Montreal Cultural Calendar

Co-presented by
Les Vespérales, codes d'accès, NO HAY BANDA & The Canadian International Organ Competition
Ellen Arkbro
(b. 1990) is a composer, musician and sound artist working with precisely tuned intervallic harmony. Her practice includes compositions for acoustic instruments, synthetic sound, and hybrid forms, as well as installation work.
Across her work, she focuses on the qualities of harmonic sound that frame listening as an active process of creative participation, inviting the listener to gradually merge with the sound itself.
NO HAY BANDA
performs Alvin Lucier's
Swing Bridge
, a stunning 35-minute work for pipe organ, ensemble, and 'pipe wavers', who microtonally shift the tuning of the organ pipes.
Adrian Foster, organ
Sarah Albu, voice
Adrianne Munden-Dixon, violin
Meggie Lacombe, violin
Audréanne Filion, cello
Gabriel Dufour-Laperrière, double bass
Felix Del Tredici, trombone
Kalun Leung, trombone
Daniel Áñez, Lori Freedman, Noam Bierstone, organ pipe wavers

Co-presented with NOW Society
JAMbient
is Maria Chavez and Lisa E Harris
Maria Chavez and LISA E’s duo, JAMbient, is a durational, experimental collaboration that results in improvised forms of ambient soundscapes.
In JAMbient, Lisa E and Maria provide a bed of sonic elements that weave turntables, laptops, vocals, digital media and electronics creating an audio and visual installation.
Born in Lima, Peru and based in NYC,
Maria Chávez
is best known as an abstract turntablist, sound artist and DJ.
Lisa E. Harris
also known as Li, is a prominent interdisciplinary artist, composer, and creative soprano based in Houston, Texas. Both artists grew up in Houston Texas, and attribute their mentor Pauline Oliveros as a key influence to their sound art practices.
Anju Singh
is a composer, sound artist, and multiinstrumentalist who experiments with dynamics, texture, and pure sound in her composed and improvised work. As a musician, she is interested in extended and experimental techniques as well as re-application of traditional instruments in new contexts, sometimes leading to the development and build of new self-made instruments based on loose concepts of existing instruments. Her source materials include musical instruments, synthesizers, voice, electronics, custom-made/found objects, samples, and field recordings. Anju has presented her work across Canada and internationally including in the US, Brazil, Mexico, Europe, and Japan. In addition to her sound and music practice in areas of improv, experimental music and sound art, Anju also performs under the moniker The Nausea, and is also a metal drummer and guitarist in various projects. Anju is the Curator and Director of Vancouver Noise Fest, a self-funded and independently-run festival committed to noise music that has run for 11 editions.
Aleida Perez
is a violinist and improviser interested in new music and experimental forms such as free improvisation. She currently collaborates with the Liminar ensemble. Her most recent performances include a residency with the Norwegian collective Verdensteatret, the Epiciclos concert as part of the Diferencial series, and La escucha infinita.
Aleida holds a degree in classical violin from the Escuela Superior de Música (INBA). She began her musical studies in the basic program at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center and continued her training at the ESM (Educational School of Music), where she completed her degree under the guidance of maestro Cuauhtémoc Rivera. She has participated in various festivals such as the National Violin Encounter at the University of Zacatecas, the Contemporary Expressions Festival, Aires Nacionales (FAM-UNAM), and the International Chamber Music Festival at the University of Querétaro. She has performed at venues such as the Blas Galindo Auditorium, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Teatro de la Ciudad, the CCU-BUAP (Center for Fine Arts), the Casa del Lago, the Ex-Teresa, and the Sala Silvestre Revueltas-CCOY. She has taken master classes with Jorge Rici, Renata Knific, David Colwell, the University of Kansas Trio, Erika Dobociewicz, Ron Francois, and Ryu Gotto, among others.
Aleida is active in Mexico City's experimental music scene, participating in various independent forums and festivals specializing in contemporary practices such as Material Art Fair, Index, Arte Book Fair, Museo Anahuacalli, Arte Alameda, Galería Kurimanzutto, El Nicho Experimental, and the Vernacular Institute.
Mat Ball
is an experimental guitar player from Montreal, Canada. A founding member of the group BIG|BRAVE in existence since 2012, over the last few years he has been quietly developing and working on solo guitar music. Very much like his work with BB, relying heavily on amplitude and feedback with a strong emphasis on minimalism and the drone, deconstruction is a key element in his compositions.
