Festival North 2025

2025 Juno Award Nominee, Kym Gouchie is a celebrated Indigenous singer-songwriter and cultural ambassador with ancestral roots in the Lheidli T’enneh, Cree, and Secwépemc Nations. Known for her powerful voice and heartfelt storytelling, Gouchie’s music and community work foster understanding and reconciliation. Blending folk, roots, and Indigenous influences, she captures audiences of all ages with songs that make us cry, laugh and heal. A recipient of the Stingray Rising Star Award in 2019, Gouchie has showcased her work as an artist and panelist at numerous world music conferences across Turtle Island.

Her performance highlights include playing with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, singing at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2020 BC Summer Games and composing and performing a song for the 2024 Para Biathlon World Championships. She performs at music festivals throughout BC and has dedicated the past decade to engaging children and youth through school performances. Gouchie’s commitment to Indigenizing spaces and “slow touring” allows her to form deep connections with each community, building lasting relationships with both people and the land. She continues to use her platform to amplify Indigenous voices, leaving a lasting impact in the music industry and beyond!

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Kym's interactive and engaging performance blends music, storytelling, and Indigenous languages, offering a fun and enriching experience for all ages. With traditional hand drum, guitar, and ukulele, she invites audiences to sing, dance, and connect through soulful songs and meaningful cultural teachings.

Ria Mukund is an Indian classical vocalist and operatic singer, with education and expertise in both Indian and Western styles of music. Having started her education in Indian classical music in her childhood, Ria branched out into musical theatre and then opera, obtaining a Master's degree in music performance from Claremont Graduate University. She is currently under the tutelage of Shrimati Dayita Datta in Los Angeles. Ria hopes to spread awareness of North Indian Classical music across diverse local communities in B.C. and build a deep appreciation of this rich ancient traditional art form.

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Hindustani classical music is a classical music tradition of northern India, rooted in Bharata's treatise on the performing arts, the Natyashastra. Centring on ragas (melodic frameworks) and talas (rhythmic cycles), performances place great importance on musical structure and improvisation and evoke intricate emotions. A key development in Hindustani music is the Islamic conquest of northern parts of the subcontinent that introduced highly influential Arab and Persian musical practices that then merged with Hindu traditions.

This show will be a combination of music and explanations about the music and its significance. In this performance, you will hear the tanpura (a large long-necked lute with four strings, used only to play the supporting drone, a single repeated chord) and the tabla (a set of two drums played by one musician, the right-hand drum carefully tuned), accompanying the vocalist.

Esteban Figueroa is a Canadian Flamenco composer and guitarist, born in Viña del Mar, Chile. His playing career started at a young age where he learned to play the guitar in his native country. As a teenager he performed and competed at a national level in the Canadian Stage Band Festival across Canada winning best jazz Guitarist 3 years in a row. 

Figueroa fell in love with flamenco as a youngster, and in Victoria (Canada), met his mentor Harry Owen who took him under his wing and where he became part of Alma de España dance company. 

In 2005 Figueroa formed his Flamenco Caravan group where they opened for Paul Shaffer, David Letterman’s musical director. In 2005 they came out with their debut album Love’s Philosophy to great reviews from CBC’s Fresh Air. In 2007 they made their second album Alchemy which was awarded best album by Music North. Consequently, Figueroa debuted Calma, his second solo album, in 2007, where he played with famous jazz bassists Alain Caron. 

In 2010 Flamenco Caravan realized their third album, Liberation, while also touring extensively. 

Esteban has opened for groups such as Colin James, America, Jeff Healey, and Blue Rodeo, just to name a few, and performed at the Ottawa Jazz festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, and countless others. His music can also be found in Arie Posin’s film The Face of Love (2013) starring Annette Bening, Robin Williams and Ed Harris. 

Apart from playing in Canada, Figueroa has performed internationally in Spain, Germany, France, England, and numerous shows in the continents of Africa and South America.  

Marian Rose is a musician, writer, linguist and folk dance specialist who believes that dance and music are powerful tools in creating a more connected, compassionate and joyful world.

Well-known in western Canada for her school dance residencies and her Step Lively dance resources, she has brought the joy of dancing to over 200,000 school children and their families over the past three decades.

Motivated by academic curiosity and a passion for languages, she moved to Quebec and completed a master’s degree in linguistics a the Université de Québec à Chicoutimi. Her research focused on the relationship between music and language, and specifically how music and movement can help us to learn a second language.

In 2017, she completed a new book/CD resource entitled Chantons, dansons : Songs, Games and Dances for Learners of French, intended for children attending French immersion schools as well as for adults wanting to improve their fluency in French.

Marian spent years teaching Québécois traditional dance to adults from across North America who come to Quebec to improve their French as part of the Explore program at l’Université de Québec à Chicoutimi. Now living in Telkwa, she continues to teach folk and social dance at weddings, festivals and dance camps, and is a highly respected clinician at teacher conferences and professional development workshops.

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https://www.marianrose.com/

Orchestra North Academy is an ensemble of professional musicians from northern BC and elsewhere. Each summer, select classical music professionals meet the faculty of the Orchestra North Summer Program to rehearse, workshop, and perform on tour. We aim to make classical music available and accessible to northern BC communities: our programs range in style from Baroque to jazz to freshly composed music and feature many instruments and combinations. Visit orchestranorth.com/faculty-and-academy for introductions to our 2025 ensemble!

Our repertoire includes many styles including baroque, classical, jazz, tango, and pop, and features strings, winds and brass instruments. For more information, visit: https://www.orchestranorth.com/faculty-and-academy

The PG Fiddlers is a vibrant group of fiddlers, backup musicians, and those who just love to listen, who enjoy getting together to jam, dance and have fun together! The organization has been in PG since the 1960's and is founding member and Branch #1 of the BC Old Time Fiddlers Association.

The Fiddlers meet September until the end of June, every Tuesday from 7 to 9pm.  There is a drop in fee of $5 to cover the cost of the space and everyone is welcome.  We also welcome guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, bass, piano and accordion players.  Fiddle group lessons are also offered for a reasonable fee.  Visit the pgfiddlers.com or the facebook page for more information.  


In our showcase, we will play a few traditional fiddle tunes, followed by a family dance where the association's Doug Bordon and guest caller Marian Rose will each have an opportunity to “call” some dances.  No experience is required, as the callers will give you step by step directions.  We will do some square dances, a Virginia Reel, possibly a round dance, some waltzes, a Schottische or two, and likely a Quebecois dance.