Adam Lewis Schroeder has published three novels and a fiction collection and has been shortlisted for the BC Fiction Prize, Amazon.ca First Novel Award and Commonwealth Writers Prize. He grew up in Vernon, teaches writing at UBC Okanagan and lives with his family in Penticton.
Actor and playwright, born in Aleppo, Syria, Ahmad is a graduate from the Higher Institute of Theatre Arts in Cairo. He has performed in Syria winning the Best Actor Award in the Central Theatre Festival in Syria (2008). In Egypt, he directed Ionesco's The Lesson and won Best Director Award for directing Chekhov's The Bear at Cairo's Festival of International Theatre (2013). Ahmad continued his journey as a refugee when he moved to Canada in 2016.
He now lives in Kitchener, ON, where he works with MT Space as artistic associate, facilitator and co-director of their Young Company. Ahmad has written three plays, Suitcase (2019), Adrenaline (2017) which he toured to the Ryga Festival in Summerland, BC and Summerworks Performance Festival in Toronto; and Underground (2014) (Best Original Script in the University competition). Ahmad is the current Artist-in-Residence at The Registry Theatre in Kitchener.
Alix Hawley studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Oxford University, the University of East Anglia, and the University of British Columbia. Her story collection, The Old Familiar (Thistledown Press), was longlisted for the ReLit award. Several pieces have won accolades from the CBC: "Witching" won the 2017 Literary Awards Short Story Prize, while "Tentcity" and "Jumbo" were runners-up in 2012 and 2014, and "Pig (For Oma)" won the 2014 Bloodlines memoir contest.
Her first novel, All True Not a Lie in It, was published by Knopf as its New Face of Fiction pick for 2015, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and won the Amazon.ca / Walrus First Novel Award and BC Book Prize for Fiction. My Name is a Knife, one of Esi Edugyan's picks for the year, was published in 2018.
Crossley began his career as a band teacher and is a self-confessed compulsive writer, penning lyrics for children’s songs, writing musicals, and dabbling in novels. His retirement goal was to devote more time to jazz piano. He regularly plays at a local restaurant and formed a quartet with Crawford, Yanti, and Stefan Bienz in 2015. That provided the spark for their first CD, Images of You, released in the spring of 2017.
Aritha van Herk is the author of five novels, Judith, The Tent Peg, No Fixed Address, Places Far From Ellesmere, and Restlessness.
Her irreverent but relevant history of Alberta,Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta frames the permanent exhibition on Alberta history at the Glenbow Museum and Archives in Calgary;Audacious and Adamant: the Story of Maverick Alberta, accompanies the exhibit. With George Webber she has published In This Place: Calgary 2004-2011 (Photographs by George Webber, Words by Aritha van Herk) and Prairie Gothic, both books that develop the idea of geographical and historical temperament as tonal accompaniment to landscape. She has published a history of the University of Calgary, The Age of Audacity, and most recently a work of prose-poetry, Stampede and the Westness of West. She is a Member of the Order of Canada and a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and recipient of the Lorne Pierce Medal, awarded to recognize achievement in imaginative or critical literature in Canada. She has won the Alberta Distinguished Artists Award, and has been honoured as one of the 25 most influential artists in Alberta. She has published hundreds of articles, reviews and essays, creative and critical, experimental and for a general audience.
Photo credited to Trudie Lee Photography
No bio provided.
Brandyn Steele took to photography at a young age after following in the steps of his father and has been working in the film and photography industry in a variety of ways over the past few years. Having worked on documentaries, short films, and photography projects around the province; He has taken on the role of assistant director, camera operator, editor, actor, and photographer. He has a creative eye for setting the shot to help guide the viewer through the journey that's taking place beyond the lens.
As a singer, Camille is most well known for her many years of touring as Sarah McLachlan’s back-up singer. As a teacher, she’s most well known for her star-studded roster of students. In any given week, Camille works with Oscar, Emmy and Juno award winning performers prepping for on-camera appearances, arena tours and studio recording.
With a professional performing career dating back to early childhood, Camille knows what it is to be an active player in the entertainment industry. By the age of 10, she was a working actor in film, TV and on stage, a session singer for multinational corporations and a signed recording artist with RCA Records. While in her teens, she toured as a member of the A&M recording group West End Girls, charting No. 1 on The Record’s top 40 chart, earning a Juno nomination and winning a Western Canadian Music award. Following this, Camille joined Sarah Mclachlan’s band, touring the world with appearances on the Grammy’s, Junos, Saturday Night Live and a string of late night talk shows. Camille continues to hone her craft, remaining on call as a vocalist for recording sessions with world renowned producers.
As a contemporary voice teacher, she has developed her niche with professional and semi-pro singers and welcomes students of all genres maintaining the inclusive belief that effective technique crosses the boundaries of style and personal taste. As a result, she has coached a rainbow of talents including metal singers, country singers, rappers, crooners and budding pop stars, delving into all that their material entails with enthusiasm.
Camille approaches voice work as a professional athlete approaches their sport. Essential elements such as strength, range of motion and mental focus are as significant to vocal production as they are to improving one’s golf swing! Once Camille’s students train to higher levels of ‘vocal fitness’, they are thrilled to discover the freedom that comes with newfound power, pitch control and an increased vocal range.
A founding member of the Canadian band The Collectors, and remained with the group when it transitioned to Chilliwack in 1971. He performed on keyboards, flute, saxophone, and piano. He left the group in 1971 to produce albums for a number of prominent Canadian artists and groups including Ferron, Susan Jacks, Valdy, Shari Ulrich, Roy Forbes, 1979- (Nancy Nash with Robbie King CBC), UHF and Connie Kaldor.
