These are some of the artists we have worked with.
JIAJIA LI
Classically trained flutist Jiajia Li is being praised as "one of the city's finest and most adventurous flautists”. She was the 2016 recipient of Canada’s “Juno” music award micro grant and a multi-time scholarship recipient from the Banff Centre.
Since her arrival in Calgary in 2014, Jiajia has forged her identity through music and performance, cutting across a wide range of modern musical experimentations and traditions.
Currently a faculty member at the Mount Royal Conservatory, Jiajia is an active performer and has joined the sublist of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
BARBARA ENGLAND
Barbara England is a classically trained dancer and performance artist. She worked as a dancer for Project 404, an independent company in Calgary, for six years before pursuing a postgraduate choreographic residency in Germany. She has had the opportunity to work, study, and perform in Kassel, Berlin, Lisbon, Amsterdam, and throughout Western Canada. As a performance maker, she uses practice based research and Real Time Composition methodologies as the basis for experimental, multi-disciplinary, and collaborative processes.
HAO YI-FAN
Ms. Hao Yi-fan is the 4th-generation master of “Wang”-style pipa and a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Mentored by the masters of “Pu-dong”-style and “Wang”-style, Ms. Hao’s playing “…Carries the authentic spirit… natural and liberal” (Lin Gu fang - renowned music commentator); and is described as sounding like“…brewing storms on the sea, or like a dragonfly skimming the surface of the water…” (Jing Zuo Ren - renowned music commentator).
Ms. Hao specializes in traditional repertoire and has recorded several albums, including her solo album “The Best Of Famous Traditional Pipa Music” in 1993, and “Abing Album” in 1996. She has performed all over China and toured in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Canada, and many countries in Europe. Recent performances include a concert at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in 2016; a turn as guest soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra in 2015 playing the concerto version of the “The Warlord Takes Off His Armour”; and a solo performance at the “Master Lin Shi Cheng Memorial Concert” in the same year.
In 2001, Ms. Hao’s master Li Guang-zu passed to her the ancestral pipa of the “Wang”-style — one of the five main pipa schools in China associated with the solo tradition — officially marking her position as the current master of the “Wang”-style tradition. Since then, she has translated the “Wang”-style music collection from Gongche notation to Chinese number notation, helped her teachers review and edit old music and scores for publishing, and since 2012, she has produced annual “Wang”-style pipa concerts.
CODY OLIVER
Of all the fine people surrounding him today, CODY OLIVER has one of the longest histories of engagement with Calgary avant-garde music. His presence reaches back into the 90s through his involvement in nach Hause and Space for Space events, and also with his own record labels - House Leek Audio and Noise Miniatures - which beautifully presented his various exploits, everything from painstakingly assembled music concrete pieces to solo improvisations. More recently, he's worked with Chris Dadge in the Midnighties, and alongside percussionist Peter Moller and multi-instrumentalist Lyle Pisio in the MOP Trio.
NIA DEVETZIS
NIA DEVETZIS is a percussionist driven by the vivid and vast world of contemporary music. She is dedicated to the support of new music in Calgary as a core member of Timepoint Ensemble and has made appearances with The Rubbing Stone Ensemble and Land’s End Chamber Ensemble. Other notable performances include solo engagements with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and Calgary Wind Symphony, as well as Calgary’s contemporary music and sonic arts festival. Nia is an instructor at the Mount Royal Conservatory and is currently assisting with the University of Calgary’s Percussion and World Music ensembles.
THE KENSINGTON SINFONIA
The Kensington Sinfonia was founded in 1988 by John Lowry, Associate Concertmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic, and freelance musicians. The Sinfonia's programs cover a wide range of chamber music and string orchestra repertoire, from the Baroque to present day.
Since its inception, it has frequently commissioned works by Calgary composers, as well as presenting the Calgary premieres of many Canadian compositions.
The Sinfonia has been frequently broadcast on both regional and national CBC Radio programs. It's debut recording "Views from the Americas", recorded by CBC Radio, has also been broadcast often. Having crossed the quarter-century mark, the Kensington Sinfonia continues to expand and innovate in its programming and its presentation.
NATE WATERS
Nate Waters is a saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist from Calgary, and has performed and recorded in a number of disparate musical iterations. He has contributed to the city's musical fringe as half of the freely improvised Friesen/Waters Duo and as a part of the minimalist quartet Nobody Say Anything, while performing more conventionally with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prime Time Big Band. Last year he released his first recorded foray into straight-ahead jazz, the Nate Waters Quartet's Fact Contrafact EP. He has also featured in pop groups such as Cable-Knits and Hunter-Gatherer, and recorded and appeared with Samantha Savage Smith, Aleem Khan, Prepared, and Raleigh.
