Improvised Arts Society Staff & Board Members
Meredith Bates is a multiple award winning violinist based in Vancouver, B.C.
Her list of collaborative and solo projects is extensive and she’s thrilled to have worked with many of Canada’s most innovative musicians, performing, touring and recording.
Mentionable highlights include: touring internationally with Pugs & Crows, Peggy Lee’s Film in Music, Dyad, and Annie Lou, to name a few; sitting on the NOW Society board of directors; and, curating shows in both Vancouver and Halifax over the past two decades.
Spearheading VIAS is a culmination of her passion for improvisation and collaboration; she relishes any opportunity to join forces with other like-minded artists.
Elisa Thorn is a harpist, vocalist and composer living and working in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Interested in the intersection between composed and improvised music, she is involved with many projects including HUE, The Giving Shapes, and Gentle Party. Her values in community have led her towards work as a curator and presenter. She has co-produced a mixtape called Bitch Tapes featuring local women artists, ran an outdoor concert series called Woodland Patio Series, and worked with the Vancouver Parks Board as an artist in residence curating community events. Much like her artistic inquiries as a music creator, her inquest as a presenter focuses on how to make challenging and/or abstract art more accessible through intentional methods of presentation.
Ruby Singh was born in the Crow’s Nest Pass and now calls the lands of the Musqueam, Skxwú7mesh and Tsleil-Waututh home (Vancouver BC). He is an interdisciplinary artist in the truest sense. Singh’s creativity crosses the boundaries of music, poetry, visual art, photography and film. His expressions engage with mythos, memory, identity, justice and fantasy; where the surreal can shatter the boundaries of the real. As a composer and sound designer he has worked with theatre and dance companies across Canada, as well as creating numerous scores for the National Film Board and other independent films. Singh’s personal and collaborative works have been presented across Turtle Island, India, Germany and the UK.
Alongside his work as an artist, Singh is a long time facilitator and educator working within the libratory practice of creativity. This work has been shared in universities, colleges, youth prisons and communities across Turtle Island, India and the UK.
Joel DeStefano has worked in numerous capacities in arts and culture throughout his career. An active composer, performer and interdisciplinary artist, he has collaborated on a wide range of projects in film, dance, radio and theatre He’s a graduate of SFU’s MFA program in contemporary art and was a founding member and co-artistic director of Proximity Arts, an interdisciplinary arts collective.
His community work includes developing and leading workshops in music and performance art practice, acting as a consultant for community arts organizations and supporting the work of emerging artists as the theatre & literary arts programmer at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.Joel DeStefano has worked in numerous capacities in arts and culture throughout his career. An active composer, performer and interdisciplinary artist, he has collaborated on a wide range of projects in film, dance, radio and theatre He’s a graduate of SFU’s MFA program in contemporary art and was a founding member and co-artistic director of Proximity Arts, an interdisciplinary arts collective.
His community work includes developing and leading workshops in music and performance art practice, acting as a consultant for community arts organizations and supporting the work of emerging artists as the theatre & literary arts programmer at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.
Robyn Jacob is a pianist, singer, composer and educator living and working from the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She has toured Canada and internationally with her avant-pop project Only A Visitor, who have recently collaborated with sound designer Nancy Tam on the multi-media production Double Happiness: Detour This Way. Her compositions include commissions by Third Coast Percussion, Architek Percussion, So Percussion, and Little Chamber Music, and collaborations with visual artists and instrument makers. In 2020 she celebrated the release of Earth Leaps Up on the label elsewhere music with her duo The Giving Shapes in collaboration with harpist Elisa Thorn. Since 2012 she has been part of the multi-disciplinary collective Publik Secrets, currently artists in residence at the Hadden Park Field House with the City of Vancouver. In 2013 she toured Bali with Gamelan Gita Asmara, and has since been co-leading Gamelan Bike Bike.
Kristin Fung’s original music spans more than ten years as a singer, pianist, ukulele player, composer, bandleader, improviser, and recording artist. Highlights include her self-titled jazz/soul performances at Vancouver International Jazz Festival (2021) and Markham Jazz Festival (2019), and performing the Syntactical Ghost Trance Music of Anthony Braxton with the Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble at Roulette (New York, 2019 and 2014).
Fung is a highly skilled event producer and administrator specializing in the arts and cultural sector. Over the past decade, she has contributed to the success of major international events and organizations in both Vancouver and Toronto. This includes working for Coastal Jazz & Blues Society / Vancouver International Jazz Festival as Education and Outreach Coordinator, Production Assistant for the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad (the arts and cultural festival for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games), Gate Scanning Assistant Manager at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Office Assistant in the curatorial division of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Fung is also a certified teacher (vocal music and drama) and music director for worship services with a passion for creating accessible community music activities.
With more than a decade of experience in the non-profit sector, Tara has experience working for both public and private partners as a Development Manager and Festival Director. Tara has a passion for working to find creative solutions to meet mutual needs and build capacity and visibility for a multitude of projects. Tara utilizes a collaborative approach to build sustainable and forward-thinking programs and events that are creative, dynamic and thoughtful.
Tara is presently working on a Master’s Degree in Ecological Psychology & Environmental Humanities through Viridis Graduate Institute. The focus of her research includes how art and psyche are informed by and interconnected to narratives of our personal and planetary ecologies.
