BioGRAPHY
Hannah Burgé Luviano (Métis Nation Ontario, Georgian Bay Métis community) is an Orillia-born artist and ethnomusicologist, currently residing in Toronto, Canada. She has been a staple of the Ontario music scene as a performer, educator, and arts advocate.
In early years, Hannah was raised in the choral music tradition, performing for decades with a cappella and accompanied choirs. From childhood, Hannah accompanied choirs on piano, and was a bandleader at age 14. She moved to Toronto at age 18 to pursue music as a career. Following a Bachelor’s degree, Hannah began performing with some of Toronto’s most exciting groups, such as the Brazilian batucada Samba Squad, directed by Rick “Shadrach” Lazar, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, led by Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, and with Cameroonian artist Njacko Backo and his Kalimba Kalimba band, eventually forming her Latin Jazz ensemble. She studied bátà drumming with the late acclaimed educator, Michael Marcuzzi, with whom she wrote “Art of Living.” At the same time, Hannah earned a Masters of Arts (Ethnomusicology) at York University and began teaching performance practice at several post-secondary institutions.
In 2014, Hannah Burgé’s debut album, Green River Sessions charted on US College Radio, and received sustained worldwide airplay on more than three hundred stations. Several compositions and arrangements featured NYC Brazilian music vibraphonist and chromatic harmonica legend, Hendrik Meurkens. Hannah headlined the Polanco International Jazz Festival in México City and performed at many music festivals.
She has been featured on numerous media campaigns, including fundraisers for Jazz FM 91.1 and the Stories from Home series by the TD Toronto Jazz Festival. Her video “Serenity” was released by Jazziz Magazine in April 2020, which featured a collaboration with Justin Broadbent (Shad, Metric) and pianist, Robi Botos. In summer 2021, Hannah collaborated with Juno-award winning artist Jocelyn Gould, on the track “Skylark,” memorable for a fresh take on the lyric content.
Hannah’s compositions have garnered international attention, both for her debut album, Green River Sessions, and for the Canadian independent film release, The Devil’s Tail, as well as independent releases. Hannah is co-composer with Paco Luviano for the work, “Espera, Esperanto,” featuring Dorjee Tsering (late) on the 2018 release Kuné: Canada's Global Orchestra (Universal Canada) The track was arranged by Hilario Duran for orchestra and performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and the KW Symphony Orchestra. During the pandemic Hannah was an ethnomusicology and performance practice professor at Humber College and at Western University in London, Ontario. In 2023, Hannah performed again at the Toronto Jazz Festival in a new project, Swingão, which featured Hendrik Muerkens (harmonica), Brazilian drumming legend Portinho, Gord Sheard (piano), and Paco Luviano (bass).
In 2024, Hannah felt keenly the lack of research on music and mental health. She became a facilitator for The Art of Healing Patient Program, a collaboration between the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, supporting the work of the late composer Cris Derksen. In 2025, Hannah became a program consultant for the upcoming Métis-opera, Empire of Wild, with a May 1, 2027 release – with exciting contributions by Métis artists, composer Ian Cusson, and author Cherie Dimaline. In 2026, Hannah graduated with the degree Doctor of Philosophy from Queen’s University (Kingston), and is lauded for her contributions to mambo scholarship for her work on AfroCuban sensation, Dámaso Pérez Prado. She continues to pursue music and mental health research as part of the Shkaabe Makwa research team and ethnomusicology scholarship through research and publications.
With feet in both worlds of performance and research education, Dr. Burgé exceeds expectation.