(They/Them/Theirs: Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation) Olivia Shortt is a Tkarón:to-based multi-disciplinary performing artist. They are a saxophonist, vocalist, noisemaker, improviser, composer, sound designer, curator, and producer.
Highlights for Olivia include their film debut playing saxophone & acting in Atom Egoyan’s 2019 film Guest of Honour; their Lincoln Center (NYC) debut with the International Contemporary Ensemble; their Australian debut performing with keyboardist Jacob Abela in Melbourne; and recording an album two kilometres underground with their duo Stereoscope in the SnoLAB (a Neutrino Lab in Northern Ontario, Canada).
As a Metcalf Performing Arts Intern in Producing, they were mentored by Brittany Ryan, Producer of Nightswimming and General Manager of Signal Theatre. They have been named a 2020 cohort member of Why Not Theatre's ThisGEN Fellowship in Sound Design and are presenting their work 'ishkwe-ayi'ii' as part Upintheair Theatre's e-Volver festival in June 2020.
Their most recent works include 'Mana-Hatta', a musical land acknowledgement created in collaboration with the students of Face The Music in NYC, composition and sound design for plays 'Welcome To My Underworld', as well as 'Brain Storm'. Olivia is currently in the 2019-2021 JACK Studio and is working on a new composition 'the body remembers' to be premiered in 2021 for the quartet.
As an activist, they are alumni of the 2018 cohort of the artEquity facilitator training program (New Orleans, LA), as well as the 2019 Toronto Arts Council’s Leaders Lab and was a lead organizer and co-founded the Toronto Creative Music Lab (TCML). www.olivia-shortt.com