In the 1970s he produced The Great Canadian Gold Rush for CBC Radio, hosted by Terry David Mulligan. From 1986 to 1990, he scored the music for the long-running CBC series, The Beachcombers. Between 1991 and 1994 he wrote the theme and incidental music for the CBC teen drama Northwood, shot in North and West Vancouver, BC. In the late 1990s he wrote the theme music used in the first two seasons of the CTV series Cold Squad. From 2000 to 2006 he produced Jazz Beat for CBC Radio.
He is delighted to be working with Terr-Lynn Williams-Davidson and Bill Henderson on their most recent album, Grizzly Bear Town.
Drums, percussion, and harmony vocals. An award winning drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Dan is also owner of DMA Studios in Lake Country, BC.
david sereda is a singer, songwriter and composer. One of Canada’s most distinctive voices, he’s also one of Canada’s first openly gay singer-songwriters. He is passionate about the power of song. He’s written musicals and commissions for choirs, and performed in concerts and a range of festivals across Canada. Recent songs respond to our turbulent world – songs he shares with communities in a cappella Song Circles. He lives in Annan, Ontario near Georgian Bay.
A creative communication consultant with a unique ability to engage, entertain, and educate while presenting an eye-opening new look at face reading, body language and communication dynamics. Participants are able to communicate more effectively, efficiently and cooperatively with clients and co-workers.
Denise is also an international storytelling artist and spent time as an award-winning local, national, and international journalist producing a weekly radio program focusing on the elders and spiritual leaders she met on her storytelling journeys. She’s told stories on several continents, floating on cruise ship, white water raft, and voyageur canoe, around a campfire, on a horse drawn wagon, and on trains across the Rocky Mountains.
Ed has worked extensively in Canada’s music community having composed many theatrical scores for the likes of the Stratford Festival and Arts Club Theatre and documentary scores for CBC, CTV, Bravo, Knowledge and Vision networks. He has been commissioned to compose works for many including the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Elektra Women’s Choir, The Dance Centre, Canadian Music Centre, the Vancouver InterCultural Orchestra and musica intima. He has been nominated for numerous awards and is the recipient of many including a Juno (Ancient Cultures, El Camino Real), Jessie Richardson and Dora Mavor Moore (theatre), Leo (TV score) and Cannes (TV score).
His choral works are widely recorded, presented and published. His work Birdsong (for SATB, soloists and tar, the Iranian precursor to the guitar) is a cross-cultural composition combining Sufi rhythmic elements and scales with Western harmonic textures. The text is from the great Sufi poet Jaläl ad-Dïn Muhammad Rumi with translations by Coleman Barks, and the work has been much performed by musica intima and the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Ed has studied privately with many outstanding teachers including Gordon Delamont (orchestration), David Walden (piano), Michael Strutt, Lennie Breau and more recently Victor Kolstee (guitar). He has attended many workshops including those of Sir Malcolm Arnold, Janos Starker, Lehman Engels and Bob Elhai.
Ed is in demand as an orchestrator, having written many of the orchestrations for the national anthems recorded by the VSO for the 2010 Olympic Ceremonies in Vancouver, and is a recording and performing musician having worked with many of Canada’s finest performers including his brother Bill’s band Chilliwack, the VSO, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Chor Leoni, Ann Mortifee, Paul Horn, Tangissimo, Leon Bibb, Eric Bibb, Paul Baillargeon, among others.
Videographer and communications professional. He recently completed Information Officer training through the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC).
Prior to co-founding ET2media, Erick spent more than 20 years in television and radio. As a former reporter, anchor and talk show host, he brings a journalistic approach to all his video production projects.
Erick knows how to convey information in a clear, concise and entertaining manner that resonates with audiences. In 2009, Erick won an RTNDA (Radio-Television News Directors Association) Award for a TV news series he produced called Islanders in Nepal.
He created several shows, feature segments and news stories on a range of topics. Erick is on the Ryga Arts Festival board and is chair of the Summerland Skatepark Committee.
Juno-nominated bassist, composer, producer and educator Jodi Proznick has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s finest jazz artists. She has won numerous National Jazz Awards, including Bassist of the Year in ’08 and ’09. Her group, the Jodi Proznick Quartet, was awarded the Acoustic Group of the Year and Album of the Year in ‘08 and the Galaxie Rising Star at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in ‘04.
Jodi has performed with many of Canada’s top musicians, including the P.J. Perry, Don Thompson, Kirk MacDonald, Guido Basso, Oliver Gannon, Dee Daniels, Phil Dwyer, Mark Fewer and Laila Biali as well as international jazz legends such as David 'Fathead' Newman, Sheila Jordan, George Coleman and Ed Thigpen. In addition to recording her own Juno-nominated CD as a leader, Jodi has been featured on over 40 recordings as a side player.
Born and raised on the Manitoba prairie by Mennonite parents, Lynette Loeppky began writing after receiving a BA in Russian Language and Literature from the University of Calgary.
Lynette studied creative writing under Aritha van Herk and Robert Majzels and was mentored through the writing of Cease by Merilyn Simonds. She now lives in Calgary with her dogs, Noddy and Charlie, who do an excellent job of getting her away from her computer and out into the elements on a daily basis. Cease is her first book.
