Announcing the winners of the inaugural Gerda Hnatyshyn Launch Grants
September 8, 2025
The Hnatyshyn Foundation is thrilled to announce the five artists selected to receive the inaugural Gerda Hnatyshyn Launch Grants. Please join us in congratulating (left to right) Shaharah Gaznabbi, Agneya Chikte, Émilie Camiré-Pecek, Tong Wang, and Maxwell Hanic.
About the prizes
The Gerda Hnatyshyn Launch Grants provide assistance to the most promising Canadian performing artists in the years immediately following their education or training. One grant of $10,000 has been awarded in each of the following disciplines: Classical Music (instrumental or vocal), Contemporary Music (instrumental or vocal), Contemporary Dance (performance or choreography), English Theatre, and French Theatre (performance or production). The grants will support a project, for which the candidates submitted a detailed proposal.
The Hnatyshyn Foundation is proud to name these awards after Gerda Hnatyshyn (1935-2023), whose fundraising, bold programming ideas, and advocacy made an indelible mark on Canadian art. Under her leadership, The Hnatyshyn Foundation disbursed over four million dollars to Canadian artists through grants, awards, and residencies. It is thanks to her work that the Foundation continues to support Canadian artists today.
Selection process
Over 100 emerging Canadian artists were considered for the Launch Grants. Their applications were evaluated by independent expert juries selected by the Foundation. We sincerely thank the jurors, listed at the end of this newsletter, for their work.
Meet the laureates
Shaharah Gaznabbi
English Theatre
Photo: Headshots by Andrew
Shaharah Gaznabbi is a 22 year-old theatre creator based in Toronto. A recent graduate of York University (Bachelor of Fine Arts, Playwriting and Devised Theatre), Gaznabbi “loves every nook and cranny of theatre.” They are a playwright, performer, puppeteer, drag artist, sound designer, and disabled theatre reviewer. They founded The Lost Scribe Collective, a community of intersectional brown, muslim, queer, disabled, and gender expansive storytellers who are interested in decolonizing, deindustrialising, and decapitalising their theatre practice.
Instagram: @huckkingfilarious
Gaznabbi participated in the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where they won the Neurodiverse Review’s Birds of Paradise Emerging Talent Award. They also participated in the 2025 Toronto Fringe Festival, where they won TO Live’s “Best of Fringe” and The Canadian Green Alliance’s “Greenest in the Fringe” awards. They were a participant in Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwrights Unit and were an artist-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre thanks to the Ellen Ross Stuart Award.
Gaznabbi performing My Pet Lizard Liz at Toronto Fringe Festival (2025). Photo: Lindsey Griffith.
“Receiving this recognition is more than meaningful; it is trajectory-shifting. It is life-changing to receive the Gerda Hnatyshyn Launch Grant and continue to elevate the work of fellow disabled theatre creators, build community, and share stories that I have never seen on stage before. Not only does this give me the confidence to uplift others, but I now feel a newfound confidence in my abilities as I move into the next chapter of my career. This award will remain very dear to me throughout the rest of my journey as an artist.
I love what I do with my whole heart, and I love every incredible person I’ve met doing it. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the teachers and professors I had at Meadowvale Secondary School and York University who believed in me and supported me in getting where I am today: Wendie Gibbons, Ian Armstrong, Jeff Ho, Aaron Kelly, Jamie Robinson, Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster, Keira Loughran, Gavin McDonald, David Jansen, & Marlis Schweizer.”
Project: Laban De La Tourette
With the help of the Launch Grant, Gaznabbi will refine their play Laban De La Tourette, a movement-based devised theatre piece that ties in the different Laban movement efforts (a dance theory in which movements are broken down into their component parts and qualities) to Gaznabbi’s experience living with Tourette’s Syndrome. The project connects the voices and lived experiences of tourettic movers and theatre creators, weaving Laban technique to the most painful moments of living with Tourette’s Syndrome: experiencing dystonic tics and navigating the social pressures of living with a disability.
In this work, Gaznabbi aims to highlight the liberation they felt in gaining a sense of control and agency over their life and body when they became an artist, particularly through the exploration of clown and physical comedy. Ultimately, Gaznabbi plans to present the work at an active workshop reading where, along with their artistic collaborators, they will showcase the movements, shadow work, and script to gather feedback from an audience.
