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Browsing: Indigenous
In the company of the Luminous Voices vocal ensemble, Andrew Balfour presents Ispiciwin, a new album of compositions inspired by Cree texts.
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Buffy Sainte-Marie (Photo by Denise Grant)
The country is wondering about the identity of singer-songwriter and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie after a new CBC investigation that contradicts her decades-old claims to Indigenous heritage.
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Inuktitut Elisapie Bonsound, September 2023 Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, Going to California by Led Zeppelin, Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones, The Unforgiven by Metallica, I Want to Break Free by Queen, Heart of Glass by Blondie, Born to Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez. These are just some of the classics reinterpreted in Inuktitut by Quebec native artist Elisapie on her new album, produced by Joe Grass. The 10 chosen hits, translated and adapted into Elisapie’s mother tongue, evoke emotionally-charged moments from her youth in her community of Salluit, Nunavik. The result is a highly personalized artistic…
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International First Peoples’ Festival Fans of the First Peoples’ Festival (IFPF) can rest assured that they will continue to experience this summer the same elements that have made the festival so popular: the large competitive video film section; concerts that will be creations and commissions—not just touring shows; the visual art section, to be held at La Guilde; and, last but not least, the activities on the Place des Festivals. “Together with Daniel Áñez, who leads No Hay Banda, a group of musicians who also produce events, we have combined our efforts to bring the Chamber Ensemble of the Experimental…
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John Rutter (Photo provided)
It’s back! And it promises to be as big and bold as ever. It’s Music and Beyond, Ottawa’s summer music and arts festival which—every July since its inception in 2010—has blossomed across the capital in a gloriously scatter-cast profusion of musical sounds, styles and intriguing interdisciplinary programming. “The public is ready to return,” says Julian Armour, the festival’s plucky and indefatigable founder and artistic and executive director. “We’re doing a big festival! We’re going to do about 64 different major concerts.” It’s a bracing and welcome assertion of renewal, after the scaled-back famine years of global pandemic. Rock and a…
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Tomson Highway (Credit: Sean Howard)
In the last two years, Cree composer and playwright Tomson Highway has published two books, recorded his newest album Cree Country, won the Governor General’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Theatre, and become an Order of Canada officer. With plenty of passion left, he’s now on a new mission: introducing the country to Cree bossa nova. On July 6, Highway will perform for his second season at Ottawa’s Music and Beyond festival. He last played at its summer 2018 concert, which he called a sign of the music industry’s post-pandemic “resuscitation.” He’s being accompanied by cellist and festival organizer Julian…
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Jim and Owen Adams, an Indigenous father/son duo, keep exploring teachings from the Medicine Wheel in Real People Dancing, soon to be enjoyed again in Toronto's Seaton Village neighbourhood. Picture credit: Porch View Dances
Toronto’s Kaeja d’Dance returns for its 12th year in Toronto’s historic Seaton Village with the award-winning Porch View Dances: Real People Dancing In Real Spaces. The idea behind the Porch View Dances project is to pair non-professional dancers with professional choreographers. After spending some time rehearsing, the new cast eventually invites neighbors to watch the result, paying what they can. People interested to perform have to answer a short questionnaire about themselves and why they want to be involved but no dance background is required: it’s about creating movement and pleasure. Porch View Dances mingle ordinary lives and artistic expression through dance and…
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Hearing new SMCQ artistic director Ana Sokolovic talk about the 2023 Montreal/New Musics (MNM) festival, it’s hard not to get excited. “I joke that the only problem with this festival is that it is in Montreal. It’s because when we go to the festivals very often it’s not in our city, and then we go to spend the entire time in that city. And we’re seeing absolutely everything,” she said. “Everything is happening during the events—during the concerts, but also in between the concerts. During the lunch, during the supper, during the cocktail, having this opportunity to talk with people…
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Medicine is an important element of composer Andrew Balfour’s creative pursuits. “People think of music as a refuge, but music can also be a powerful entry point to healing,” he says. The notion of healing is one close to the Cree composer’s heart. His work is characterized by the combination of polyphony and Indigenous themes related to history and identity. He skilfully pokes holes in the Eurocentric narrative of classical music even as he uses its foundations to explore serious issues. Such a creative instinct has painful roots. As an infant, Balfour was taken away from his Cree mother as…
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