Mothrspace
(Bruna Wanderley Gonçalves) is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and experimental artist from Brazil, based in Montréal. Working across experimental music, metal, and contemporary classical practices, her work draws from improvisation, physical intensity, and musical memory shaped by her upbringing.
As the voice and cello force behind Kapitur, she uses processed cello and voice to create emotionally and physically charged performances exploring tension, texture, transformation, and embodiment through sound. She has collaborated within Montréal’s experimental scene, including with Thisquietarmy, with whom she toured across Europe and performed at MUTEK Montréal’s Satosphere.
Her practice moves fluidly between structured composition, improvisation, and textural sound work. With a background in classical performance, including studies with cellist Isabelle Bozzini, she approaches the cello as an extension of the body, using sound as material for visceral and immersive performances.
CHXMERAS
are an experimental electronic duo based in Vancouver, BC and a transatlantic collaboration between UK/Canadian musician Paul Finlay from the North East of England and nêhiyaw/Denesuline musician Jarrett Martineau from Treaty 6 territory in Canada. They weave immersive, cinematic sounds and angular dub, deep ambient, experimental techno, mutating noise, and hip-hop rhythms, into a genre-bending, otherworldly experience. CHXMERAS’ haunting 2024 debut album,
Terminal City
, was released on Virtua94 Records and hailed by RANGE Magazine as “a multilayered cinematic masterpiece". It charts a sonic passage through the echoes and ruins of late-stage capitalism, environmental degradation, and urban decay. Their 2025 follow up,
Second Sight
, was reckons with the wild, furious, anything goes, free-for-all, freefall present and offers a crackling, anticipatory call toward distorted, broken futures. CHXMERAS have performed at a wide range of festivals and events including MUTEK, Sled Island, Suoni Per Il Popolo, Shambhala, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and New Forms Festival. Using modular synths, drum machines, live efx, field recordings, film samples, and hypnotic live improvisation, CHXMERAS take listeners into a hallucinatory landscape where fractal paths, lost futures, and the disorienting present collide.
Adrian Avendaño
, artist-in-residence at Suoni 2026 and a talented percussionist from Vancouver, is collaborating with interdisciplinary artist and double bassist
Roxanne Nesbitt
, as well as Montreal-based
Engone Endong
, who blends the rich traditions of Gabon with cutting-edge electronic sound design.
Adrian Avendaño
is an improvising drummer and percussionist, sound artist, DJ and recordist. His work explores the connection between sound, space, and territory. His approach to drums and percussion is informed by elements of acoustic ecology, deep listening, and the connection to his diasporic Latine heritage.
Roxanne Nesbitt
is a designer, musician, composer, and sound artist. Following formal studies in classical double bass and architecture, Roxanne works between the fields of music and design. Her research explores radical instrument design, the meeting place of composition and improvisation, sculptural ceramics and participatory sound installation. Roxanne collaborates with instrument designers, musicians, composers, and choreographers to create work.
Her compositions and instruments have been played across Europe and North America including performances at Gadeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht, November Music in Den Bosch, Bauchhund in Berlin, Array Space in Toronto, and the Center for New Music in San Francisco. She celebrates process making work that is intimate, inquisitive, and exploratory. Roxanne is currently based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.
Based in Montreal,
Engone Endong
is a visionary producer and composer blending rich Gabonese tradition with cutting-edge electronic sound design.
Recently performed with Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa) and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland),
Engone Endong
co-composed for
Symphonie de Coeurs
(Rhodnie Desir), captivating the audience with his immersive soundscapes and unique textures; pushing creative boundaries.
Engone Endong also crafted innovative tracks with artists such as Pindi, Elom 20ce & Blitz the Ambassador, Tali Taliwa, Slam Action, Orchestra Maestro and conductor Liberté Anne Lymberiou, and JUNO nominated artists Waahli and Eccodek.

