ensemble Tortoise Orchestra and singing at Massey Hall, to poster design and sneaking jokes into her biographies, Mingjia continues to explore different ways to create. She's had the incredible good fortune of being able study with some of Canada's most innovative artists, such as Christine Duncan, Geoff Young, Shannon Gunn, Alex Samaras, David Occhipinti, etc.

Recognized for her technical and stylistic versatility as a vocalist, her box-breaking, label-smudging sound as a composer, and her friendly, playful energy as a collaborator, Mingjia has performed with and composed for a plethora of musical groups. These include herTortoise Orchestra as well as avant-pop duo the science of what ?, SonuSkapos Jazz Orchestra, contemporary jazz ensemble Makes Shapes, vocal/movement improvisation group Celeste, and so on. She can be often found singing at various Toronto venues, such as the Rex Hotel, the Music Gallery, Aga Khan Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, etc."

"Andrea Kuzmich, the first recipient of the Ella Fitzgerald Award for Performance from York University, is a dynamic and emotional singer. Her voice is unique. With a reed like timbre, she pulls from a very diverse musical background and delivers a song in a manner that can immediately and unmistakably be identified as Andrea. It's not just her velvet like tone, but her inflections, her articulation -- her personal experience resonating through the song.

When you listen to Andrea, you'll know without a doubt that she can swing, but the roots of her feel partially comes from singing with Chorale Jerico, a Congolese gospel choir. Stretching a little from the African influence, she explores different concepts of rhythm and scales with her continued studies in South Indian singing and drumming with Suba and Trichi Sankaran. And very dear to her heart is her activity with Darbazi - a choir featuring the polyphonic choral music from the Republic of Georgia. The flip side is her activity in contemporary improvised music. She has had great opportunities to perform with legendary free jazz trumpeter Raphe Malik, the late free jazz tenor player Glenn Spearman, and New York's active saxophonist Sabir Mateen. Moderating this eclectic background is her recent participation in the 1999 Banff International Jazz Workshop, where all these diverse elements were welcomed and bridged. There, she will never forget the beauty of singing with such greats as Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Hugh Fraser, Dave Holland and Kenny Werner.

Andrea has received well rewarded praise as the feature singer on the 1999 CD release of Whitney Smith Big Steam Band's Swing's Mistress, and is also the singer on Mark Hundevad's Spiritual Alignment's two CD set Balancing, released March 1999. Most recently, she has produced her own CD called Kooz's Blues - not yet released. All three Cd's have been receiving airplay on CJRT, CBC and other community jazz radio.

Among the many many clubs and festivals Andrea has performed at are: the Bamboo, the Horseshoe, the Rivoli, Mezzetta Cafe, Bar Code, Starbucks, Chicken Deli, C'est What, Free Times Cafe, the Idler Pub, the Music Gallery, the Toronto JVC Jazz Festival, the Toronto DuMaurier Jazz Festival, the Guelph Jazz Festival, First Night, the Festival of Lights, the Taste of Little Italy, and the Taste of the Danforth.

She has shared the stage with many musicians including: John McLeod, Mark Promane, Quinsin Nachoff, Kenji Ome, Jake Wilkinson, Barry Romberg, Russ Little, Bob Fenton, John Alcorn, Cal Dod, Norm Villeneuve, Leni Soloman, Del Dako, Paul Ashwell, Steve Crow, Mike Hawker, Artie Roth, Mike McLellan, William Carn, Lena Allemano, Mark Hundevad, Maureen Forester, Dinah Christie, Jim Heineman, John T. Davis, Bob Mover, Michael Occhipinti, Bill Westcott, and others."

"Aki Takahashi (高橋 アキ Takahashi Aki, b. 1944) is a Japanese pianist specializing in contemporary classical music.

Born in Kamakura, she began studying piano at the age of five and received her M.A. degree from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Her teachers included Yutaka Ito, Ray Lev, and George Vásárhelyi. She presented her first public recital in 1970 and her European debut in 1972.

She has released numerous recordings and many 20th-century composers (including John Cage, Morton Feldman, Peter Garland, Alvin Lucier, Isang Yun, Joji Yuasa, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Carl Stone, Maki Ishii, and Takehisa Kosugi) have written pieces for her.

She has also performed works by Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, Tōru Takemitsu, and her brother, Yuji Takahashi.

Her playing was described by Morton Feldman, on the occasion of the premiere of his work Triadic Memories as follows: Aki Takahashi is very different [from David Tudor or Roger Woodward]. Takahashi appears to be absolutely still. undisturbed, unperturbed, as if in a concentrated prayer... The effect of her playing on me is that I feel privileged to be invited to a very religious ritual.