Mia Harris is a native of Penticton where she discovered her love for performing. She began studying singing with Lynne Leydier when she was in grade 8 and participated in many community shows with Soundstage and The Penticton Light Opera Society. Mia has earned a Bachelor of Music from UBC, an Artist Diploma from the Vancouver Academy of Music and an Opera Diploma from the University of Toronto. In addition she has participated in some of Canada's most prestigious summer training programs for young singers and worked with top teachers and coaches from Canada and the United States. She has been the recipient of many scholarships and bursaries and won an opportunity to sing as guest soloist in the Orpheum Theatre with the Vancouver Academy Orchestra. Mia has had engagements with Burnaby Lyric Opera, Saskatoon Opera, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Opera in Concert (Toronto), Penticton Community Concerts and the West Coast Symphony (Vancouver) where she sang Verdi's Requiem. Some of her favorite credits include Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice, Jo in Little Women, Niklaus in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, the title role in L'Enfant et les Sortileges among others. Her favorite role thus far is Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos.
Nancy Holmes has published five collections of poetry, most recently The Flicker Tree: Okanagan Poems (Ronsdale 2012). This book is a collection of poems about the place, people, plants and animals of the Okanagan valley in the southern interior of British Columbia where she has lived for the past 25 years. She is also the editor of Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009). She teaches Creative Writing at The University of British Columbia in Kelowna.
Roark Grant Critchlow (born May 11, 1963) is a Canadian actor, best known for appearing on the daytime US soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Mike Horton. He also had a recurring role on the soap Passions. More recently he was in the TV movie The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story, the Lifetime made for TV movie Pregnant at 17 as well as appearing in the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh as Dr. Glazer. He also portrayed Zoey Brooks' father in Zoey 101. Roark has had smaller roles in movies like Mr. Deeds with Adam Sandler and TV shows such as Street Justice, Malcolm in the Middle, Entourage, Charmed, Highlander: The Series, Afterworld and Friends. In 2009, he appeared in an episode of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. He also appeared in the 2009 movie Hydra as Sean Trotta. Critchlow recently had a recurring role on the science fiction TV show V and on ABC Family's breakout-hit Pretty Little Liars, where he has the role as Tom Marin (Hanna Marin's father).
Critchlow was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and grew up in Summerland, British Columbia.
No bio provided.
Shae Ryga is a member of the Primary Colours band. What makes Primary Colours so much fun for band members Sergei Ryga and Dan Marcelino, is the energy of involving Shae Ryga on guitar. Sergei’s son is relatively new to guitar, singing and public performance. It is this that creates the spark in the groups performance. New to the Okanagan music scene, Primary Colours is eager to get out and start playing for audiences valley-wide. Come catch their infectious blend of often obscure, but totally groove ridden jams.
Sergei Ryga is a member of the Primary Colours band. What makes Primary Colours so much fun for band members Sergei Ryga and Dan Marcelino, is the energy of involving Shae Ryga on guitar. Sergei’s son is relatively new to guitar, singing and public performance. It is this that creates the spark in the groups performance. New to the Okanagan music scene, Primary Colours is eager to get out and start playing for audiences valley-wide. Come catch their infectious blend of often obscure, but totally groove ridden jams.
Sophia Jackson has been a wordy woman all her life. Her first memory is talking to herself and telling stories. After getting a degree in English followed by a journalism certificate, she spent five years moving around BC working as a newspaper reporter, writing everything from courtroom reports to humour columns. She then spent seven years in Edinburgh working for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and blogging about her travels around Scotland. Today she works for a bakery, runs a baking club, and generally espouses the glory of carbs. But if she had to choose between chocolate and poetry, she would choose poetry.
Tanya has been involved with the theatre industry her entire life; first as a professional actor then as a playwright, director and now as a theatre instructor. She has performed on stages from Vancouver to Tuktoyaktuk, to New York City; dabbled in film, television and radio while occasionally moonlighting as a casting director. For her ongoing work with youth and social action theatre, Tanya was honoured in Red Deer, Alberta with A Women of Excellence Award (2012) and a Mayor’s Recognition Award (2017).
A unique voice for indigenous cultures, Terri is a Haida musician, artist, and lawyer, well known for her work in aboriginal-environmental law and as a recognized keeper of traditions. Born and raised in Haida Gwaii, Terri-Lynn has dedicated herself to the continuation of Haida culture. The traditional Haida songs her centenarian great-grandmother sang have motivated and been a beacon throughout her life, leading her to help preserve a legacy of Haida music through the
Haida Gwaii Singers Society
.
Deep on the front lines of Indigenous Rights, her work strives to open new vistas to her audiences rooted in Indigenous world views, Haida language and laws, music and oral traditions, and branches out to explore their relevance to contemporary society.
Released in August 2017,
Grizzly Bear Town
is Terri-Lynn’s third album and is a collaboration with Bill Henderson and Claire Lawrence. It seeks to build bridges of understanding, respectfully blending ancient and contemporary knowledge and music.
Respecting the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the music propels the conversation about past and future, responsibility and legacy. The songs illustrate aspects of Haida culture, including supernatural beings such as Cedar Sister, Landslide Lady and Canoe Song, spirituality, and indigenous laws. The album strives to highlight the endangered Haida language and music from the Northwest Coast of Canada.
“Grizzly Bear Town” is best described as “cutting edge ancient.” Improvisatory techniques—common to both Jazz and potlatches—are used to explore the diverse perspectives in this album, cut live-off-the-floor and in the primordial, mystical islands of Haida Gwaii. Their joy and love of this shared creation shines through their compelling performances.
