Canadian Chamber Choir

Where Waters Meet World Premiere

Juno-nominated ensemble Canadian Chamber Choir visits Yellowknife for the first time! Feature concert on Saturday October 12 2019, 7:30, Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (UPDATED VENUE IS NOW NACC).

Special features include local guest artists Wesley Hardisty (Dene fiddler) and Aurora Chorealis (community choir), conducting fellow Margo Nightengale, and two aspiring young Yellowknife choristers.

The Canadian Chamber Choir will premiere Where Water’s Meet, a new choral composition by Carmen Braden. A synopsis from the Choir of the project below, and read about the detailed artistic journey here.

As an organization, we are striving to learn from Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing, and to use our art to engage actively with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s Calls to Action.  

 In acknowledging (re)conciliation as action-based, the CCC has commissioned Yellowknife composer Carmen Braden to compose a multi-movement work about water from both non-Indigenous and Indigenous perspectives. The piece, entitled Where Waters Meet (WWM), includes texts by the composer, by the singers, and by Indigenous poet Yolanda Bonnell. 

Yolanda Bonnell, who is from Fort William First Nation Indian Reserve in Thunder Bay, is an emerging performer and playwright of Ojibwe and South Asian descent. Two of Yolanda’s poems are set to music in Where Waters Meet: Nibi (which means ‘water’ in Ojibwe) and McIntyre, which refers to the McIntyre River that runs through Thunder Bay, Ontario. The McIntyre is also called the River of Tears because of the history of violence against Indigenous peoples there. Since 2000, seven Indigenous youth have been pulled from the river. 

Where Waters Meet contains aleatoric elements and will continually bring in different voices and engage with local issues of water in each place we visit.