A show five years in the making finally happened at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre on the weekend.
Connections featured the Yellowknife groups of Aurora Chorealis and Fireweed Children’s Chorus join forces with Oran, a member of the Korora Choirs Association from Edmonton, for two shows on Saturday. The performance also featured music from Munya Mataruse, a Zimbabwean artist now living in Yellowknife.
“I saw (Mataruse’s) performance three years ago and I thought ‘Wow, what a personality’,” said Margo Nightingale, musical director with Aurora Chorealis.
The idea for the concert was inspired by previous collaborations involving Aurora Chorealis and Nightingale believes that through connections such as that, people can navigate a range of emotions as well as how music can connect and build communities.
When it comes to the title, Nightingale said the theme is the connection between Aurora Chorealis and the children’s chorus
“They usually collaborate on at least one song per performance, and it’s great to see different age groups collaborating together,” she said.
Katy Luyk, Oran’s conductor, said she heard a performance involving both of the Yellowknife groups seven years ago when she came to the city and that was when she made the decision to bring Oran to sing with them together.
It was the first time in Yellowknife for most of her members, she added.
One of the songs performed by Oran was composed by Stuart Beatch of Edmonton, who wrote the text based on a poem titled A Boy and a Girl’, but was altered to A Boy and a Boy as a story between two men.
In all, 120 performers were expected to be on stage with songs in languages such as English, Ojibwe and isiZulu.