Her previous album ‘New Journeys’ garnered a ‘Best Female Artist’ Canadian Aboriginal Music Award (“CAMA”) and numerous nominations, and stayed on the National Aboriginal Music Countdown for almost 40 weeks. Her first album ‘Lalaxaaygans: Beautiful Sound’ received a ‘Best Female/Traditional Cultural Roots’ CAMA.
No bio provided.
For the past decade, Yanti has performed locally in many different combos and venues. From Jazz Standards at weddings or retirement homes to rock ballads for fundraisers, either live or karaoke, Yanti has a diverse range of vocal talents. Not only is Yanti involved with performances, she also passionately teaches ukulele and voice at the Martin St. Art and Music Gallery as well as beginner musical theatre at Even Dance in Penticton. Wife to local RMT, Brent Rowland, and mother of 3 daughters, Yanti loves to perform and teach year round in the South Okanagan. As a featured vocalist for hire, Yanti performs with local jazz band Sax Among Friends, The Justin Glibbery Quartet and with Crawford & Crossley Quartet. Please visit www.yanti.ca for details on upcoming performances.
Simon was born in Wicklow County, Ireland and moved to Vancouver with his family at the age of six. He grew up on a diet of classical music interspersed with the suburban folk of the Kingston Trio and the twisted offerings of The Goons and Tom Lehrer. In the mid-sixties he fell off his high horse, trading the baroque for blues and the beatles, and his french horn for a bass guitar. He played in several psychedelic teenage hippie bands at be-ins and coffee houses in Vancouver culminating in creating music for the notorious 1969 Arts Club Theatre production of ‘The Beard’ which was busted for gross indecency.
In the early seventies, the transition from halcyon hippie days to the reality of playing bottom 40 music in Hastings St. strip clubs sent Mr. Kendall screaming into the hills. Literally. For several seasons he planted trees in B.C.’s hinterland, using his hard-earned cash to support explorations into underground film-making in Montreal and partially finance an NFB documentary on treeplanting life ‘Do it with Joy’ in 1977.
In 1978 Simon got the call to join his old music buddies and transplanted Toronto graphic artist Doug Bennett in Vancouver’s upstart indie band ‘Doug and the Slugs’. This lead to 15 years as the band’s music director and goofy gargantuan keyboardist. They released 4 gold albums and performed from New York to the North Pole as one of the decade’s premier Canadian touring acts. Their independent 1979 single ‘Too Bad’ took the band by surprise by charting across the country and has been reborn in 1999 as the theme song for NBC’S’ The Norm Show’.
During a band hiatus in 1989, Simon returned to his pre-slug roots in film and theatre, music- directing plays and composing for film and TV. He won a Jessie Award for outstanding musical direction of ‘Herringbone’ in 1991 and shared the best musical score Genie Award with co- composer Al Rodger for ‘Cadillac Girls’ in 1993. The following year he retired from the band to pursue a full-time freelance career. He recently formed the instrumental R&B group ‘Sharkskin’ with three members of the Odds, and currently divides his time between composing, producing and performing.
Anne Michaels is performing online at the 2020 festival, with singer, david sereda, in a words and music event, Dialogues.
Ms. Michaels' books have been translated into more than forty-five languages and have won dozens of international awards, including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Lannan Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas. She is the recipient of honorary degrees, the Guggenheim Fellowship and many other honours. She has been shortlisted for the Governor-General's Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, twice shortlisted for the Giller Prize and twice longlisted for the IMPAC Award. Her novel, Fugitive Pieces, was adapted as a feature film. From 2015 to 2019, she was Toronto's Poet Laureate.
She is currently completing a new novel and has recently released All We Saw, a new book of poetry, and Infinite Gradation, a new book of non-fiction.
Brandyn (Smart Phone Film Workshop, 2019) is returning to the Ryga Arts Festival this year to lead part two of the Smartphone Film Workshop.
Brandyn Steele took to photography at a young age after following in the steps of his father and has been working in the film and photography industry in a variety of ways over the past few years. Having worked on documentaries, short films, and photography projects around the province; He has taken on the role of assistant director, camera operator, editor, actor, and photographer. He has a creative eye for setting the shot to help guide the viewer through the journey that's taking place beyond the lens.
Chase is joining the 2020 Ryga Arts Festival in a number of roles: performing at the Kitchen Party Cabaret, as well as being part of the creative team for Night Desk and providing tech support for many online events.
“Padgett is a virtuoso guitar player and a deft actor who portrays characters with warmth and compassion.”
-CBC
Chase Padgett has been a musician, actor, writer, and improviser for nearly 15 years. He studied music at the University of Central Florida while learning improv at the SAK Comedy Lab. After graduating in 2007 with a BA in Music he became a full ensemble member at SAK in addition to working for Disney and Universal in various comedic actor roles. After producing a sketch comedy troupe in 2008 and 2009 he premiered his first solo show ‘6 Guitars’ in 2010. It was met with rave reviews, sold out crowds, and multiple awards. Not long after that he found great success touring this show and across North America in performing arts centers and theater festivals. In 2013 he premiered his other solo theatre show, 'Nashville Hurricane' which has also received glowing feedback for its top notch writing and furious finger picking.
After moving to Portland OR in 2014, Chase was selected to perform a sketch comedy showcase for NBC which lead to further auditioning and the opportunity to work with several stars from the hit comedy show ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway.’ During this time of touring & auditioning, he was also instrumental in designing many of the creative and technical elements for the Curious Comedy Theatre in Portland during a massive makeover in 2016 which featured nearly $250,000 in renovations.
