Roadtrip to Winnipeg Folk Fest Prep

I consider myself a relative newcomer to the Folk Fest crowd. I didn't grow up in the Folk Festival culture. My first Folk Festival experience was at the 2005 Edmonton Folk Music Festival. My family never attended any outdoor music festivals even though extra-curricular music studies were valued. I can still hear my mother questioning my sanity for being willing to sit outside all day in the sun just to listen to music and feed the mosquitoes. I was reluctant to purchase my first weekend pass. I thought I would buy the evening ticket to ease my transition to the folkie world. However, lured by the peer pressure of more folkie-oriented friends, I decided to purchase a four-day pass since I was guaranteed that the afternoon workshop sessions are "where the magic happens". I have not looked back.

During my Edmonton Folk Fest attendance over the years, I began to notice a continuing trend of Winnipeg inspiration. It is a location that has cultivated many Canadian talents and provide inspirations to other Artists. Danny Michel recorded his live album at the Winnipeg West End Cultural Centre and one of the lines from Dala's song Anywhere Under the Moon is: "The last power line, my cell phone died/I don't even know your number/So I drive all the way to Winnipeg." Even local Winnipeg band, The Weakerthans, communicates the poignant phrase, "I hate Winnipeg," in their song One Great City. From my perspective, Winnipeg has a mystical music quality to it.
 

What is it about this prairie community that has captured the hearts of so many singer/songwriters? What is it about the Winnipeg Arts scene where it is able to generate such talent? My goal this next week is to investigate the allure of the Winnipeg Folk Fest. I will be traveling with my fellow Edmonton folkie, Twila, to the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Neither of us have been to the Winnipeg Folk Festival before. We will update readers on our roadtrip and festival experiences this week through tweets, posts, and pictures. Follow us in our experiences as we adventure beyond Gallagher Hill towards Birds Hill Provincial Park.

Follow @soundnnoise and @misssable for live tweets throughout the week.

Cross-posted on the Sound + Noise.

Take a Listen

National Youth Choir 2012, Ottawa Podium

I never thought I would be at the age where I begin prefacing my statements with: “When I was young…” but… when I was young… there was no such thing as live-streaming. Computers were luxury items. I remember the comforting sound of the ink cartridge spitting from my DOS printer, the satisfying tear while ripping the perforated edges off my stream of printer paper, and the highly pixelated desktop from my Windows 95. 

When I entered the earlier incarnations of this very choral competition, there was a transient beauty to the process. Our choir would submit a recording entry, and if we were chosen to be a finalist, we were entered into the finals round where we could compete with another choir live on radio. Afterward, the only way to hear our performance would be to get to our stereos, put in a cassette tape, and record the time-delayed live radio broadcast. I remember actually going through my cassette tapes, rewinding them, and evaluating my emotional connection to its prior contents before taping over them. There are no such concerns with the Association of Canadian Choral Communities National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs because all tracks are available for live-streaming whenever you want. Thus, this current choral competition introduces a sense of permanency and the ability to share Canadian Choral music to larger audiences.

I happen to be making my guest blogger debut on CBC Music. Open up the slideshow to read my thoughts and song picks for the finalists in the three Youth Choir categories.

 

voces boreales, Ottawa Podium 2012

Live-streaming is a luxury because it grants choirs a platform to showcase the fine singing that is occurring across Canada. All choir entrants are a click of a button away for your own personal listening. Whether you agree or disagree with the comments I have made above, the most important thing is for you to take a listen and see what you think for yourself. A listener does not require a specialized degree in choral pedagogy to appreciate choral music. The beauty of music is that it has the ability to universally move us all. I encourage you all to take a listen to the fine singers in all the choral categories. They deserve to be heard.

Road to the Isles

Dawn Bailey, Soprano; Susan Toman, Harpsichord and Celtic harpist. Photo: supplied.

Ensemble Seraphina, a vibrant new duo, composed of Soprano, Dawn Bailey, and Susan Toman on Harpsichord and Celtic Harp, offers a musical fusion of chamber music and traditional folk melodies from the Isles. Toman's decisive harpsichord and harp clarity paired with Bailey's lilting voice results in raw and honest storytelling essential in the performance of traditional music. Edmonton audiences will have the chance to hear the music form their newly released, Road to the Isles, C.D., this Friday. Learn more about Ensemble Seraphina below as Dawn Bailey discusses the origins of Ensemble Seraphina and their goal of presenting a musical chronology of inspiration in their Road to the Isles concerts that will take them from Alberta this month to the East Coast of Canada in July.

What can audiences expect from performances this weekend?

The concert repertoire really is very relevant for both locations, though, as it gives a glimpse into some of the cultural and musical roots that many Canadians can trace part their heritage to - that of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The programme is entitled "Road to the Isles" and it mainly focuses on the folk songs and chamber music that came out of England, Scotland, and Ireland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but also has connections to music that was and continues to be prevalent in the folk tradition of Canada's own eastern Isles.

Both Susan and yourself have unique musical specialties , what sparked this musical collaboration?

Susan is a harpsichordist first, and a harpist second, and we've worked together before on numerous Baroque projects. It turns out that both of us have had a secret longing to perform Celtic music for years, because one day when I came into her house for a rehearsal (of Baroque repertoire) I saw her Celtic harp in the corner and said that I'd love to sing with her playing the harp someday! We put together a programme of music for Christmas and performed a house concert in Montreal, and had such a positive response from the audience that we decided to keep going and form the Ensemble Seraphina. The fact that we both have experience in both styles gives our interpretations a flexibility and uniqueness that not many other Celtic groups have - in this concert we are performing not only folk music, but also chamber music that was written by composers who were living in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries whose music was inspired by the folk traditions of the time.