She has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and served as Artist-in-Residence at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1980 - 1981. She was a guest professor at the California Institute of the Arts in 1984 and 1985."

"Christine Duncan began learning her craft in church. A minister's daughter, she performed with her musical family "The Duncans" in gospel shows on stages across North America from the age of five. When she was 15 she recorded her first album of her own original gospel tunes in Nashville.

Inevitably her roots led her from gospel and inspirational music to soul, singer songwriter folk music, R&B/blues, jazz and more recently, new music and improvised music. Since 1994, she has released 5 albums under her own name, and has been involved in many other recording projects, including 2 albums with the Hugh Fraser VEJI big band.

A musical chameleon with a near five octave range, Duncan uses her voice as an instrument, exploring its full tonal, timbral and textural range. She has recorded and/or collaborated with Bob Murphy, Hugh Fraser, Miles Black, Veda Hille, Paul Plimley, Danielle Palardy Roger, Jean Martin and performed with such names as Kenny Wheeler, Rufus Reid, Dave Young, P.J. Perry, Ray Charles, Linton Garner, Paul Horn, Jeff Healey, Andre Crouch, Sabeer Mateen, John Oswald, Paul Dutton, Nobuo Kabota and many others.

Recently she performed in 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade, winner of the Alcan Performing Arts Award: Music/Opera 2002; a new opera premiere, written by Peter Hannan and Peter Hinton, which was presented in Vancouver BC, by Modern Baroque Opera and Vancouver New Music, in March, 2002.

Along with Christine's rapidly growing audience has come recognition in the form of a nomination for the Alcan and Pacific Music Industry Assn. 1997 West Coast Female Vocalist of the Year. She was also the subject of a CTV/BC Film funded documentary-portrait entitled Coming Home: Christine Duncan at Christ Church Cathedral, currently showing on BRAVO."

"New Zealand-Canadian composer Juliet Palmer is known as a "post-modernist with a conscience" (The Listener) whose work "crosses so many genres as to be in a category of its own" (Toronto Star). Juliet is the artistic director of Urbanvessel, a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration. Recent works: Inside Us, audio-video installation and performance featuring Laura Swankey and the VOICE OVER mind Choir (Western Front, Vancouver); The Man Who Married Himself, librettist Anna Chatterton & choreographer Hari Krishnan (Toronto Masque Theatre); Vermillion Songs, tenor Simon O'Neill & NZTrio; Invicta, text by Blackfoot Pikani spoken word artist Zaccheus Jackson (Signal Theatre & The National Youth Orchestra); Quarry, soprano Sarah Albu & Continuum (Touching Ground Festival); Sweat, a cappella opera, writer Anna Chatterton (Bicycle Opera tour; National Sawdust, New York); Boots, interactive boudoir opera (Opera Peepshow); and Singing River, site-specific performance, Wonscotonach/Don River (Aanmitaagzi, Native Earth, Evergreen and Pan Am Path). Her 2010 boxing opera Voice-Box was acclaimed as a "performance piece that smashes the boundaries between disciplines and leaves them sprawled out on the mat, down for the count" (Musicworks).

Upcoming: burl for pianist Stephen De Pledge (NZ Festival), February 2018; Morse for Marie-Annick Béliveau and Instruments of Happiness with text by Simin Behbahani (Canadian tour), March 2018; and a new work for the Detroit Symphony, June 2019.

Based in Toronto since 1997, Juliet's work has been featured around the world with performances at: New York's Lincoln Center, London's Southbank Centre, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Bath International Festival, Voix Nouvelles France, Italy's Angelica Festival, Evenings of New Music Bratislava, Musica Ficta Festival Lithuania, NYYD Festival Estonia, The Istanbul Festival, Soundculture Japan, the Adelaide Festival, the New Zealand International Arts Festival, and Canada's World Stage Festival, Koerner Hall, National Arts Centre, Orpheum Theatre, Chan Centre, Crow's Theatre, Theatre Centre, Music Gallery, Sound Symposium, Open Space, Western Front and Ottawa Chamberfest.