Recently, Chase has released his first studio album, ‘Change of Heart’ and has written a brand new show called 'Heart Attacks & Other Blessings.' He is also a guest performer with Disney Cruise Line where he gets to stretch his musical and comedic talents for audiences from all over the world. He loves guitars, his family and his wife, Christina, who is way... way out of his league!
david sereda (Artist in Residence, 2019) returns to the Ryga Arts Festival to host our online Kitchen Party Cabaret and to perform with author Anne Michales in Dialogues.
A singer, songwriter and composer, david is one of Canada’s most distinctive voices and one of Canada’s first openly queer singer-songwriters. He is passionate about the power of the human voice, song and the importance of singing your truth.
sereda collaborates in music, theatre, film and interarts projects. Compositions include full-length musicals and scores for plays (Love Jive, Tarragon Theatre; The Dressing Gown, Buddies in Bad Times), a 13-minute opera (Salad Days), scores for short documentary films (Just A Ploughboy, The Dementia Play) and commissions for choirs.
He has released three albums of original songs, and has performed in concerts and festivals across Canada: Winnipeg, Vancouver and Regina Folk Festivals, the Owen Sound Emancipation Festival, SING! Toronto Vocal Arts Festival, Toronto International Festival of Authors, Pride festivals in Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton, and the Ryga Arts Festival (Summerland, BC). He has sung as a soloist with the Vancouver Men’s Chorus, Echo Women’s Choir, Montreal Jubilation Choir, and Nova Scotia Mass Choir. He has produced over 40 Stray Dog Salons in Toronto, cabaret evenings of music, theatre and poetry.
He has been Associate Artist with Sheatre since 2002, a community-engaged arts company devoted to social change and telling community stories. Collaborations with Sheatre’s Joan Chandler include the musicals TOM (inspired by the artist Tom Thomson) and Snow Wonder; and plays Ye Canna Throw Yer Granny Off A Bus (about elder abuse and prevention), The Dementia Play, and Be Our Ally (about homophobia and LGBTQ+ rural perspectives).
sereda recently received an Ontario Arts Council grant to write songs about living in our turbulent world. Ongoing projects are community a cappella call and response Song Circles, and Dialogues – intimate performances of spoken word and song – with poet and novelist Anne Michaels. He lives in Grey County, Ontario, near Georgian Bay.
Frances will be reading at Extended Play, our fusion of words and music.
Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Frances Greenslade has since lived in Winnipeg, Regina, Vancouver, Chilliwack and Penticton. She holds a BA in English from the University of Winnipeg and an MFA in Creative Writing from University of British Columbia. By the Secret Ladder and A Pilgrim in Ireland (Penguin) are her first two books, both memoir. A Pilgrim in Ireland won the Saskatchewan Book Awards non-fiction book of the year in 2002. Shelter, a novel was published in Canada by Random House in 2011, in the US by Free Press and the UK by Virago in 2012. Shelter was named one of UK’s Waterstones 11 most promising debut novels of 2012 and nominated for an Ontario Library Association Evergreen award. It was also nominated for the BC Book Prize Ethel Wilson award. It has been translated into four languages. A novel for young readers, Red Fox Road, will be published with Penguin Young Readers in 2020. Greenslade has taught English and Creative Writing at Okanagan College since 2005.
Jim Byrnes lives and breathes music. For nearly fifty years he’s crooned, drawled, belted, hollered and sweet talked more songs into a microphone than most people ever get to hear in a single lifetime. His evocative, smoky vocals are found in a truth that doesn’t come overnight. The sheer joy you can hear in the music he creates is a reason to celebrate Jim Byrnes as a living musical treasure.
By age thirteen, Jim was singing and playing blues guitar. His first professional gig was in 1964. Over the years, he has had the great good fortune to appear with a virtual who’s who of the blues. From Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker to Taj Mahal and Robert Cray, Jim has been on the blues highway his whole career.
St. Louis bred, Byrnes moved to Vancouver, BC in the mid-70s after years of drifting, working odd jobs and playing music. He’s been a mainstay on both the music and screen scenes ever since.
His fame as an actor equals his legendary music status. From his numerous TV and movie roles, highlights include the Wiseguy and Highlander series, and his national variety show, The Jim Byrnes Show.
With many award winning albums to his credit (Maple Blues Awards, WCMAs, Junos, Canadian Folk Music Awards), Jim Byrnes is that artist who will light up the stage with songs and stories, tried and true.
Marin joins the Ryga Its Festival this year for Extended Play, a fusion of words and music.
Marin Patenaude’s confessional folk is deeply honest, inspired by the wildness of nature, the messiness of human connection, and the overwhelming desire to run away from it all. Emotional lyrics paired with softly powerful instrumentals craft stories that explore loving and losing, the fragility of the human condition, and stories of a rural upbringing.
The daughter of musical parents and the younger sister of Juno-award winning Pharis Romero, she was raised on folk and country harmonies. While it was a huge part of her upbringing, Marin didn’t initially look to music as a viable career. From landscaping for the rich to running through the woods with her dog, a backpack, and a surveyors map, scrubbing toilets to training horses, she collected many random and interesting skills and experiences to use as songwriting fodder. When travels through other disciplines and passions didn’t last, she made a record; a heavy collection of songs about heartbreak and displacement. A surprising first release, it’s full of gut punching beauty.
Following the release of her self-titled debut in 2016, Marin extensively toured BC’s festival circuit as a solo act, across Canada with Kenton Loewen as part of Dan Mangan’s house concert series Side Door, through Germany and Switzerland as a duo with Cole Schmidt, and worked as a session harmony singer in Vancouver for artists including Khari Wendell McClelland, Sam Tudor, Real Ponchos, CR Avery, Ora Cogan, The Crackling, and many more. She opened for Sarah McLachlan at the 2016 Vancouver International Jazz festival at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, a personal career highlight.
