Emad Armoush is a Damascus, Syrian singer and multi-instrumentalist oud, ney, and flamenco guitar, drawing on the tradition of Arabic songs. His ensemble Rayhan creates original interpretations of these songs, filled with intensity, sonic colouring, thematic and far reaching improvisations and modernization with electronic manipulations.

Francois Houle (born August 17, 1961, Lachine): "I am a Canadian clarinetist who embraces pretty much any music where the clarinet is present, or has a bit of profile or history. Although I am classically trained, I have not followed the traditional career path associated with the kind of classical training I came out of.

I studied at McGill University with Emilio Iacurto (the legendary, long-time principal clarinetist of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra) and at Yale University with Keith Wilson (whose contribution to the clarinet world is unparalleled). I've had the privilege of participating in masterclasses with some of the world's finest clarinet players, including David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman and Alan Hacker.

It was Alan Hacker who actually opened the door for me to explore new technical and musical possibilities on the clarinet. Having been part of Fires of London and a close collaborator with composers such as Peter Maxwell-Davies, Alan's insatiable curiosity and deep scholarship inspired me to look for my own personal approach. Following a brief visit to his home in the UK in the late 80's I spent some time in Paris practicing and researching clarinet new music repertoire. At that time I still didn't know what I was going to do with my life, except that I had a deep desire to "make it" in the music scene. It was during this period that I discovered the music of Steve Lacy.

Steve Lacy's career actually began as a dixieland clarinetist, eventually shifting to the soprano saxophone, an instrument very few jazz musicians had investigated since the great Sydney Bechet due to its range, smaller embouchure and faulty intonation. Steve dedicated his life to bringing this instrument at the forefront of creative music (legend has it that he turned John Coltrane on to the soprano's expressive qualities).

At the time I had one occasion of hearing him play live at the New Morning jazz club, and bought a newly released duo recording called "Paris Blues" (Owl Records, 1987) with the great Gil Evans on piano. Heading back to Canada, that was the only music I could listen to for quite a while, being transfixed by Lacy's and Evan's telepathic playing. It was the first time that I had found a jazz performance that rivalled with the finest chamber music making I was then more familiar with. It was a game changer as far as I was concerned. It opened the door for further exploration and discoveries; Anthony Braxton, John Carter, Jimmy Giuffre, all important figures in the development of creative music on the clarinet. It is interesting and deplorable to note that not once were these names ever mentioned in all my years of university clarinet seminars and lessons. It was only a few years later that he agreed to meet with me for one on one lessons at his Paris apartment. His main advice to me was to stick with the clarinet, and forge ahead with my musical thoughts and ideas, no matter how difficult the road ahead may be.

After a stint at the Banff Centre, where I worked on my technique and practiced improvisation (the centre has a great library with an extensive jazz and creative music collection), I relocated to Vancouver in the winter of 1989, where I began playing on the creative music scene and met many musicians who eventually became fantastic collaborators; Claude Ranger, Roger Baird, Tony Wilson, amongst many others. At the time, the New Orchestra Workshop Society was approaching its golden years, with the founding of the legendary Glass Slipper, the "go to" venue for creative music on the West Coast. The Vancouver Jazz Festival was well on its way to establishing itself as one of the most innovative international music happening, not only programming some of the biggest names in the business, such as Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis, but also the most creative musicians on the planet; Cecil Taylor, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Anthony Braxton, William Parker, and a whole sleuth of European 1st generation of improvisors such as Misha Mengelberg, Han Benning, ICP, AMM, and the Italian Instabile Orchestra. It was at the 1992 Jazz Festival that I had my first high profile gig, my first band "Et Cetera" sharing the bill with the Steve Lacy Sextet!

As I was making my first steps in the improvised community, I also became involved with the contemporary music scene, collaborating with composers such as John Oliver and Paul Dolden, as well as freelancing with established organizations; Vancouver New Music, Vancouver Pro Musica. In 1992 I became a founding member of the Standing Wave ensemble. My activities in both creative music and new music allowed me to forge a strong profile, eventually expanding to collaborations with international musicians, and getting international touring opportunities. Some long standing collaborations were forged during that fruitful period, with luminaries such as Benoît Delbecq and Joëlle Léandre among others.

I have since been constantly involved in the advancement of creative music, pursuing collaborative projects with composers and musicians of all persuasions. My work continues to test the boundaries, looking for new vistas and connections with listeners everywhere."

