2026 Emerging Artists

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  Emerging Artist

  Marjan

  Marjan is a Winnipeg-based indie pop artist crafting emotionally honest songs that blend vulnerable storytelling with melody. Drawing from her experience as the daughter of Afghan refugees, her music explores identity, resilience, grief, love, and healing through a deeply human lens.

  Influenced by artists like Lizzy McAlpine, Justin Nozuka, Nina Simone, and Billie Eilish, Marjan creates intimate performances that invite audiences to slow down, reflect, and connect. Her songwriting is rooted in the belief that music can bridge differences, foster empathy, and remind us that our stories are often more alike than they seem.

  Outside of music, Marjan is completing a Master's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, where she researches the role of music in healing and peacebuilding. That same commitment to connection carries through every performance, creating an experience that is both personal and universal.

  With a voice that is both soft and powerful, Marjan is an emerging artist to watch, bringing authenticity, heart, and quiet strength to every stage.

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  Emerging Artist

  Tim Cruly

  Tim Cruly was born & raised in Winnipeg's Northend & Elmwood areas & his home Little Saskatchewan First Nations Manitoba. Tim has been playing in various Wpg based bands for over 25 years with his solo act/ band called Troubadour & also with a great friends/collaborators guitarist Darin Anderson and his cousin & drummer Clint Anderson of band named, The Mosquitoz they formed a band in 1992 and hit the road to The Pas Mb where they played constantly at bars like The Gateway, The Wascana and also The Thomson Inn in Thompson Mb. and many others in the Manitoba north Tim Cruly has written songs for other artists such as Mezzo Soprano Rhonda Head who recorded his Fallings Not Goodbye in 2022, and his song You're Not Really Gone is on the Setlist of Ontario Indie band The Sun Kings and they perform his song regularly at various Canadian music festivals.

  Tim has released 6 songs on Apple Music & all musical online affiliates. In 1998 Tim was in a competition to perform at Dauphin Country Fest & finished in the top 3 and was able to perform with the band The Joyner Brothers at Dauphin Country Fest 1998 and won the "Best New Artist Bursary" from The Manitoba Association of Country Arts in 1998 along with a MACA Award.

  Tim is constantly working and writing new musical ideas and has toured extensively in Northern Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC most recently. His goal is to finish recording a full or EP about the "ups and downs of love and life and gigging from town to town" from a indigenous perspective playing every bar they could get into during the early years in 92.

  Since '92 Tim has been writing a double CD called The Sounds of Rain Volume One & Volume Two. He released The Sounds of Rain Volume One in 2020. Mainly the music of this double CD collection tells the story of the life of a Troubadour, an acoustic guitar player who spends his life writing songs about the places he plays and the people he meets and falling in and out of love along the way and the regrets he may still carry. Tim feels he is ready to finish Volume two this year if everything goes well and it is he says.

  Hopeful for a release party in the Spring 2027 but he will have his newest song for Showcase called "Indian Summer" ready for new listeners to his music. A nostalgic retro sounding gem with a great beat called Indian Summer!

  Tim writes his music mainly on guitar an piano and plays all the piano and acoustic guitars on all his recorded studio music. He has a small catalogue of original music of over 50 songs and rising everyday! He had more but they ended up in his idea drawer, He lives to write and create and searching a new sound to help tell the next musical story.

  Tim has played the casinos around Manitoba and Saskatchewan and still play bar gigs locally. He hope to write music that will inspire other people, not looking for fame or fortune but would just like to entertain people with his "energetic musical story telling style" using pop rock and country fusion to write memorable sing-a-long type melodies and chorus's.

  On a side note Tim just recently starred in the Winnipeg shot Feature Film called Amber Alert by Winnipeg award winning Director Noam Gonnick. He was asked to go to a audition for a small one line part and went home with the third most lines in the new movie being released in the fall of 2026 with a Premier event being set for viewing in a downtown theatre. The movie is a true story of Jordan Bruyure a teenage boy who gets kidnapped by a unscrupulous houseguest that the step dad brings home who played by Tim Cruly. The story takes a very dramatic turn as the houseguest uses Jordan to kidnap another child in Saskatchewan. The story has a happy ending with the RCMP cornering the kidnapper and his saving the two boys holed up in Saskatchewan farmhouse. .

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  Emerging Artist

  The Ranger System

  The Ranger System is a queer, Filipino system of seven unique identities, of which three are musicians. Between the rapping red ranger, the producing black ranger, and the keyboard-playing silver ranger, the three identities work in constant collaboration to create family-friendly, superhero and videogame inspired cinematic hip-hop, focusing on topics ranging from mental health awareness to coming of age and the celebration of one's culture.

  Classically trained in Royal Conservatory of Music for piano, with a civil engineering major and a minor in hip-hop production and popular musicology, the system combines the skills developed in all facets of their life to perform, manage, do outreach, and design for their musical needs, showcasing their high energy music with a keyboard on wheels.

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  Emerging Artist

  Ingrid Aubrey

  Born and raised in Winnipeg Manitoba, Ingrid Aubrey is a Concious Singer Songwriter with Indigenous and East Indian roots who delivers a blend of acoustic rock and an element of pop that delivers a burst of feelings in her listeners.

  She delivers lyrics that connect, with her sweet yet sultry & soulful raspy voice, while her duo partner Bryan Sanders captivates you with his stylistic melodies, both drawing you in in a way that soothes your soul.

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  Emerging Artist

  Mary Diosa

  Most people call me Diosa. I am a Filipino, single mother in her 40s and an IT professional. I have been performing in various community events, festivals, concerts and solo shows. I perform as a solo artist, as part of an acoustic duo (dazemusic.ca) and in a band (On Eyr), singing various genres. I believe that music is universal and should be enjoyed by anyone and everyone.

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  Emerging Artist

  Taylor Gibson

  I grew up on a small reserve north of Winnipeg, about two and a half hours away, where all of my family are into music. I always felt like a late bloomer: I didn't pick up a guitar until I was 17 and started singing at 18. I never thought I'd become a musician, or knew I had it in me to perform, but I've been competing in talent shows for the last three years. Now I want to become something more than a competitor. I want to become a performer.