Ally Fiola, composer

Ally Fiola is a Nova Scotian saxophonist, film composer, and bandleader of The Next Quest, a groove-based jazz ensemble. Known for blending quirky melodies with infectious grooves inspired by funk, soul, and New Orleans brass bands, Ally’s emotionally charged jazz compositions have earned recognition, including a nomination at the 2022 Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards and multiple Music Nova Scotia award nominations.

As a resourceful composer with a background in jazz and classical studies, Ally often experiments with sonic and harmonic elements, blending traditional and contemporary styles with influences of her experiences as a professional saxophonist. The majority of her writing contains an element of storytelling, which is a creative framework that she values immensely, having worked on films across North America and Europe. She is an active board member for the Screen Composers Guild of Canada, and received her Masters in Film Composition from Kingston University in London, UK. 

Ally’s artistic development includes a music residency at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity where she worked with the Quasar Saxophone Quartet, and was part of the Canadian Academy’s ‘Women in Post’ 2024-2025 cohort for composition and post-production sound. In 2023, she was selected for the La Napoule Canadian Artist Residency in France, where she composed a Canada Council-funded orchestral piece on climate change’s impact on coastal communities, and was a co-artist in residence alongside award-winning accordionist Mary Beth Carty at the 2025 Deep Roots Residency at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts. 

film composer – saxophonist

www.allyfiola.com 
@fiolamusic 

Clara Shandler, composer

Vancouver’s Clara Shandler was named after the 19th century female composer Clara Schumann and has performed under the moniker Sidewalk Cellist for 2 decades. She’s performed on three continents and has had her music featured in films, performed by small ensembles and orchestras the world over. Clara has collaborated with musicians from a variety of cultures and genres, as well as dancers, poets and theatre productions, creating memorable experiences for audiences everywhere from the sidewalk to the stage. Weaving together a vast spectrum of influences, she released her fourth full-length album in September of last year and is set to release a new instrumental album this spring.

Clara is a dedicated educator, committed to making music lessons fun by tailoring lessons to fit each individual student. She currently teaches cello, piano, and composition at the East Vancouver Community Music School and online through Music Arts School in Cambodia.

Madeline Ertel, composer

Madeleine Ertel is a Canadian composer, arranger, and trumpet player known for her honest approach to music-making. After spending many years as an active member of the Toronto music scene and completing a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Trumpet Performance at the University of Toronto (2020), she recently made the move to Berlin to pursue a Masters in Jazz Composition/Arrangement at the Jazz-Institut Berlin. Madeleine has studied composition with David Braid and Alexander Rapoport. In 2026, she was selected to attend the Michael Nesbitt Composer’s Institute which included the world premiere of her orchestral composition “Dance in Fragments” by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Her compositions and arrangements have been premiered by the Big Bang Ensemble as part of Toronto’s Women from Space Festival, the University of Toronto Hybrid ensemble, and the TILT Composer’s Collective. In 2023 she co-founded the Shoebox Composer’s Collective – a DIY concert series based in Toronto that aims to create more opportunities for emerging composers to hear their work played live.

Find out more at: https://www.madeleineertel.ca/bio

Rebecca Lynn Adams, composer

Rebecca Lynn Adams is a Canadian composer from Prince Edward Island, currently based in Vancouver, BC. Above all else, Rebecca loves writing music about people: Mental and physical health, human conflict, and personal identity are all topics explored in her catalogue of work. She adores creating music for media, and has written original music for several short films and games, including “Grim & Gran” by Gina Guan, “Snapshot” by Kaitlyn McAloney, and “Romario” by James Cooper. Her music has been performed by ensembles such as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, and the Dalhousie Wind Ensemble.

Rebecca is currently completing her Master of Music Composition at the University of British Columbia, studying under Dorothy Chang, Jennifer Butler, Keith Hammel, and T. Patrick Carrabré. She completed a Bachelor of Music in Composition at Dalhousie University in 2020, and a Graduate Certificate in Music Scoring for Screen and Stage at Sheridan College in 2021. Rebecca has participated in several prestigious composer training programs: She was one of seven composers selected from across Canada to participate in the Winnipeg New Music Festival Composers Institute in 2023, and was chosen to attend the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance’s Composition Academy
in 2025 and the Fusion Film Scoring Workshops in 2024. Rebecca has received many awards, including the Ernest Wesley Cubitt Sharpe Memorial Scholarship and Sheridan College’s Board of Governors Silver Medal, as well as being selected as one of two winners of Alkali Collective’s Call for Scores in 2025.