In support of her second album, Marin joined Dallas Green's Toronto based label Still Records. Sight Unseen was produced at Afterlife Studios in Vancouver, mixed by Karl Bareham, and mastered by Jaoa Carvalho. Marin took the reins on production, and enlisted the help of dedicated players she feels very connected to, musically and emotionally. They kept their hearts and the doors open for magical studio surprises, and the finished album reflects that open minded approach to sound.
Sight Unseen shows a louder, grittier side of Marin’s indie folk sensibility. Citing the influence of artists like Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos, Ani Difranco, Sarah McLachlan, and Neil Young, there’s an underlying darkness beneath the clear, free spirited melodies. For Marin, her songs are an extension of self--an opportunity to be as honest and real as she feels, something she has difficulty doing in the so-called real world. It's big and it's not always light. Though she’s a bright personality by nature, she often uses her music as a way to process grief. Her vocals are strong and technically trained, and she's outspoken about the complexities of relationships and the uncertainty of our current political times.
Michael will be joining the 2020 Ryga Arts Festival for Extended Play and reading, (from his memoire, My Body is Yours).
Michael V. Smith is a queer writer, performer and Associate Professor teaching Creative Writing in the interdisciplinary department of Creative Studies at UBC’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna, in BC’s Interior. Smith is an MFA grad from UBC’s Creative Writing program (1998).
Smith’s most recent book is the translation of his memoir, My Body Is Yours, published by Éditeur TRIPTYQUE. Find Ceci est mon corps here. Translated by the amazing Benoît Laflamme.
Smith has won a number of awards for both his writing and his short film work. His novel, Cumberland (Cormorant Books, 2002), was nominated for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Smith won the inaugural Dayne Ogilvie Award for Emerging Gay Writers. He’s won a Western Magazine Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Journey Prize. As a member of the Miss Nomer Collective, their short film Girl on Girl won the Colin Campbell Award for Best Canadian Male Short and the Best Canadian Female Short Award at the Inside Out Festival in Toronto.
His videos have played around the world, in cities such as Milan, Dublin, Turin, London, New York, Toronto, Paris, Geneva, Berlin, Glasgow, Lisbon, Beirut, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, SF, LA and Bombay. He has screened work at the British Film Institute, at the Lincoln Center for the New York Video Festival, and in the Vancouver International Film Festival.
As a performer, Smith has played dozens of cabarets and festivals, including Toronto’s VideoFag, nGbK gallery in Berlin, Junge Triebe Festival in Bielefeld, Germany, the 2011 Performance Studies International Conference in Utrecht, Netherlands, the Vancouver Fringe Festival, the Entzaubert Festival in Berlin, Encuentro 2014 in Montreal, the Vancouver Comedy Festival, and an intervention with the Raumerweiterungshalle, Berlin.
He organizes PONY, an annual cabaret, and co-presents the Student Okanagan Film Festival, both in Kelowna, BC.
His first book of poetry is What You Can’t Have (Signature Editions, 2006), short-listed for the ReLit Prize. In 2008, he published a hybrid book of concrete poems/photographs, Body of Text (BookThug), created with photographer David Ellingsen. His new book of poetry BAD IDEAS was released in May, 2017, from Nightwood Editions.
Michael V. Smith’s second novel, Progress, was published Spring 2011 with Cormorant Books. His memoir, My Body Is Yours, was published in 2015 by Arsenal Pulp Press. A French translation is just out from les Éditions Triptyque.
Ms Teillet is joining the 2020 Ryga Arts Festival to read from her award-winning book, The Northwest is Our Mother.
Jean Teillet, IPC (B.F.A., LL.B., LL.M.), Partner, Pape Salter Teillet LLP, Barristers & Solicitors, Vancouver, BC and Toronto, ON.
Ms. Teillet is called to the Bar in Ontario, BC, NWT, Manitoba and Yukon. She specializes in aboriginal rights litigation and negotiations and is currently the chief negotiator for the Stó:lo Xwexwilmexw >who are negotiating a treaty in the lower Fraser Valley in BC. >Ms. Teillet has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in ten cases. She maintains an active role as a public speaker and primarily speaks on aboriginal rights, access to justice, identity and equality issues. She is published in many journals and law books and is the author of the annually updated Métis Law in Canada. In addition to her aboriginal rights work, Ms. eillet works in the field of reproductive rights. She is an adjunct professor at the UBC Faculty of Law.
Ms. Teillet was the first recipient of the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Lincoln Alexander Award. In 2011, Ms. Teillet was awarded the title “Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel” by the Indigenous Bar Association. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. She has been awarded two honorary doctorates: Guelph University (2014); Law Society of Upper Canada (2015).
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ms. Teillet worked for twenty years as a writer, dancer, actor, choreographer, director and producer.
Jean has also been a visual artist for over thirty years. Her work is in private collections in the United States and Canada. One beaded piece, a replica of the “Two Row Wampum Belt” hangs in Flavelle Hall in the Law School of the University of Toronto as a symbol that two different people may embrace different legal regimes and still establish a working relationship if that relationship is built on respect and honesty. The University of Toronto Faculty of Law also holds three other replica wampum belts created by Ms. Teillet – the Covenant Chain Belt, the Micmac Vatican Belt and the Hiawatha Belt.