“I believe that theatre saved my life. This belief is weaved in with my personal history and is explored in the piece that I am developing with the help of the Launch Grant. In this work, I explore diagnosis and lived experience with Tourette’s Syndrome, and how I’ve been able to reclaim a sense of self and bodily autonomy through theatre and physical comedy.”
Agneya Chikte
Contemporary Music
Photo: Ajinkya Chikte
Agneya Chikte is a Toronto-based drummer, percussionist, and composer. His work explores the intersections of South Asian rhythmic traditions, global groove-based improvisation, and contemporary music. Born and raised in Western India, his musical journey began with training in Hindustani classical music. His early years were shaped by the juxtaposition of ancient Indian rhythmic systems and the explosion of early 2000s pop, rock, and hip-hop culture — a hybridity that continues to inform his genre-fluid, rhythm-forward approach to sound.
After immigrating to Canada, Agneya studied jazz and contemporary music at Humber Polytechnic. He has since performed and recorded across a wide range of musical traditions — from Zimbabwean Mbira music to Nigerian R&B, Arabic folk, jazz, and experimental rock. These experiences have shaped his deep respect for intercultural collaboration and his commitment to building a music practice that is both grounded and expansive.
Agneya’s music has been supported by the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils, Small World Music, the National Arts Centre, and Humber Polytechnic. As he transitions from being a supporting musician to a bandleader and composer, he is focused on creating space for underrepresented voices in Canada’s arts scene, and using his platform to build meaningful connections across cultures and communities.
Website: agneyachikte.com
Instagram: @agneyamusic
“I was raised in western India, where I trained in traditional music. I was drawn to the intricacies of tabla compositions and the deep internal logic of time cycles (Taals). At the same time, I was growing up during the rise of cable television in India — headbanging to Rage Against the Machine and Linkin Park on MTV at night after listening to Pt. Bhimsen Joshi in the morning. This duality — ancient and modern, East and West — was not something I thought to reconcile at the time. It was simply the environment I was immersed in, and it became a foundational aspect of how I perceive sound, rhythm, and cultural expression.
Receiving this prize means the world to me. As an immigrant artist in Canada, it’s a powerful affirmation that my voice and story matter. At a time when so many artists — and people everywhere — are navigating extreme uncertainty and struggle, this kind of support is more meaningful than ever. It gives me the confidence to take creative risks, honour my roots, and bring this deeply personal project to life.”
Project: AGNEYA
With the help of the Launch Grant, Chikte will prepare AGNEYA, his debut full-length album as a composer and bandleader. The album explores groove-based improvisation rooted in South Asian rhythmic cycles, infused with contemporary sensibilities and performed with a collective of like-minded collaborators. The project is a reflection of his diasporic identity and belief in the power of rhythm to transcend language, genre, and geography.
“My artistic practice is about pulling all those [musical] threads together — not to water them down, but to let them sit side by side, in all their complexity. That’s the real world I live in, and that’s what I want my music to reflect. It is groove-driven and rhythm-forward, but also open, melodic, and meditative. In AGNEYA, complexity is never used to exclude. Instead, it’s used to invite — to create space for layered experience, cultural multiplicity, and joyful engagement. My goal is to create music that feels both grounded and expansive — complex, but never alienating; accessible, but never simplified.”
Photo: Ajinkya Chikte
Émilie Camiré-Pecek
French Theatre
Photo: Annie Éthier
Émilie Camiré-Pecek is an actress and writer based in Ottawa. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Theatre) and a Master of Arts (Theatre, creative project) from the University of Ottawa. During her studies, she participated in the play By-Product.D-rivé, the inaugural show at LabO, a new theatre space in Ottawa. While writing her Masters thesis, she focused on writing transgressive contemporary monologues; she likes to break the rules and defy expectations of her in order to create surprising, thought-provoking works. Some of her notable artistic engagements include the plays Cabine/Traces (2359), La petite maison (Le bruit du monde), and Vivances (2359). Her most recent project as an actress was De glace (L’eau du bain), which was presented at the National Arts Centre, Théâtre Prospéro, and Théâtre la Seizième. She has been a member of the Mauve Sapin theatre company since 2017, where she works as an actress and writer, notably for the projects Les pattes en aiguilles and Fumée lourde.
Émilie performs in several improvisation leagues. She was also artist-in-residence at the Théâtre du Trillium in 2023-2024. In 2024, she participated in the Actoral Festival with a sound installation entitled Le musée ordinaire de femmes extraordinaires (“The Ordinary Museum of Extraordinary Women”), which used objects, music, and excerpts from discussions to present the extraordinary women who make up her family. She is currently working on her play Culture de l’explosion, a rebellious and offbeat text for which she won the 2024 Paulette-Gagnon Award from the Fondation pour l’avancement du théâtre francophone au Canada.