Website:  rebeccalynnadams.com

Follow Rebecca on Instagram: @rebeccalynnadams

Simon Rivet, composer

Simon Rivet is a Canadian composer creating music for concert, film, and dance. After an early musical path as a classical guitarist, his practice has evolved toward composition as a space of exploration, contemplation, and connection. His works have received international recognition and have been performed by ensembles across North America and Europe.

Rooted in a contemporary spirituality, Rivet’s music seeks to cultivate a felt sense of intimacy with the natural world, and, ultimately, to oneself. He is drawn to forms of listening that soften the distinction between observer and environment, allowing nature to be experienced not as something external, but as a reflection of our own inner life. Themes of synthesis and balance run throughout Rivet’s work. He explores the meeting point between ancient and modern ways of understanding reality, weaving together intuition and structure, tradition and experimentation. His musical language brings modal and scalar systems
into dialogue with extended instrumental techniques, improvisational forms, and electronic sound manipulation. Through this integrative approach, his music invites a state of presence in which sound becomes a pathway toward one’s “silent sanctuary”, an intimate inner space where stillness, attentiveness, and connection can naturally arise.

More details at: https://www.simonrivet.com

Shanti Sivarulrasa, composer

Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Shanti Sivarulrasa is a composer and violinist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is in her final year of the Bachelor of Music program at Dalhousie University on a four-year Fountain Performing Arts Scholarship.

She made her professional solo debut with Symphony Nova Scotia in 2025 performing her composition Chrysalis for solo violin and orchestra. In 2025, she was also the Artist in Residence with the Ottawa New Music Festival. Her compositions have been championed by leading Canadian ensembles including Array Ensemble, Alkali Collective, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Shanti is a three-time winner of the Dalhousie Concerto Competition and served as Concertmaster of the Dalhousie Symphony Orchestra for two years. She is the recipient of more than a dozen scholarships from Dalhousie University and beyond.

Shanti is the co-creative director of the Nuovo Concert Series and the first violinist of the Rostova String Quartet.

More Information at:

https://www.shantisivarulrasa.com/

Parnian Bahrami Asl, composer

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Parnian (Pari) Bahrami Asl is a composer and pianist based in Canada, with roots in Iran. She began her musical journey at a young age and has since developed a distinctive voice that blends Western classical traditions with Persian musical elements. Her work is deeply influenced by visual art, poetry, psychology, and multicultural storytelling, often exploring intense emotional states and inner worlds through sound. She is also passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration.

Pari’s music has been performed in academic and festival settings, including the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival and the University of Toronto New Music Festival (Fervent by the MinMax Electroacoustic Orchestra, and SNATS: Silver, an art song for soprano, piano, and cello). Other projects include writing for the University of Toronto Student Composer Opera (With the Telling Comes the Magic, premiered January 2026), Gravity and Ghosts for string quartet performed by Music Around the Corner, and Fragments of an Imagined World performed by the Bedford Trio.

Jeanne Tsui, Composer

Jeanne Tsui, composer

Jeanne Tsui, born in Hong Kong, is currently pursuing a degree in composition at the University of Toronto under the guidance of Diana Soh and James Rolfe. Her work is driven by everyday observations and a fascination with sound as narrative—capturing the seemingly mundane and reimagining it through rhythm, timbre, and gesture. With a background in handbell ringing, she strives to bridge the gap between handbell music and contemporary composition. Most recently, her work was performed by the Marco Polo Orchestra in Italy as part of the Veneto Art and Music Summit.

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Houtian Zhong, Composer

Houtian Zhong

Houtian Zhong is a second-year composition student at the University of Toronto. In 2021, He attained RCM Associate Diploma in Piano Performance, and he has experimented with music composition ranging from solo instrumentation to full orchestra. Over the course of his musical journey, he has won awards in the Murray Adaskin Composition Competition, the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival, the BC Student Composer Competition, and the national CFMTA Student Composer Competition. His works have been performed by professional ensembles such as the Victoria Symphony, Westshore Chamber Music, and the Springdale Trio. He has studied with composers Christine Donkin in Victoria and Katarina Curcin and Larysa Kuzmenko at the University of Toronto.


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Charbel Rouhana demonstrates the Oud

World-renowned oud soloist Charbel Rouhana will be joining the SPO on November 1, 2025 for the groundbreaking concert, “Crossroads“.  Here he is demonstrating the sound and technique of playing this lovely middle-eastern instrument.