Jellicle Cats come one come all, Jellicles return to the Jellicle Ball! 2026 is the year Cats: The Jellicle Ball goes to Broadway, and all good things come in threes; we are excited and proud to present the the 3rd installment of the Jellicle Kiki Ball: Now & Forever! With newfound inspiration and new categories yet to be explored in Montreal, you're in for a cat-tastic time.
Will you be the Jellicle Choice this year, and be reborn in the Heaviside Layer?
(…fine. If we must address the 2019 movie, we're doing so with a twist!)
Walkers Registration:
https://forms.gle/oZZMxQwghjEzfhwt8
Lip Sync Registration:
https://forms.gle/EbmyBWqXUzRZfSw89
Trans community discount registration:
https://forms.gle/GLvsCkDQUdvcCQgu6
CATEGORIES
Beginners Performance
(🏆)
Bring it in a country Western look.
Beginners Runway
(🏆)
Bring it in a 1970s look.
500$ GP Designers Delight
(🏆)
Bring a design based on any Hanna-Barbara feline character (with a reference).
Face
(🏆🏆🏆)
Bring it as Luna (FF), Artemis (MF) or Diana (GNC) from
Sailor Moon
, with a crescent moon accessory.
Realness
(🏆🏆)
Bring it as a
Cats (2019)
cast member (with a non-
Cats
reference).
Runway
(🏆🏆🏆)
Bring it in a look inspired by
Josie & the Pussycats (2001)
with a reference.
Comm vs Comm
(🏆) For your 10s,
bring a chant incorporating a quote from
The Lion King
movie or stage musical.
Hands Performance vs. Arms Control
(🏆🏆) Inspired by the 90s cartoon
CatDog
,
Arms Control: Bring it as Cat; Hands Performance: Bring it as Dog.
Lip Sync
(🏆)
Bring it in a cat-themed lip sync performance (for your 10s, you may choose a song from any BROADWAY musical, or any cat-related song (be it by title or artist).
Performance
(🏆)
Bring it as a nekomimi.
Old Way vs. New Way
(🏆🏆)
OW: Cat in the Hat; NW: Thing 1 & Thing 2
Bazaar
(🏆)
Bring it as a feline sidekick, with a reference.
Body
(🏆🏆)
Choose a sports team whose mascot is feline, and bring it in the team’s colors, with a reference.
Sex Siren
(🏆🏆)
Bring it in a nude illusion with leather accessories, in honour of the Canadian Sphynx.
MC -
Silk
Pinklady
,
The GNC voice of the Canadian Ballroom scene since their 2022 debut, Silk Pinklady has commentated over 30 balls all across Canada, hosted workshops, and has mentored many commentators to their own grand prizes and OTY Awards
DJ Pleasure (Legendary Canadian Father Pleasure Juicy Couture)
DJ Pleasure is one of this generation’s phenomenal DJs. He is multi-talented and versatile with more than meets the eye. Pleasure grew up in Scarborough, Ontario. His love for the arts started at a very young age where Pleasure nurtured a sincere passion for music.
In the Ballroom scene, Legendary Canadian Father Pleasure Juicy Couture is recognized as the first Canadian Legend of European Runway in Canadian ballroom culture. As a respected leader and Father of the Canadian chapter of the Iconic Kiki House of Juicy Couture and integral member of the Toronto Kiki Ballroom Alliance, he shaped the elegant, expressive runway style that defines the category today.

Sunken Cages
is the solo-project of Indian-born drummer/electronic music producer Ravish Momin. Inspired by Mumbai’s Street drumming ensembles and global rhythms, he creates tracks using live-looped percussion arrangements and pre-composed melodies. Get your dancing shoes laced!
Bilingual, Montreal-based experimental synth duo,
Jardin botanique
(Kate Bundy and Jean-Guillaume Bastien) blends organic and synthetic sound worlds with an exploratory approach, playful improvisation, and intuitive collaboration. Treating music as a living ecosystem shaped by growth, decay and care, this project is a feast for your ears.
In Hajia Maa’s current artistic universe, what is tantamount is the exploration of music, wellness and fashion, a space where meditative chant, experimental soul, and ambient soundscapes offer a perspective on rituals of care for the body and spirit. Her project
Secondsight
invites deep listening, rest, and embodied spiritual intimacy. Expect aural-visual delight!
Cyclepunk Warrior Bard
Abdul Lateef aka The Distractor
is a versatile artist blurring the lines between beatboxing, progressive metal, hip hop, funk and drum n bass and beyond. His signature instrument is the Lethelium a 24-string 2-octave instrument played with sticks, fingers and violin bows. Other bike-based instruments include the coolerdrum and rim drum and Miscellaneum Studios’ Distraction Machine, a music-based cyclepunk video game and musical sequencer.

With
IFO Productions
True self-destruction.
Cicada
is dark, left-of-center hardcore howling from beneath the weight of the empire. Based in Richmond, VA.
THE NOT
are aural assault - fuzz washes over everything like a rainstorm, tying the songs together with the sounds of broken glass and sirens. The lyrics are blunt, political and vicious, and the rhythm section is locked to the churn. Their final showing. Noise not music.
Uzu
is a Montreal-based band that blends elements of post-punk with dark, melodic, mid-tempo punk, infused with an incisive energy reminiscent of Siekiera. Their lyrics, sung in Arabic, are poetic and personal, while also conveying political messages about exile, colonization, and self-management.
Muscle Memory
: FASTCORE.