Molly MacKinnon is an award-winning violinist and collaborative artist based out of Vancouver BC on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. An interdisciplinary creator and performer with a passion for storytelling through music, Molly has been seen on stages all across the city. Recent projects include The Quarantettes; a roving singing group brought into being during the pandemic, Good Things To Do; a digital creation centred on technological intimacy and gentleness; and Never the Last; a concert/theatre hybrid exploring the life and work of 20th century composer Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, co-created with playwright Christine Quintana. Molly performs regularly with the Black Dog String Quartet.
Heather Beaty, Artistic Director
Heather is a professional flutist and multi-faceted performing arts professional who resides in Vancouver, BC on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples. She performs as principal flute with the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, is currently sharing a trial position as principal flute with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, and is passionate about presenting classical music in new spaces for 21st Century audiences through her non-profit society Seagrass Music Society and concert series Concerts on Tap.
board of directors
photo: Melvin Yap
Meredith Bates
vice-president
A talented improvisor and performer, multiple award-winning violinist Meredith Bates is known for her elegant and virtuosic sound. Gratefully basing herself out of unceded Coast Salish territory, Meredith has spent the past twenty plus years recording and performing around the world, in ensembles such as Pugs & Crows (JUNO winner 2013, WCMA winner 2016) and Gentle Party and in projects led by Peggy Lee, Tony Wilson, Leah Abramson, CR Avery, and Ford Pier, to name a few. Meredith is the founder and leader of Like the Mind, a sextet of celebrated female improvisers from Vancouver and Stockholm, and of Sound Migrations, a multidisciplinary collaboration combining electroacoustic soundscapes with processed photography. In December 2020, she released an epic ambient and experimental debut solo album, ‘If Not Now,' which features lush layers of processed violin and viola. Following that, Meredith created the interdisciplinary, process-based work, Listen, listen, which highlights collaborations between dance, music, and visual artists hailing from all over the world.
secretary
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.
photo: Sewari Campillo
photo: Matt Reznek
Jivesh Parasram
treasurer
Jivesh Parasram (He/Him/His) is an award winning multidisciplinary artist, community activator, and facilitator of Indo-Caribbean descent. His work has played across Canada, and Internationally. Jiv grew up in K’jipuktuk (Halifax) and endeavours to split his time between T’karón:to (Toronto) and the Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver). In 2009 he co-founded the award winning collective Pandemic Theatre, and currently holds the position of Artistic Director for Rumble Theatre. Parasram is a “Dora Mavor Moore” award nominated artist, and the recipient of two “Harold Awards” for his contributions to the Independent Theatre Community of Toronto, including the Ken McDougall Award for Direction. Internationally he has received a “Herald Angel” from the Edinburgh Fringe for his contributions to the 2018 CanadaHub programming. Jiv was a member of the second cohort of the Cultural Leaders Lab with the Toronto Arts Council and the Banff Centre and was the recipient of the 2018 Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award. His play “Take d Milk, nah?” was recently nominated for the Governor General's literary awards.
Christine Quintana
president
Born in Los Angeles, Christine is now a grateful visitor to the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people (Vancouver, BC). She is an actor, playwright, and co-Artistic Producer of Delinquent Theatre. Christine is the winner of the prestigious Siminovitch Protégé prize, a Dora Mavor Moore Award, Jessie Richardson Theatre Award, Tom Hendry Award, and Sydney Risk Award, and a Governor General’s Award Nominee. Her works include Selfie, Clean (with translator and adaptor Paula Zelaya Cervantes); Someone Like You; and Never The Last (created with violinist Molly MacKinnon). Christine is a proud co-founding member of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition. She holds a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia.