Pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary AB Canada—among the largest prizes in classical music. His recitals around the globe have been met with universal critical praise, and recent album releases have received extraordinary accolades, including: the Choc de Classica, Record of the Month in Limelight, Instrumental Disc of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, Editor’s Choice in Presto Classical, and Critics’ Choice in International Piano.

Among the most critically acclaimed musicians of his generation, Namoradze was bestowed the 2020 & 2021 Young Pianist Award by the UK Critics’ Circle, which called him “very much more than a top-flight pianist.” His current activities include recitals at concert halls including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan; festival appearances at Tanglewood, Banff, Gstaad, Santa Fe, and more; and performances with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Sinfonieorchester Basel, with conductors such as Iván Fischer, Karina Canellakis, and Ken-David Masur.

After completing his undergraduate in Budapest, Vienna, and Florence, Namoradze moved to New York for his master’s at The Juilliard School and his doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center. His teachers and mentors have included Emanuel Ax, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Zoltán Kocsis, Matti Raekallio, András Schiff, and Eliso Virsaladze in piano, and John Corigliano in composition. He currently pursues postgraduate studies in neuropsychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College, London, where his research interests include the effects of mental practice and mindfulness on musical performance. Namoradze is the author of the book Ligeti’s Macroharmonies, published by Springer in the Computational Music Science series, and his compositions are published by Muse Press.

Jaideep Bains is a professor at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary. His research areas include Synaptic Transmission, Synaptic Plasticity, Stress, Electrophysiology, and Patch-clamp. The goal of his lab is to understand how neural circuits that regulate an organism’s internal state are also purposed to control behaviour and store information in response to challenges. Specifically, he uses a combination of electrophysiology, behavioral analysis, functional imaging, and optogenetics to characterize neural circuits that decode stress to modify internal states and generate specific coping behaviors. He has made several contributions that reveal the consequences of stress on neuronal function and plasticity in the brain.

Entrepreneur, former elite athlete, founder of Branch Out Neurological Foundation and Health Lead at Thin Air Labs Inc., Crystal Phillips has a range of experience that provides unique insight into investing in the health care space for significant human impact and outsized returns on investment.

She has a nationwide network of public, private, governmental, and charitable leaders. Her experience, network, and competitive spirit allow her to bring solutions to ventures that accelerate their growth. As the founder and Director of Branch Out Neurological Foundation, she has raised over $3 million for neurological research in universities across Canada.

Cal Botterill is a career professional in Sport Psychology. He played for Canada’s National Men’s Hockey Team from 1967 to 1969. In 1977, Botterill received his PhD from the University of Alberta where the title of his thesis was Goal Setting and Endurance on a Performance Task. After graduation, he sought out mentoring from Dr. Bruce Ogilvie, Dr. Robert Nideffer, Dr. Ken Ravizza, Dr. Terry Orlick, Dr. Lars-Eric Unestahl, Dr. Keith Henschen, and Dr. Richard Gordin, all respected leaders in the field of performance psychology.

During his twenty-seven-year career at the University of Winnipeg, where he taught courses in Sport Psychology, Psychological Skills in Sport and Life, Issues in Sport, and Growth and Development Through Physical Activity, Botterill won a Teaching Excellence Award at both University of Winnipeg and University of Calgary, also spending three years as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary. Since his retirement in 2007, he has been active in the delivery of the High Performance Physician (HPP) programs for medical residents and physicians at the University of Manitoba. His research & interests include psychological effects, recovery, perspective, and optimizing health and performance in today’s demanding world.

As a sports psychology consultant, Botterill has been part of Canadian Support Teams at ten different Olympic Games and has worked with five NHL teams (including the 1994 Stanley Cup Champion New York Rangers). At the 2014 Sochi Olympics, half of the fourteen athletes he worked with won gold medals. His experience and research in youth sport, high performance, and perspective led to the books Every Kid Can Win, Human Potential, Perspective: The Key to Life, and Sustainable High Performance. He also has a YouTube video Psychology and Rehabilitation: 12 Ways Psychology Helps with Recovery which has been well received. As the author of hundreds of articles and presentations, Botterill has helped popularize ‘health and performance psychology’ and has enjoyed opportunities to contribute to the areas of medicine, law, mental health, business, education, nursing, the performing arts, and the media.