Luciane Cardassi is a versatile pianist and creative artist. For over 20 years she has been exploring the contemporary music world through collaboration and performance. Her irrepressible enthusiasm for these realms leads to concert programs offering an array of innovative and stimulating works for piano - pieces which often include her voice, electronics, video, improvisation, and storytelling. Luciane is an avid supporter of new music from her home country, Brazil, as well as her adopted country, Canada. She has dual citizenship, proud of her contributions to the music scenes in both countries, bringing their music to the international milieu.  Beyond performing the music being created today, Luciane also researches and performs major piano pieces of the 20th Century for new audiences. Luciane Cardassi holds a Doctorate in Contemporary Music from the University of California, San Diego. Her main teachers have been Aleck Karis, Ney Fialkow, Celso Loureiro Chaves, Antonio Carlos Borges Cunha, and her piano teacher of many years, Heloisa Zani, a major influence upon Luciane's music making. Her artistic practice has been generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, CAPES Brazil Foundation and The Banff Centre. Luciane recently returned to her home in Banff, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, after a very successful two-year Visiting Professorship at the Federal University of Bahia, UFBA, in Salvador, Brazil.