Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Honours Indigenous Veterans In A Remembrance Day Streamed Program

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir honours and remembers Canada's Indigenous Veterans in a Remembrance Day streamed multi-disciplinary program

The TMC, under conductor Simon Rivard, is joined by composer and guest curator Andrew Balfour, and Elder Dr. Duke Redbird for a program that brings together choral music, poetry and dance.

The centre piece of the program is Andrew Balfour's Notinikew. Movements of the work will be sung by Andrew's Winnipeg-based Camerata Nova and by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

Andrew says of this choral drama:

"Notinikew is an anti-war piece, an Indigenous identity piece - a tragedy that speaks not just about World War I, but all wars and all Indigenous soldiers. Why did these Indigenous warriors leave our forests and plains to enter a totally foreign military world and end up fighting in the midst of a true hell on earth? "

Of Cree descent, Winnipeg-based composer Andrew Balfour is an innovative composer, conductor, singer, and sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, and orchestral works, including Mamachimowin, commissioned by the TMC for its 125th anniversary gala.

Dr. Duke Redbird is an elder, poet, activist, educator, and artist. With a legacy stretching back to the 1960s, he is a pillar of First Nations literature in Canada, and has practiced a number of art disciplines including poetry, painting, theatre, and film.

To create this program in a time of enhanced Covid-19 restrictions, the TMC has brought together a number of different elements to tell the story: virtual performances with choir, cello and dance created for this concert; recorded performances from pre-Covid-19 concerts by the TMC and by Camerata Nova; and an "In Conversation" segment recorded in person in October with Simon Rivard, Andrew Balfour and Elder Dr. Duke Redbird.

Notinikew (Going to War) - a Program of Remembrance
A choral perspective of Canada's Indigenous Veterans

Remembrance Day, November 11, 2020
8 pm EST

Streamed on Livestream: https://livestream.com/tmchoir/remembrance

Concert details: https://www.tmchoir.org/202021-season/remembrance/

This concert is free to view (as are all TMC online programs this season). Suggested donation: $20.

Artists:

Simon Rivard, conductor

Andrew Balfour, guest curator

Elder Dr. Duke Redbird

Ted Dykstra, artistic producer

Cris Derkson, cello

Brian Solomon, dance

Camerata Nova, with
Mel Braun, conductor
Andrew Balfour, soloist
Cris Derkson, cello
Cory Campbell, traditional Ojibway drummer-singer
Winnipeg Boys' Choir

Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir with
David Fallis, conductor

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir

Program:

A Dish with One Spoon, Duke Redbird

Ambe (Come In), Andrew Balfour

Notinikew (Going to War), Andrew Balfour
- Calling All Okicitawak (Warriors)
- Anthem for a Doomed Youth
- I Went to War
- Kookum (Grandmother) - Help me

Stolen Child, Duke Redbird

How they so softly rest, Healey Willan

In Paradisum from the Requiem, Gabriel Fauré