She is a poet and the daughter of the Canadian composer and flautist Robert Aitken (1939-).

Robert Morris Aitken was born on August 28, 1939, in Kentville, Nova Scotia.

He is a Canadian composer and flautist. He began his career as a teenager playing in many orchestras, notably becoming the youngest principal flautist in the history of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1958 at the age of 19. He studied flute with Nicolas Fiore, Marcel Moyse, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Andre Jaunet, Severino Gazzelloni, and Hubert Barwahser. In 1971, he abandoned ensemble performance to pursue a highly successful solo career. He has appeared as a soloist with major symphony orchestras throughout North America, Europe and Asia and has made over 40 commercial recordings. Aitken has played with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, CBC Symphony Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He is the Co-Artistic Director of New Music Concerts in Toronto. He has also done classical and contemporary music (along with eminent harpist Erica Goodman) on BIS Records. From 1988 to 2004, Aitken was a member of the music faculty at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. He is also a former faculty member of the University of Toronto (1960–1975) and the Shawinigan Summer School of Arts (1972–1982) and was director of advanced studies in music at the Banff Centre from 1985 to 1989. In 1993, Aitken was made a Member of the Order of Canada, and in 2003, he received National Flute Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

A.J. Johnson and Co. was a publishing company. Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884) was an American map publisher. In 1860, the Johnson firm published its first significant work, the Johnson’s New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas. In addition to the Family Atlas, Johnson issued numerous wall maps, pocket maps, and, in the 1880s, the Cyclopedia. Johnson frequently updated his western atlas maps, and on occasion, more than one update appeared in a single year. Johnson continued to publish the Family Atlas until 1887. In 1879, Johnson brought his son into the business, and their publications have the imprint “A.J. Johnson and Son” and, later, “A.J. Johnson and Co.” Johnson’s son continued the business until it shuttered in 1887.

Cosimo Carlo Ajmone Marsan was born on January 2, 1918, in Cossato Verc, Italy.

He was an American physician. He was chief of the Clinical Neurosciences Branch, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (1954-1979) and professor of neurology at the University of Miami Medical School. He also was on the faculty of G.W.U. School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Before joining NINCDS, Dr. Ajmone Marsan taught neurophysiology at McGill University and directed a laboratory of neurophysiology at the Montreal Neurological Institute, where he had previously been a Rockefeller Fellow. A graduate of the University of Turin Medical School and later certified by the American Board of Electroencephalographers, he wrote over 100 publications, including two monographs. Throughout his career, Dr. Ajmone Marsan was active in several professional organizations and served as their president. He was the director of symposia of the UNESCO International Brain Research Organization. Dr. Ajmone Marsan was a leading figure in epilepsy research and care for over half a century. His contributions to both clinical and basic science aspects of epilepsy have been monumental. Dr. Ajmone Marsan has trained numerous students from all over the world into distinguished epileptologists.

He died on August 31, 2004, in Biella, Italy.

Hashem Akbari was born on August 13, 1949, in Iran.

He is an Iranian-American professor of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec. He received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley in 1979 and became a U.S. citizen in 1991. In 2009, he joined Concordia University, where he founded a comprehensive laboratory to measure solar spectral reflectance and thermal emittance of common construction materials. Prior to joining Concordia University, he was a senior scientist and the leader of the Heat Island Group at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) at the University of California (from 1983 to 2009). In 1985, he founded the Urban Heat Island (UHI) group, where he worked in the areas of heat-island quantification, mitigation, and novel techniques in the analysis of energy use in buildings and industry in the United States and abroad. He contributed to the development of several international standards and was the author of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (2007 Nobel Peace Prize). Akbari is one of the founding organizers of the Global Cool Cities Alliance (vice Chairman of the Board, Technical committee chair), the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) (Ex-Officio Board Member, International Committee Chair), and the European Cool Roof Council (ECPR) (Ex-Officio Board Member).

Ambrose Akinmusire was born on May 1, 1982, in Oakland, California.

He is an American avant-garde jazz composer and trumpeter. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Southern California (M.A.) and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles. In 2007, he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world. The same year, he released his debut recording, Prelude... to Cora (Fresh Sound New Talent label). He moved to New York City and began performing with Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding, and Jason Moran. He participated in Moran's innovative multimedia concert event, "In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall, 1957." He caught the attention of Bruce Lundvall, then President of Blue Note Records and made his debut on the Blue Note label in 2011 with the album When the Heart Emerges Glistening. His third album, "The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint," was released in 2014. The album "Origami Harvest" was included in The New York Times' Best Jazz of 2018. His sixth studio album, "On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment" (2020), received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Akinmusire received the 2014 North Sea Jazz Festival's Paul Acket Award, the Doris Duke Artist, and the Doris Duke Impact Awards.

Toshiko Akiyoshi was born on December 12, 1929, in Liaoyang, Manchuria, China.

She is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. In 1952, during a tour of Japan, pianist Oscar Peterson discovered her playing in a club on the Ginza. In 1953, she recorded her first album with Peterson's rhythm section: Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on double bass, and J. C. Heard on drums. The album was released with the title “Toshiko's Piano” in the U.S. and “Amazing Toshiko Akiyoshi” in Japan. In the 1950s, he studied jazz at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. In 1998, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music from Berklee, then known as the Berklee College of Music. Akiyoshi’s Japanese heritage is distinctly present in her music and sets her compositions apart from other jazz musicians. She received many awards, e.g., Jazz Album of the Year: Long Yellow Road, Stereo Review (1976), NEA Jazz Master (2007) and multiple Grammy nominations (1976-1994). Akiyoshi also received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, 2004.