Joelysa Pankanea

Joelysa Pankanea is a multiple award-winning composer, sound designer and percussionist in Vancouver, British Columbia. Originally from Kenya, East Africa, Joelysa has been composing, directing and performing her original scores for the theatre for the past decade, and more recently for film and animation.

As one of Western Canada’s leading composers, Joelysa has had the pleasure of performing live in all of Vancouver’s largest houses, various alternative venues across Canada, and several international festivals.

Musical directing both musicians and actors alike, and teaching her scores to casts of up to 150 people, she has become one of the most acclaimed and respected professionals in her field. Having majored in composition, with focus on world music, jazz and classical, she fell upon the theatre world quite by chance. Within two years, she had won her first Jessie Richardson award for outstanding composition and cemented her place in Canadian theatre history as one of the youngest musical directors and composers.