CALGARY CHINESE ORCHESTRA
Calgary Chinese Orchestra - is a registered non-profit organization founded by a group of Chinese-Canadian music enthusiasts in 1997. Throughout the years, Calgary Chinese Orchestra have performed at community and cultural events, various charities and fundraising activities, as well as hosting their own annual concert. An ensemble made up of a variety of ancient instruments, Calgary Chinese Orchestra is dedicated to carrying on the tradition, as well as expanding and innovating the local arts scene through collaboration and by embracing musicians from all backgrounds and cultures.
ARTIO CHOIR
Artio specializes in choral music that is distinct, demanding, diverse and innovative. They explore a variety of genres from early music through to innovative creations being crafted by today’s composers. They re-imagine and re-invent music of the past and embrace the avant-garde music of tomorrow while continually seek to push the boundaries of choral music and performance. In addition Mount Royal Artio has been involved in a number of collaborative events including performing on stage with Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield in 2016 and Tanya Tagaq in 2017.
Wu Zhong-xi
Suona master Wu Zhongxi was born into a multi-generational family of suona players in northeastern China, and is now based in Vancouver, B.C. He was trained by his father, then studied at Beijing Conservatory. He has performed all over the world, including solo turns with the Seattle Symphony, China Shenzhen Symphony, and as guest artist at the Carrefour Mondial de L’accordeon in Quebec.
Pianist Corey Hamm and erhu virtuoso Nicole Li created the PEP (Piano Erhu Project) to synthesize the best of Chinese and Western music. Corey is hailed for brilliant, tour de force performances, and Nicole is praised for an expressive versatility that ranges from classical to rock, folk song to new music. Together, they’ve worked with more than 50 composers to develop a cross-cultural repertoire entirely their own.
Carsten Rubeling is one of Canada’s most active and dynamic jazz trombonists, composers and educators. His versatility finds him playing classical music, hip hop, salsa, and everything in between. Carsten can be found jamming in jazz clubs, performing in concert halls, or creating cross-disciplinary artistic projects in Calgary’s nvrlnd art space.
Carsten has performed and recorded with Sean Jones, Ingrid Jensen, Seamus Blake, Brian Lynch, Eric Bloom, Brad Turner, David Braid, Nick Fraser, Michael Kaeshammer, G Mills, Jens Lindemann, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Foothills Brass, Decidedly Jazz Dance works, Jann Arden and Weird Al.
“a tense and bespoke mixture of swampy electronics, strings, and vocals that flash with a bold volcanic brilliance” – THE FADER
FOONYAP is a classically-trained violinist and vocalist with an incomparable sound. Drawing comparisons to Björk, Braids, and Lhasa, her solo debut ‘Palimpsest’ is a therapeutic reconciliation with her sheltered Chinese-Catholic heritage and the intense classical music training of her childhood. Looping violin, mandolin, and voice, FOONYAP showcases a gifted voice that swings between a brittle fragility and explosive dynamism.
Shuo Yang
Pianist, a graduate of Shenyang Conservatory of Music specializing in the Piano. Performing and teaching for over 20 years, she started playing at age 5 and has participated in numerous national piano performance competitions receiving awards in China.
Over the last decade, her numerous articles focusing on piano performance skills have been published by well known national music publications of China, most recently in the Chinese Literature and Art Magazine (Feb. 2019).
Katharina Schier
Born in Germany, Katharina Schier grew up in Calgary, training from an early age at The School of Alberta Ballet. She has since trained at The National Ballet of Canada, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and The Ailey School and graduated with distinction from The Boston Conservatory with a BFA in Contemporary Dance (‘16).
Katharina has danced professionally in Canada and US including Wiss.co Dance, Cathy Young, Luminarium Dance Company, Lorraine Chapman The Company, and City Boston Ballet. In Calgary, she has performed with Dancers’ Studio West and is currently working on a self-produced project: “Movement Knowledge as a Kind of Cultural Knowledge”. Katharina is thrilled to be working with Barbara England and sharing the stage with Facet Music!
![[Donation to Red Cross for Covid-19] Two months have passed since our Facet Music 2020 Calgary Chinese New Year concert. After all the twists and turns, today we finally fulfilled our promise — donating half of the concert ’s box office i](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cedabc03d957e0001802313/1586399123132-V4ZX4QBC7XW3PXPILG0T/image-asset.jpeg)