"Jesse Zubot is one of those unique musicians/producers whose praxis spans multiple genres and transcends contextualization into an idiom. Between moments of impassioned, visceral outburst and quite emotive sensitivies, Zubot exposes the full range of affects through a pristine sonic architecture. Zubot a 3-time Juno Award winning musician/producer with avant-rock band Fond of Tigers (2011), chamber folk-jazz ensemble The Great Uncles of the Revolution (2004) and roots instrumentalists Zubot & Dawson (2003). Zubot produced the Polaris Music Prize winning album 'ANIMISM' by Tanya Tagaq which was released in 2014. This album also garnered Zubot a nomination for 'Producer of the Year' at the 2015's Juno Awards. In the fall of 2010 Jesse won the 'Multimedia' award for his work on the score for Tungijuq (w/ Tanya Tagaq) at the 2010 Western Canadian Music Awards. Tungijuq was produced by Isuma (Atanarjuat) and was selected for Sundance, The Toronto Film Festival and the ImagineNATIVE film festival where it won for Best Short. Zubot has also composed extensively for modern dance. A recent highlight was the presentation of Body Scan (Choreographed by Benoit Lachambre & Su-Feh Lee : Score by Jesse Zubot) at the prestigious Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. In the past decade Jesse has delved heavily into the world of improvised and creative music having worked with the likes of Francois Houle, Tanya Tagaq, Peggy Lee, Evan Parker, Eugene Chadbourne, Mats Gustafsson, Matthew Bourne, Dylan van der Schyff, Joe Fonda, Fred Frith, Eyvind Kang and Nels Cline and many others. In 2005 Zubot started Drip Audio ("...one of the most original musical operations in the country." - CBC Arts Online), a record label dedicated to creative music. Drip Audio now has 35 albums under it's umbrella by musicians from Vancouver, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York and the UK. Zubot is also sought after in the contemporary/commercial music world and has been a guest musician working with artists such as Dan Mangan, Destroyer, Mira Calix, Hawksley Workman, Kelly Joe Phelps, Veda Hille, Amy Millan, Alpha Yaya Diallo, Mother Mother and Stars. J Zubot was named 'Violinist of the Year' at Canada's National Jazz Awards in '03, '08 and '09 and has also been commissioned by the CBC to write symphonies & arrangements for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia.

In 2014 Jesse premiered his first full string quartet at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in conjuction with Vancouver's Western Front for the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award. 2014 also saw the release of 'Hector and the Search for Happiness', a feature film starring Simon Pegg, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard and Rosamund Pike in which Jesse did the score for with Vancouver's Dan Mangan. Jesse composed and arranged music for the film that was performed by the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg (Potsdam, Germany). This score was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in January 2015.

Some of Jesse's performance highlights in the past few years include ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Aarhus, Denmark), Time-Based Arts Festival (Portand, OR), Luminato Festival (Toronto, ON), Festival International du Film Insulaire de Groix (Iles de Groix, France), End of the Road Festival (Wiltshire, UK), Expo (Shanghai, China), WOMAD (Australia / New Zealand), Druga Godba (Ljubljana, Slovenia), WOMAD (Wiltshire, UK), Festival of World Cultures (Dublin, Ireland), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Kronos in Glasgow (Glasgow, UK), London International Festival of Exporatory Music (London, UK), The Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey, CA), The Winnipeg New Music Festival, Festival International de Musique Actuelle (Victoriavillle, Quebec), The Mulhouse Music Festival (Mulhouse, France), Era Jazzu (Poland), The Montreal International Jazz Festival, the New York Guitar Festival, The Guelph Jazz Festival, Traz & Folk Fest (Rudolstadt, Germany), The Vancouver International Jazz Festival, The Calgary Folk Festival, Spilimbergo Folkfest (Italy) and The Atlantic Jazz Festival (Halifax, NS)."

"JP Carter is a multiple Juno award-winning musician from Vancouver, Canada. Carter's singular approach to the trumpet and versatility as an improvisor and composer make him a vital contributor to the Vancouver music community. JP incorporates a variety of techniques into his trumpet playing, utilizing and experimenting with acoustic (traditional, extended) and electronic (effected, amplified) methods to create a wide spectrum of sound. Currently a member of several Vancouver-based groups, including Destroyer, Dan Mangan, Fond of Tigers, the Tony Wilson 6tet, Handmade Blade (with Peggy Lee & Aram Bajakian), Gordon Grdina's Haram, Michael Blake's Variety Hour, and the various New Orchestra Workshop ensembles. JP's main projects as a composer/performer continue to be Inhabitants, Aeroplane Trio, and Carsick. These three long-standing original projects have all released albums on Vancouver's Drip Audio label [dripaudio.com]. Most recently, JP has been working on a solo amplified trumpet project. He will be releasing a self-produced document of this solo work in 2017 entitled "Toy & Tool".