Is there a difference with performing with harp vs. other instruments?

There is something very wonderful and intimate about singing with the harp. It is an instrument that has inspired the creation of many myths and stories, since the sound of the harp can evoke such intense emotions of longing or wistfulness, or love. We will be telling some of these stories and reading poems during the concert as well, to try to give audiences more of an idea about the mythical origins of the instrument in addition to what they hear.

What is your favorite part of performing traditional music?

My favorite part of performing traditional music is that there aren't so many rules! It is very expected that the performer will make a folk song his or her own, whereas many pieces that are included in the Classical canon or are very well-known have some very specific "traditional" requirements from performers, which might not always fit with their own vision for the piece. I love the freedom that comes with performing folk music -- it is definitely different each time we perform!

Do you feel any pressure to reinvent or adapt traditional music for modern audiences?

Rather than reinventing or readapting any of the traditional music, what we are doing here is presenting it alongside music by Purcell, Byrd, and other Baroque composers who were inspired by this traditional music in their compositions. So rather than adapting it in a more modern way for modern audiences, we are kind of doing the opposite -- presenting it in more of a historical context than folk music often is presented. And ironically, this makes it all the more relevant to people today, because it becomes clear that themes of love and loss and childhood are still as present today as they were then.

Any particular piece you are looking forward to most in the performance?

There's one piece that we added near the end of our planning for this concert, and then we ended up naming the concert after it! "Road to the Isles" is a really fun and toe-tapping piece that we are doing right before intermission and it is sure to bring a smile to everyone's face!

Any concluding thoughts you would like to add?

We are performing another version of this concert on Saturday at noon in Camrose, and it also includes lunch. This is a very special concert since it is taking place at the Open Door Cafe Connections, which is an organization that helps to provide youth at risk with work opportunities. All the proceeds from this Camrose concert are being donated to the PEER Youth Connections program.
We will have our brand new CD, Road to the Isles, available for sale at both concerts!

Ticket information:
Holy Trinity Anglican Church (10037 84 Ave NW)
Friday, June 7, 2013 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20 at the door or through Tix on the Square

Behind Behind-the-Scenes

There is a story behind every story and my behind-the-scenes series for Edmonton Opera is no exception.

It all began with one photo:

As I discussed in my Epilogue post after finishing Tales of Hoffmann, this photo signaled my transformation from a choir girl into a chorus carnie. While others may be able to seamlessly adopt a new persona with no loss of self, it was foreign to me to negotiate the presence of two characters. I felt an internal conflict to stay grounded, while allowing myself to indulge narcissistic tendencies. However, Opera is indulgence. Everything about Opera is excess: personalities, voices, costumes, sets, wigs, make-up... there is nothing demure about this Art form. I recognized the need to change my mindset. I am not portraying myself on stage. I am portraying a character. Yes, I amplify my own characteristics and draw upon personal experiences to motivate my character, in order to convey a story on stage but, ultimately, that is not the person I play in daily life.

In real life, I play the character of myself. It is a role I know well. I have spent many years fine-tuning my craft, developing my skills, personality, and style. I have not had to stray from this template... until I entered Opera Chorus. Suddenly, there was a team of professionals whose sole job was to transform me. As a performer, you become a vessel for character habitation. A performer's metamorphosis allows them to communicate with an audience. I realize now that I should not be wary of the transformative attention that Opera fosters, but rather, I should embrace the opportunity to try on another character. Who knows, maybe it is a better fit than the role I currently play. We are all changing as people. Opera creates an escapist world where you become somebody else. Even though my identity was shaken at some points throughout the process, I have come out of this season with a better sense of self. I also recognize that the audience does not see this transformation process.

Thus, this series of behind-the-scenes previews document the transformation process of the performers during Edmonton Opera's Eugene Onegin. It is not something that can be visualized in a three and a half hour performance viewing. There is so much to see, learn, and understand throughout a process like this. Therefore, the photo of a Choir Girl's narcissistic fascination with her own reflection is what inspired the series of previews. My goal was to take audiences behind-the-scenes of the Opera world by embracing audio interviews, writing, and photography by Nanc Price to capture the production process, run-throughs, and technical rehearsals.

It is important to note the human component of Opera. There is a real sense of play. For the performers, as well as Nanc and I documenting the process. We all enjoy posing for photos, getting up to antics backstage, and we are all addicted to our smartphones.

Enjoy the conclusion of this behind behind-the-scenes post as Nanc and I accepted the challenge to capture the world behind the curtain.

BTW: Tickets are still available to the final performance of Edmonton Opera's Eugene Onegin this evening.

 

Photography by Nanc Price

-Thanks-

To all the staff and performers at Edmonton Opera who were generous enough to open the backstage doors to a Choir Girl and Mad Scientist to indulge our Artistic vision. I value the trust and freedom you granted us. Thank-you.

To my fellow collaborator, Mad Scientist during the day and photographer by night, Nanc Price. Thanks for your patience with me as I solidified my artistic vision for this series, providing constant photographic inspiration for posts, and your speedy ability to edit down the 1800 pictures you would obtain from one shoot in order to not overwhelm a Choir Girl.