2024 Guest Artists and Faculty · Page 2

Raman Kalyan

Breathing magical melodies on the Indian bamboo flute, Flute virtuoso Raman Kalyan is one of the leading flautists in the Carnatic style of music. Raman with his unique style has captivated audiences globally. Raman has released over 80 CDs and many DVDs & his most recent CD, Music for deep meditation reached the # 1 spot on the apple Itunes world music charts & remained in the top 50 albums for more than 6 months. Raman has also been featured as a guest artist in more than 300 commercial recordings & Indian Movies. Raman is a top ranking artist for the All India Radio & Doordarshan. Apart from being a soloist, Raman has been a successful composer and has scored music for many audio /video albums, Dance Dramas and theatre productions. Raman won the “Best Flautist Award” from Madras Music Academy twice for his concert during December Music Festival 2009 & 2013.

Curtis Andrews

Curtis Andrews is a Canadian musician with global persuasions. A percussionist, composer, and teacher who creates music that is informed by his many years of experience with West African, South Indian and jazz traditions yet manages to transcend easy categorization.

Jim Vivian

Jim Vivian has been at the forefront of music making in Canada for over 30 years, and has performed and/or recorded with most of the well known jazz artists working in the country today.  Originally from Newfoundland, he moved from St. John’s to Toronto in 1979 to pursue classical bass studies with Thomas Monohan and Thorvald Fredin.  During the early 1980’s he began to focus more on jazz and improvised music, studying with Dave Holland at the Banff centre, and later in New York with Holland and Marc Johnson.

Bill Brennan

Bill Brennan’s expertise as a pianist, percussionist, composer and producer can be heard on some 130 albums to date. His newest album “Kaleidoscope – Music for Mallet Instruments” has received numerous award nominations. Tom Allen of CRC Radio’s “It’s About Time writes “Bill Brennan’s Kaleidoscope is perfectly named - a constantly shifting, twirling, entrancing and enchanting swirl of beauty and fascination.” His newest CD with Andrea Koziol was released in 2019, entitled “I’ll Be Seeing You”. It garnered the MusicNL Jazz and Blues Award. Bill’s album of 2006 “Solo Piano” received nominations for MusicNL and ECMA Instrumental Album of the Year. His album “Solo Piano 2” won the MusicNL Instrumental album of the year in 2008.

Deantha Edmunds

Deantha Edmunds is Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in December, 2023 for her activity as a performer, writer, composer, and mentor, work which seeks to empower Indigenous people and share their stories. She is currently based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her work has international reverberation as well as community integrity. She brings a level of professional excellence to Canada’s Indigenous art scene that is unique and important.

Boris Bizjak

Jason Noble

Jason Noble is professor of instrumental and electroacoustic composition at Université de Moncton. A
proud native Newfoundlander, Jason often draws on his Newfoundland heritage in his compositions,
including Folk Suite which led to an ECMA nomination for Classical Composer of the Year (2024). His
works have been performed across Canada and in many other countries, and featured in numerous
publications, broadcasts, and albums. Also an accomplished scholar, Jason’s research appears in
journals including Music Perception, Music Theory Online, and Journal of New Music Research.

Kate Read

St. John's based violist, Kate Read, is violist of the award winning Atlantic String Quartet and Principal Viola in the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. She is also violist for Dark by Five, resident ensemble at Gros Morne Summer Music, and Principal viola with Opera on the Avalon.

Joe Argentino

Joe Argentino is an Associate Professor of Music Theory at Memorial University of Newfoundland, specializing in post-tonal and serial music. His current research interests include the connection between form and text in Arnold Schoenberg’s religious works, the pedagogical study of improvisation at the keyboard and the late works of Franz Liszt.

Patrick Cashin

Described by CBC Radio as “a truly original interpretive voice,” pianist Patrick Cashin is becoming known as a distinctive presence on the Canadian music scene. He designs unique recitals centred around the best of the piano repertoire and particularly enjoys playing Mozart piano concertos, in which he improvises and composes cadenzas in the style of Mozart.