The Desau­tels Fac­ul­ty of Music would like to invite the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba com­mu­ni­ty to a week-long series of events address­ing the inter­sec­tions between Indige­nous artists and music, and West­ern art music, to be held on cam­pus from Octo­ber 29 to Novem­ber 2.

This Indige­nous Inter­sec­tions week is meant to pro­vide a forum for Desau­tels fac­ul­ty mem­bers and stu­dents to crit­i­cal­ly exam­ine music, music stud­ies and our own music fac­ul­ty as a poten­tial site for decol­o­niza­tion, as well as an oppor­tu­ni­ty for fac­ul­ty mem­bers to share their own research and cre­ative works on Indige­nous issues and com­mu­ni­cate our engage­ment to the uni­ver­si­ty at large.

Mark­ing a con­nec­tion with the larg­er Win­nipeg com­mu­ni­ty, this week-long series of events cul­mi­nates in the pre­mière of Win­nipeg Cree com­pos­er Andrew Balfour’s new work Notinikew on Novem­ber 3 and 4 at Cres­cent Fort Rouge Unit­ed Church. This piece will com­mem­o­rate the 100-year Anniver­sary of Armistice and will trace the sto­ry of a Cree sniper who was sent to France as part of a gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tive to recruit Indige­nous hunters for ser­vice in the Cana­di­an Forces. Notinikew will fea­ture Andrew Bal­four (voice), Cris Derk­sen (cel­lo), Mel Braun (con­duc­tor), Cam­er­a­ta Nova and the Win­nipeg Boys’ Choir. It is part of a larg­er pro­gram called Fall­en by Cam­er­a­ta Nova (for which Andrew Bal­four also acts as artis­tic direc­tor), which is Cam­er­a­ta Nova’s sec­ond con­cert ded­i­cat­ed to Truth and Reconciliation.

Dur­ing the week, Andrew Bal­four will also present a video of his work Take the Indi­an: A Vocal Reflec­tion on Miss­ing Chil­dren (2015) on Mon­day, Octo­ber 29 in Eva Clare Hall, fol­lowed by a dis­cus­sion with stu­dents, and on Fri­day, Novem­ber 2 he and cel­list Cris Derk­sen will pair up to per­form scenes from Notinikew on cam­pus the day before the work’s première.

On Wednes­day, Octo­ber 31, guest mez­zo-sopra­no Rebec­ca Hass will per­form a pro­gram titled Explor­ing Métis Her­itage, with pianist pro­fes­sor and inter­im dean Lau­ra Loewen and XIE (Exper­i­men­tal Improv Ensem­ble), as well as teach­ing vocal mas­ter­class­es to Desau­tels voice stu­dents through­out the week.

Eth­no­mu­si­col­o­gist Liz Pryzbyl­s­ki (Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, River­side) will be in Win­nipeg to speak about her research on Indige­nous hip hop. She will join Andrew Bal­four in pre­sent­ing the pre-con­cert lec­ture on Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 3 before the Cam­er­a­ta Nova per­for­mance. Colette Simonot-Maiel­lo, Cather­ine Rob­bins, and Mel Braun will also give infor­mal talks on their research and cre­ative works projects that inter­sect with Indige­nous themes.

Colette Simonot-Maiel­lo (musi­col­o­gy) and Jody Stark (music edu­ca­tion) will pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for both stu­dents and fac­ul­ty to artic­u­late and reflect on issues con­nect­ed with the music heard through­out the week in their class­es. These dis­cus­sions will address a num­ber of relat­ed top­ics, includ­ing the role of music in main­tain­ing colo­nial­ist struc­tures and how it can also be a tool for resis­tance and decol­o­niza­tion, and the Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Com­mis­sion and how its ​‘Calls to Action’ may be fur­ther enact­ed in our music community.

For more infor­ma­tion on Indige­nous Inter­sec­tions Week and for a sched­ule of events, click here.