Ms. Teillet is the great grand niece of Louis Riel.
Sharon is joining the 2020 Ryga Arts Festival to read at Extended Play.
Sharon Thesen is a poet, editor, and writer who was based in Vancouver before moving to the Okanagan, where she now lives in Lake Country After receiving her MA degree from Simon Fraser University in 1975, she taught English and Creative Writing at Capilano College (now University) in North Vancouver, and joined UBC Okanagan’s ’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies as professor of Creative Writing in 2005. She is the author of nine books of poetry, the most recent, Oyama Pink Shale, The Good Bacteria, and A Pair of Scissors (http://www.anansi.ca/ ). Her books include a selected poems, News & Smoke, and several titles from the 1980’s and 90’s from Coach House Press in Toronto.
Sharon has been involved in the Canadian and Vancouver poetry scene for many years. As an editor, she has published two editions of The New Long Poem Anthology, a Governor-General’s Award-winning edition of Phyllis Webb’s poetry (The Vision Tree), and, from 2001 to 2005, the literary and visual arts magazine The Capilano Review. She co-edited, with Ralph Maud, a correspondence between the American poet Charles Olson and book designer Frances Boldereff (Charles Olson and Frances Boldereff: A Modern Corresepondence) (Wesleyan University Press, 1999) and After Completion: The Later Letters (Talon Books, 2014). For both editions, she wrote extensive introductions. Most recently, she wrote the introduction to George Stanley’s selected poems, North of California St. (New Star, 2014). She also co-edited, with Nancy Holmes, Lake: a journal of arts and environment, which was housed in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan.
Sharon’s book of poems A Pair of Scissors won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. The Good Bacteria was a finalist for the Governor-General’s Award, the ReLit Award, and the Dorothy Livesay Prize; Oyama Pink Shale was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Prize. Two earlier books also were finalists for the Governor-General’s Award, and in 2002 Sharon was a member of the jury, along with American poet Sharon Olds and Irish poet Michael Longley, for the prestigious Griffin Prize for Excellence in Poetry.
Sharon has published essays in The Vancouver Review, Dooney’s Café (online), Brick magazine, and in Untying the Apron: Daughters Remember Mothers of the Fifties. Interviews have been published in a number of anthologies and magazines, including an interview by Daphne Marlatt in “The Sharon Thesen Issue” of The Capilano Review (3:5), edited by Jenny Penberthy.
In addition to teaching literature and creative writing at Capilano College, Sharon has taught poetry workshops at a number of summer writing colonies, including the Banff Writing Studio, Echo Valley, the Whitehorse Poetry Festival, St. Peter’s College, and the Spoke Literary Festival in Vernon, and for many years has informally mentored younger poets and writers. She has been asked to write endorsements and reviews of scores of books of poetry and prose. Over the years, she has organized dozens of readings and festschrifts to honour and promote the work of other poets. She has given readings at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto, the Vancouver Writers and Readers Festival, the Blue Metropolis Writers’ Festival in Montreal, the New Zealand Writers’ Festival in Wellington, NZ, and the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France.
Sharon’s research interests are modern, postmodern, and contemporary poetry and poetics, the long poem, lyric essay and philosophical autobiography, and poetic imagination as a way of thinking. She is spiritually engaged with Christian mysticism and Franciscan spirituality, and is a student of Iyengar yoga. She is married to Paul Mier, a mountain biker and retired political science professor, and has one son and one stepson and a young grand-daughter.
Tavis returns to the Ryga Arts Festival as a special guest at the Kitchen Party Cabaret.
Tavis Weir is a Canadian songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who currently creates in and explores the interior of British Columbia. Tavis’ performance has been described as authentic, honest and he has been known to take risks on stage; not afraid to depart from the scripted. He recently independently released his debut full length album “Those Who Go Alone” on which he overlaid all the instruments, like some mad scientist in his home studio/laboratory, before it ripened to full fruition through Corwin Fox’s masterful mixing. Tavis’ original music features effortless vocal melodies held up by an intricate web of fingerpicking guitar or the rhythms of clawhammer banjo. He has been likened to Paul Simon, Sting, José González. He has toured with Juno Award winner Oscar Lopez and shared stages with the likes of Shane Koyczan and Ben Waters and continues to push his musical boundaries.
Author Gerry William is joining the 2020 Ryga Arts Festival to read from his novels The Black Ship & The Woman in the Trees.
Gerry is of Okanagan-Shuswap ancestry and is a member of the Splatsin Indian Band in Enderby, B.C.
Gerry has a wide range of teaching and curriculum development at the post-secondary level and have been in leadership positions within Aboriginal education for many years.
Gerry's PhD was in First Nation Education from an internationally recognized university. From this came the materials which led to The Woman in the Trees, a historical novel published by New Star Books about First Contact between European settlers and the Okanagan people. Theytus Books published The Black Ship, a science fiction novel that incorporates many Aboriginal elements. Each book is groundbreaking in its own way, and both publishers have reissued his novels within the past five years.
In addition to these two novels, Gerry has had poetry, prose and essays published.
Gerry makes his home in Enderby with his wife, Cree editor and writer Beth Cuthand.
Gerry is happily retired and completing the sequels to his two published novels mentioned above.