“I am very happy and deeply touched to receive one of the first Launch Grants from the Hnatyshyn Foundation. This grant will give me a much-needed boost to continue my work and bring my script to the stage and in front of an initial audience. This is a very important step in my career as an emerging artist, as it will allow me to present my first play in a professional setting during the Zones Théâtrales festival — a festival that is very dear to my heart. I feel fortunate to have this financial support and I believe that this opportunity will have a major impact on my career, on this project, and on my future projects. This support will greatly help me professionalize my practice while working with artists who are well established in Ottawa’s Francophone community. Many thanks to the Foundation; I am extremely grateful.”
Project: Culture de l’explosion (“A Culture of Explosion”)
With the help of the Launch Grant, Camiré-Pecek will further refine Culture de l’explosion, which comprises a series of tableaux, including monologues, dialogues, and podcast excerpts. In each tableau, the characters are engaged in a reflection on political correctness and social transgressions. Rehearsals are currently underway, in anticipation of the play’s sold-out presentation at the Zones Théâtrales biennale taking place in Ottawa in September 2025. At the biennale, Camiré-Pecek hopes to unlock opportunities to further develop the play and present it publicly in collaboration with Canadian theatre companies.
Photo: Zackari Gosselin
Tong Wang
Classical Music
Photo: Raoul Manuel Schnell
Tong Wang is a Canadian pianist based in Airdrie, Alberta. In her work, she advocates for the power of art to connect people to themselves, each other and the world that surrounds them. Wang is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where she recently completed her PhD. Her doctoral thesis was supported by grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and SSHRC. Her teachers and mentors have included Boris Konovalov, Bruce Brubaker, and Kyoko Hashimoto. She is a member of the violin-piano duo DoSi and of the Windwood Trio.
Wang’s philosophy is informed by that of the late composer Leonard Bernstein, who stated: “Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed... because people are changed by art – enriched, ennobled, encouraged – they then act in a way that may affect the course of events... by the way they vote, they behave, the way they think.” Wang’s projects thus explore the role of art in relation to identity, culture, and social issues. She leads creative initiatives across areas of performance, research, education, and community engagement. Examples include collaborations with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra, Xenia Concerts, Lyrica Baroque, Barbara Hannigan, Verona Quartet, and ensembles throughout North America and Europe.
In 2022, Wang co-founded the Windwood Music Festival in Airdrie to bring classical chamber music to rural communities. In the 2025-26 season, she will be touring her solo recital Towards the Flame with Debut Atlantic, and in 2026-27 she will tour My Big Prairie Sky with Prairie Debut.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist (DoSi Duo opening concert, 2022).
Website: tong-wang.com
Instagram: @skye.pianist
Project: With Skye (Music as a Connection Cure)
With the help of the Launch Grant, Wang will develop With Skye, an original concert program that will tour hospitals, urgent care centres, and long-term care facilities across Alberta in partnership with Alberta Health Services. The project will include the production of a multimedia album featuring audio recordings, video documentaries, written testimonials and interviews, photos from the events, and artworks made by audience members. The music, composed by Wang’s colleagues over the course of eight years, will include a commissioned work by Chinese-Canadian composer Roydon Tse. The concerts will take place between March 20-30, 2026, at the Didsbury Hospital, Cochrane Urgent Care, High River Hospital, and Bethany Airdrie. Recordings will follow with Juno winning Canadian Tonmeister and Audio Engineer Alex Bohn. Wang hopes to release the album in August-September 2026.
“This project allows me to further advocate for contemporary classical music by underrepresented groups. The work is a homage to my adoptive homeland of Alberta after immigrating to Canada. I am exploring traditional classical music in new ways by programming a recital that uses music outside the western canon. Each of these works were written for me by colleagues and friends in the past 8 years and hold deep, personal meaning in marking my artistic growth. This collaboration with Alberta Health Services will share the tangible proof of the necessity of art in our health care systems and the power of music in facilitating healing and wellbeing. It will also allow vulnerable sectors of our community who face obstacles accessing socio-cultural events to participate in them and to feel a sense of involvement, connection, and interaction.