Awards & Achievements: Juno Award Winner (2012, Dan Mangan, Alternative Album of the Year); Juno Award Winner (2011, Fond of Tigers, Instrumental Album of the Year); Juno Award Nominee (2016, Destroyer, Alternative Album of the Year); Juno Award Nominee (2012, Destroyer, Alternative Album of the Year); Juno Award Nominee (2009, Inhabitants, Instrumental Album of the Year); Polaris Prize Short List (2011, Destroyer, "Kaputt"); Galaxie Rising Star Award (2005, Inhabitants, Vancouver Int'l Jazz Festival)

Education:

JP studied Jazz Performance with Kevin Dean and Andre White at McGill University in Montreal from 1993-96, and Jazz Trumpet with Alan Matheson at Vancouver Community College in 1992/93. As a teenager, JP studied privately for a brief time in 1990/91 with Vancouver-based trumpeter Bill Clark, while studying under David Proznick in the award-winning jazz program at Semiahmoo Secondary in Surrey, BC."

Canadian drummer Kenton Loewen is a member of The Crackling, Gordon Grdina Trio, Gordon Grdina's Box Cutter, The Coat Cooke Trio, Dan Mangan and Blacksmith, and the Egyptian fusion orchestra Haram.

"Boundless inquisitiveness sits at the very heart of award-winning cellist Marina Hasselberg's rich artistic practice. Over the past decade, she's traveled a distinctive route that has variously led her through early music, free improvisation, the fringes of pop songcraft, electronics, contemporary chamber music, and an array of interdisciplinary collaborations that resist classification.

Hasselberg's deep and meticulous explorations have culminated in a solo practice that blends disparate elements from various musical realms. Her forthcoming album Red (Redshift Records) sees her insightful interpretive vision colliding with her improvisatory prowess. Recorded by violinist and JUNO and Polaris-winning producer Jesse Zubot, the disc leads listeners through an eclectic, electronics-infused, and deeply personal collection that weaves compositions by everyone from Domenico Gabrielli to Linda Catlin Smith, together with spontaneous performances that feature Hasselberg amidst a cast of her frequent collaborators: Aram Bajakian, Kenton Loewen, Giorgio Magnanensi, and Zubot.

She's a powerful player that's nourished by her immersion in classical training, but by no means limited by it. Her relationship with the cello was ignited at age 11 during her studies at the musical academy of Évora, in her native Portugal. She later completed a Bachelors degree in Lisbon, and in 2008, she came to Canada to pursue a Masters degree in Literature and Performance from the University of Western Ontario.

Since making Vancouver her home, Hasselberg has become a fixture within an assortment of the city's musical communities-both strictly as a cellist and as a vital creative instigator. In 2016, she was the recipient of the City of Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Emerging Artist in Music. She was also the feature artist for Pro Musica's 2017 Sonic Boom Music Festival - an event that culminated in a sold-out concert where she premiered 11 new works for cello and electronics. As the artistic director of NOVO Ensemble she has commissioned and presented numerous works-especially by Canadian creators. In 2016, the group was rated Best Classical Ensemble in the Vancouver Is Awesome Reader's Poll, flanked by the Vancouver Symphony and Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. The long list of works she has premiered spans Howard Skempton's spartan lyricism to pop eccentric Veda Hille, fellow Vancouverite cellist Peggy Lee to plunderphonic provocateur John Oswald as well as other notables such as Jordan Nobles, Michael Oesterle, Lisa Cay Miller, and Andrea Young.

Hasselberg served as the principal cellist of the Vancouver Island Symphony, while also enjoying collaborations with Vancouver New Music, Early Music Vancouver, Sound of Dragon Ensemble, Redshift Music Society, Turning Point Ensemble, Okkyung Lee, Kee Avil, Lan Tung, Sarah Davachi, Uri Caine, Ingrid Laubrock, and Endlings, the duo of John Dieterich of Deerhoof and Pulitzter Prize winning composer Raven Chacon. She has even found herself accompanying highly regarded pop stars from Father John Misty to Mariah Carey."