Performers of her music include Canada's Aventa, Tapestry New Opera, Continuum, Soundstreams, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Toca Loca, l'Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bicycle Opera, Penderecki String Quartet, New Music Concerts, Arraymusic, Eve Egoyan, Krisztina Szabó, Patricia O'Callaghan, Trio Fibonacci, the Gryphon Trio, and Motion Ensemble; Les Percussions de Strasbourg; Italy's Fontanamix; London's Piano Circus; Slovakia's Veni Ensemble; California EAR Unit and the Bang on a Can All-Stars; the New Zealand String Quartet, Auckland Philharmonia, Orchestra Wellington and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Juliet was the 2011/12 Creative New Zealand/Jack C. Richards composer-in-residence at the New Zealand School of Music and the 2012 composer-in-residence of Orchestra Wellington. She is the winner of the Detroit Symphony's Elaine Lebenbom Award and the recipient of a Chalmers Arts Fellowship 2018-19. She is currently Composer-in-Residence at Sunnybrook Research Institute, a position funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

Juliet holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University and an M.Mus in performance, composition and time-based art from Auckland University. Her teachers and mentors include: Louis Andriessen, Jack Body, Phil Dadson, Michael Gordon, Eleanor Hovda, David Lang, Paul Lansky, Annea Lockwood, Meredith Monk, Steve Mackey and Julia Wolfe."

"Ryan Brouwer grew up in Anola Manitoba, a small town outside of Winnipeg. He has studied classical music for many years and completed his Undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in jazz performance in May of 2010.

Since moving to Toronto in 2005, Ryan has had the opportunity to work with some of Canada's finest musicians and educators including Jim Lewis, Chase Sanborn, Gillian Mackay, Dave Neill, Terry Promane and Paul Read. He has performed with many different ensembles including the U of T 11 and 10 o'clock jazz orchestras, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra and continues to write and perform music with his own groups. Ryan is also a multi-instrumentalist and composer with a strong background in trumpet, guitar, voice, piano and composition. Ryan teaches individual lessons in trumpet, guitar and composition for Find A Way."

"Musician, producer, Jean Martin was nominated for best drummer for the 2004 National Jazz Awards and is the recipient of the 2004 Freddy Stone Award. This award from the Minden foundation is for outstanding leadership, integrity and excellence in the area of contemporary music and Jazz

His group Barnyard Drama is an improvising duo featuring vocalist Christine Duncan. They toured Canadian festivals, summer 2004, promoting a CD intitled Memories and a list of things to do. The new cd I'm a Navvy was launched at the prestigious FIMAV and features guitarists Justin Haynes and Bernard Falaise.

Other recent releases are with trio Idiolalla with singers DB Boyko and Christine Duncan and the Vancouver based group Laconnor, this electronic, musique actuel group features Francois Houle on clarinet and lap top, Jesse Zubot on violin and lap top and Jean on drums and electronics. Laconnor toured Canadian Jazz festival 2006.

Jean has appeared and collaborated with: Eugene Chadbourne, Joe Fonda, Jesse Zubot, Juno nominated DD Jackson, David Murray, Don Byron, Dominic Duval, Mark Dresser, Wilbert de Joode, John Oswald, Francois Houle, Jean Derome, Frank Gratowski, Chelsea Bridge, Kevin Turcotte, Peggy Lee, Tony Wilson, Brad Turner, Lori Freedman, Tom Walsh, Pierre Tanguay, Marilyn Lerner, The National Arts Centre Orchestra, legendary Canadian blues man Dutch Mason, Andy Stochansky, Zubot & Dawson, Bob Fenton, Roddy Ellias, Tim Postgate's Jazzstory, Christine Duncan, Hugh Fraser, George Kohler, Bob Murphy, David Mott, The Bitches Brew Band, Rob Frayne, The Jivewires, Micheal Occhipinti, Rich Underhill, Justin Haynes, Hugh Marsh, The Henry's and many others.

He has appeared on a one hour TFO and BRAVO TV jazz special entitled, "DUOS" performing improvisations with Award winning trumpeter Kevin Turcotte. Jean participated in a new project put together by Ajay Heble and the Guelph Jazz festival. A Jazz Opera with the music of DD Jackson, featuring Peggy Lee, Brad Turner, John Geggie and Dean Boman among others. This piece was performed for the 10th annual Jazz festival in Guelph and in Vancouver in September 2003.

With the Jean Martin Trio: he has recorded 2 CD's and has toured Canada on three occasions, performing at most Jazz festivals in this country. The latest recording a completely improvised work was released with a tour in November 2003. The trio features guitarist Justin Haynes and national jazz awards winner, trumpeter Kevin Turcotte.

With Chelsea Bridge: He has released 5 CD's on Unity Page Records, has done 4 Canadian tours from '92 to '97, was featured at the Blue Note in NYC , the Molda International Jazz Festival in Norway and the Washington DC Jazz Fest (Canadian Jazz Ambassador Series).

With Juno winner DD Jackson: He has released 2 CD's on Justin Time Records, has toured France (including: Maubeuge & Rouen International Jazz Festivals, Feb. '97), 2 Canadian tours in '94 & '95 and was featured at various venues in Northern USA (Montana, Seattle, Buffalo and various clubs in NYC) including a CD release gig at the Fez Jazz Club in NYC, with legendary saxophonist David Murray."