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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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No bio provided.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Drums, percussion, and harmony vocals. An award winning drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Dan is also owner of DMA Studios in Lake Country, BC.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Kamloops-based 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. 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Television credits include: Days of Our Lives from 1994 to 1999 as Dr. Mike Horton. He also had a recurring role on the soap. Passions. Other television credits include: The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story, as well as appearing as Dr. Glazer in the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh. He also portrayed Zoey Brooks' father in Zoey 101. Mr. Deeds with Adam Sandler and roles in TV shows such as Street Justice, Malcolm in the Middle, Entourage, Charmed, Highlander: The Series, Afterworld and Friends, and Battlestar Galactica (2009).

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). He was also in Charmed. Film credits include: Hydra as Sean Trotta. (2009).

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No bio provided.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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No bio provided.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Check out Marin's website here: www.marinpatenaude.com