Bios, CV & Headshots
Headshots and CV available for download below, followed by a selection of biographies.
Aliayta Foon-Dancoes is a New York-based, Vancouver-born composer and violinist who grew up in a red house on the East Side. She has made work for concert halls, festivals, galleries, homes, close friends, and the internet. Aliayta is best described as a court jester*, residing at the intersection between disciplines where confrontations, roundabouts, and accidents occur. Her work obsessively fixates on the collision of daily joy and the simultaneous erosion of faith in tomorrow, explored through satire, despair, willful ignorance, desire, and hysteria. Recently, Aliayta has been making cubes - paper cubes, 3D model cubes, and 125 cubes that together made a singular omnicube. Sometimes she sees cubes when they aren’t there.
*The court jester historically was more than a comedian and entertainer, using humour as a form of critique - lampooning authority, and mocking the king.
140 word bio (Preferred)
Aliayta Foon-Dancoes is an award-winning Canadian violinist, composer, and interdisciplinary collaborator based in New York. As a violinist, she has performed with Caroline Shaw and the Attacca Quartet, PUBLIQuartet, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC, and 12 Ensemble, appearing at venues including the Musikverein, Wigmore Hall, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and the Philharmonie de Paris, as well as the BBC Proms. Her performance credits also include appearances on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In fall 2026, she will perform with the Philip Glass Ensemble in the role of Einstein for the 50th anniversary production of Einstein on the Beach at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
As a composer, Aliayta has been commissioned by the Katarina Quartet, SALT New Music Festival, Unheard-of Ensemble, Talla Rouge, and Bang on a Can, and has written for ensembles including the Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, TAK, and Becca Stevens. Her recent awards include the NewBassoon Composition Prize (2026), a 2026 Hildegard Commission Finalist, the Lake George Music Festival Call for Scores (winner, 2026), the SOCAN Foundation Young Canadian Composers Award (2025), and the Second Story Initiative Commission Winner (2025).
Aliayta has recorded on Esmerine’s Juno Award-winning album Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More and, with her sister Rebecca Foon, co-wrote the soundtrack for One & One Other, a film commissioned by the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Collaborations include work with Patti Smith and Pathway to Paris, performances alongside Patrick Watson at Live at Lost River, and a tour of Phases, a live violin and multi-channel sound performance co-created with the London-based new media design studio Kai Lab.
Aliayta holds a BA from the University of Victoria and an MA from the Royal Academy of Music, and she has held chamber music fellowships at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music (London). She is currently undertaking a PhD in Composition at Princeton University.
350 word bio
Aliayta Foon-Dancoes is an award-winning Canadian violinist, composer, and interdisciplinary collaborator based in New York. She has performed with Caroline Shaw and the Attacca Quartet, PUBLIQuartet, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC, and 12 Ensemble, and has appeared on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In fall 2026, she will perform as Einstein with the Philip Glass Ensemble in a production of Einstein on the Beach.
Aliayta has received commissions from SALT Festival, the Katarina Quartet, and Unheard-of Ensemble, and has written for ensembles including the Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion and TAK. Her awards include the 2026 NewBassoon Composition Prize, the 2026 Lake George Music Festival Call for Scores, and the 2025 SOCAN Foundation Young Canadian Composers Award.
She holds a BA from the University of Victoria, an MA from the Royal Academy of Music, and is pursuing a PhD in Composition at Princeton University.
150 word bio