Andy is very excited to be playing online with this group and to be a part of the Ryga Arts Festival this year. He is lucky to have been able to work across Canada in theatre and film for the last 20 years. Some of his favourite credits include: Ed’s Garage and Halfway There (Port Stanley Festival Theatre), Duchess of Malfi (Shakespeare Bash’d), Five Alarm (Lighthouse Festival Theatre), Cracked: A New Light on Dementia (Possible Arts), A Christmas Carol (Theatre Northwest), I'll Be Back Before Midnight (Drayton Entertainment), Calendar Girls (Grand Theatre), Macbeth (Driftwood Theatre), The Odyssey (Driftwood Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (Theatre By The Bay), Leading Ladies (Victoria Playhouse Petrolia), Noises Off (Theatre Aquarius), The Tempest (Festival of Classics), Tempest-Tost, Twelfth Night, The Diary of Anne Frank and Elizabeth Rex (Stratford Festival). He has also appeared in various films, commercials, and on your TV in shows like Murdoch Mysteries, Frankie Drake, Saving Hope, Flashpoint, The Girlfriend Experience, Reign and Mayday . He makes his home in Stratford with his wife and daughter and he loves to pickle things. As always lots of love to Dana and Audrey.
Glen Cairns is a playwright, director, actor and filmmaker who has worked in venues, large and small, across Canada, the U.S., the U.K. Europe and Latin America. He was the first Artistic Director of The Neptune Theatre's Second Stage in Halifax and is a former Artistic Director of 25th Street Theatre and The Saskatoon International Fringe Festival. His play, Danceland, published by Playwrights Canada Press has been produced across Canada and in the U.K. Currently living in Kamloops, Glen is the founding Artistic Director of The Other Theatre Company Kamloops, an ad hoc collective of artists engaged in the creation of theatre by and for working class people. Recent productions include the incendiary anti-racist portrait of a Neo Nazi, Cherry Docs and the touring production of Canadian poet and playwright Mansel Robinson's searing portrait of fathers and sons, Rock 'n Rail.
A recent graduate of St. Clair College’s Music Theatre Performance Program, Jawon Mapp is a multi-disciplinary artist from Toronto. He is deeply passionate about his craft and always brings his most authentic self to every project. He is fresh out of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting’s Black Arts Institute Summer Intensive. His previous credits include Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night and Moonface Martin in Anything Goes (St. Clair College). C in Packed, Oliver in Going Under, Tristan in Crack of Doom, and Johnny in Drama 101 (New Music Theatre Intensives). He is thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of a new play as well as a part of the Ryga Festival this season. Thanks to Heather Davies for bringing him onto this project.
“Don’t get it right, get it true” -Stephen Mckinley Henderson
Julie Masi is a 4-time Juno award-winning singer, songwriter and percussionist. Many know Julie from her time as a percussionist and vocalist from the gold and platinum award-winning band The Parachute Club. She was a co-writer of several of the band’s songs and toured extensively with them throughout Canada, Europe, Jamaica and the USA performing in front of live audiences.
After leaving The Parachute Club Julie focused on session work and backing up artists such as Dan Hill, Bruce Cockburn, Shirley Eikhard, Alannah Myles, Ken Whiteley and David Foster. Her soulful & sultry voice can be heard on many recordings for Canadian artists.
Today Julie continues to be a sought after talent.
Kelly McIntosh is a Canadian actor and collaborative playwright.
Her performance credits include: The Grand Theatre (Suzanne/ Picasso at the Lapin Agile), Canadian Stage (Hermione/ Winters Tale), Theatre by the Bay (Luciana/ Comedy of Errors), Caravan Farm Theatre (Lady MacBeth), and the National Arts Centre (Winnie/ And All For Love). For the Royal Shakespeare Company, Kelly originated the role of Helen of Troy in the premiere production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad.
For the Blyth Festival: The Outdoor Donnellys, Hippie, Death of a Hired Man (actor/co-playwright).
Most recently Kelly co-wrote the critically-acclaimed play In the Wake of Wettlaufer for the Blyth Festival with artistic director Gil Garratt.
Kelly resides in Stratford Ontario where she was inspired to tell the story of the sixty-seven women who worked in Stratford’s locomotive repair shop as mechanics during WWII. Ladies of the CNR was co-written with Baptiste Neis and Stacy Smith with Heather Davies.
Kelly has won the KM Hunter award for having an impact in theatre.
Kelly is currently collaborating with multiple artists on a new play for the Blyth Festival: Airborne: The Life and Legacy of Lorna Bray.
Melissa Murray Mutch is a professional actress and recent transplant from the New York Metro area. She made her theatrical debut in Hamilton with the Canadian premiere of David Auburn's play Lost Lake for the Hamilton Fringe Festival. In NY she performed with Hudson Theatreworks, The Fire This Time Festival as well as the New Perspectives Theater. Off-Broadway: Death of the Liberal Class (The New Ohio Theater), Playboy of the West Indies, and Babes in Boyland(Lincoln Center Theater) and in the regional theater production of This by Melissa James Gibson at the Shaker Bridge Theater in New Hampshire. Film and T.V. credits include the short film Hungry, The Coroner, Law and Order: SVU, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Sesame Street .
BC country music keyboardist of the year five times in a row!
Steve Soucy, a professional musician, producer & songwriter for over 45 years has recorded and performed with 100s of artists. There is no music genre that Steve has not mastered on the keyboard. He’s performed blues, country, pop, rock & roll with the likes of Long John Baldry, Zachary Richard, Daryl Burgess, Alibi, Jhan Dudley, Henri Brown, Amanda Hughes, Kim Kuzma, Powder Blues, Melanie Dekker, Angela Kelman and Farmer’s Daughter.
While Steve still finds himself many days on the road performing all over the continent his focus is on writing songs and performing live with Kelowna’s popular duo leMoNay.