Through my work with the Windwood Trio, I have visited hospitals, urgent care centres, and senior homes across rural Alberta to offer chamber music concerts to residents and patients. I have witnessed the powerful, touching, and tangible impact of these intimate performances and the emotional intensity of the joy, healing, and relief these events bring to not only the patients but also the caregivers and healthcare workers.”
Maxwell Hanic
Contemporary Dance
Photo: Janice Saxon
Max Hanic is a queer, Sterling Award-nominated actor, dancer, singer and instructor raised in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). He graduated with distinction from the University of Alberta Fine Arts Acting program and studied contemporary dance at La Faktoria Choreographic Centre in Pamplona, Spain (2021-2022) and at Modus Operandi in Vancouver (2024-2025). What draws Max to dance is the power expressed within it: a body taking time for itself and achieving some kind of freedom through the articulation of the invisible. To Max, performers are mediums, providing access to something beyond, below, or within our immediate reality.
Max has received training scholarships from EDAM (Vancouver), The Good Women Dance Collective (Edmonton) and Circuit-Est (Montréal). He has participated in training programs at Tic Tac Art Centre (Brussels), Espacio Tiempo (Madrid) and at the One Body One Career Countertechnique intensive (Amsterdam). He has performed with the Edmonton Opera, Firefly Theatre and Circus, Amoris Projects, Catch the Keys Productions, and in his own choreographies. He has worked with choreographers Molly Mcdermott, Francesca Frewer, Lin Snelling, Alexis Fletcher, Minggao Zhang, Susanna Hood, Jennifer Mcleish-Lewis and more. Max is forever grateful to the incredible teachers he has had, most notably his first dance teachers Lin Snelling and Marie Nychka. Discovering dance — the amazing friends it has brought him, and the amazing places it has brought him to — has forever changed him and his life.
Instagram: @max.hanic
“This prize grants me the freedom to explore my ideas with treasured friends and collaborators and to feel confident in taking creative risks. I am grateful for this recognition as I shift between the disciplines of theatre and dance and continue to grow my practice and career while training as intensively as my time and resources allow. Thank you so much to everyone who has made this possible. It is an enormous gift that helps me in ways far beyond the practical. I feel so grateful and affirmed.”
Photo: Michael Reinhart
Project: Kneeture’s Gift
With the help of the Launch Grant, Hanic will refine Kneeture’s Gift, a dance-theatre solo piece that will be premiered at Mile Zero Dance Society in Edmonton this fall, as part of the 2025 mainstage season.
The title of the work is based on “Kneeture,” a clown dance character created by Hanic. “Gift” speaks to the dramatic action that will be undertaken on stage: sharing a gift, and revealing what is always a gift: our lives, our pain, our miseries and our joys. Using the language of dance, Hanic hopes to explore such questions as “how is struggle in life a gift?; Can irony and sincerity exist at the same time within a solo dance?; Can abstract dance material be funny?”
Juries
English Theatre
Jenna Rodgers, Artistic Director, Concrete Theatre, Edmonton
Marcel Stewart, Independent Artistic Director and Curator, Festival of Live Digital Art
Michelle Mohammed, Actor, Director and Associate Artist at Why Not Theatre, Toronto
Contemporary Music
Rob Baker, CM, Guitarist, The Tragically Hip
Tim Baker, Singer-songwriter, St John’s, Newfoundland
Kellylee Evans, Juno Award-winning jazz and soul vocalist
French Theatre
Geneviève Pelletier, Artistic Director, Théâtre Cercle Molière, Winnipeg
Joey Lespérance, Actor and playwright, Théâtre la Licorne, Vancouver
Émilie Monnet, Artist and playwright, founder of Onishka, Montreal
Classical Music
Dinuk Wijeratne, Juno Award-winning conductor, composer and pianist
Yolanda Bruno, Violinist, Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Larry Strachan, Pianist, composer & conductor
Contemporary Dance
Alison Kause, Dancer and founder of Good Women Dance Collective, Edmonton
Parise Mongrain, Dancer, General Manager of Regroupement Québécois de la Danse, and former Board member of the Hnatyshyn Foundation
Olena Saltykova, Former Principal Dancer, Kyiv Modern Ballet, and laureate of a Hnatyshyn Foundation Ukraine - Heritage, Spirit and Future Award
We sincerely congratulate this year’s laureates and thank the artists who submitted exceptional applications for consideration. We look forward to launching many generations of Canadian performing artists through the Launch Grants in the coming years!
