Founders and Curators
Parmela Attariwala
Violinist Parmela Attariwala interweaves life as a performer-creator, academic, and music educator. Parmela trained formally in violin performance at Indiana University and in Bern, Switzerland, and studied ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (UK) and the University of Toronto. Her creative work explores the liminal space between musical genres, artistic disciplines, and identities; often using improvisation as a point of departure. She has recorded three Attar Project albums featuring violin and tabla. Parmela has also collaborated extensively with choreographers (butoh, contact and bharata-natyam) as composer and movement artist.
Parmela’s recent creative output includes multi-authored comprovisations, sonic memorials based on end-of-life bhakti poetry, and collaborations with visual artists Peter Morin and Luciana Santos (Brazil). She is co-composer (with Ian Cusson) of the opera-in-progress Namwayut (Calgary Opera) and has contributed to the Esker Foundation’s permanent collection (Heme :: Stand Healing) in response to works by Jeffrey Gibson and Nep Sidhu.
Parmela’s ongoing research and advocacy centres around equity, identity and ethics in Canadian music and education.
Germaine Liu
Germaine Liu (b. 1983, Hong Kong) is a composer, scenario-maker, percussionist based in Tkaronto. Liu is interested in exploring and sharing things she finds joyful in collaborative settings, with hopes that participants are open and willing to participate. She loves tactile, movement, sonic and physical explorations of found objects and percussion.
Some scenarios she composed include Still Life – a 45-minute sounding installation for found objects, Puzzle Piece for prepared violin, Water Music – pieces for water and found objects, CeramiX – for ceramic creations by Chiho Tokita, See, and Draw exploring live-interactive notation with open instrumentation ensemble, Quarantine Playground, co-composed with Joe Sorbara using Zoom Video Communications Software as the score and UnDrum-set Solo for Duo with collaborators – Susanna Hood, Bea Labikova, Stacy Lee, Elysha Poirier, and Mark Zurawinski.
In addition to her interest in sounds/movement/touch, she also makes jewelry as handmade by germaine with the intention of using recycled materials as a way of crafting them in a new light. She is also part of the Willow Gardens Collective with friends, where she is happily learning how to grow, share food, care for and love the land.
Nicole Rampersaud
Composer, improviser, and trumpet player Nicole Rampersaud has a unique voice that cuts across a broad range of musical practices and traditions. Her intrepid listening and boundless curiosity have made her an internationally sought-after collaborator throughout several musical communities.
Nicole’s individualistic versatility has led to collaborations with many of the leading innovators in contemporary music: Anthony Braxton, Joe Morris, Ra-kalam Bob Moses, Sandro Perri, and many more. Her primary groups include Brass Knuckle Sandwich (with pianist Marilyn Lerner), a duo with guitarist Joel LeBlanc, and she is a founding member of the trio c_RL alongside Allison Cameron and Germaine Liu. She relentlessly seeks out and creates spaces to work with a diverse and expanding group of music-makers as a means of exploring and nurturing new connections between creative practices.
Since 2008, Nicole has been building a catalogue of solo compositions that deconstruct the trumpet’s sonic possibilities. In solo performances, Nicole improvises composites of her pieces in the moment, resulting in compelling structures that engage audiences in the creation of a connected experience.