Choral maestro Andrew Balfour pursues his Indigenous identity through music GlobeArts
Cree composer Andrew Balfour, seen at the Forks in Winnipeg, is the founder and artistic director of the Winnipeg based 14-member vocal group Camerata Nova.There are things you expect to hear from a classical-music composer like Andrew Balfour: that he grew up singing in a church choir. That he began playing an instrument at an early age – in his case, trumpet. That while other kids were grinding out guitar licks, miming Bruce Springsteen or David Bowie , Balfour was air-conducting Beethoven.
It’s a far cry from Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus and the rest of the Western canon that dominates choral programming in North America. And for Canadian choir directors, that may be what’s most exciting about Balfour’s work. He’s drawing on his First Nations identity to nudge the Canadian classical-music scene out of its stodgy Eurocentric traditions.
But as Balfour grew older, he’d struggled, and become conflicted and confused about his identity. Attention-deficit disorder made focusing on schoolwork difficult. He dropped out of Brandon University after a year, plagued by growing pangs of isolation. His parents had relocated to British Columbia, and the move intensified feelings of abandonment that gnawed at him when he thought about his Cree background and his separation from his birth mother.
The answer didn’t come that night, but he recalls a profound sense of feeling protected, as if something was watching over him and the other men attending the lodge. A message of sorts arrived about a week later, when he had what he describes as a vision: It felt like a near-death experience, he says, in which he was visited by people he’d known throughout his life, who spoke to him.
David Fallis, interim director of the Mendelssohn Choir, says he became interested in him after hearing Toronto’s Trinity St.-Paul’s United Church choir perform. When he began researching the composer’s work, he marvelled at Balfour’s range: “He has an Indigenous perspective on many things, but he is so knowledgeable about many styles of choral music. He might use Cree text in one piece, but then another piece that I was drawn to was written in Scots Gaelic.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Inuit performers decry cultural appropriation in upcoming Indigenous Music AwardsPerformers including Tanya Tagaq, Kathleen Merritt, Piqsiq and Kelly Fraser accused Connie LeGrande – a.k.a. Cikwes – with cultural appropriation after she was nominated in the folk-music category at the awards
Read more »
Major Vancouver housing planned for Indigenous land at Burrard bridgeAbout 3,000 housing units could be built in a project that promises to answer some of the region’s urgent housing needs at the same time it presents a test of reconciliation
Read more »
Maclean's writer Kyle Edwards named top emerging Indigenous journalists - Macleans.caAn insightful new voice in Canadian journalism is recognized with a CAJ award for his outstanding work in 2018 on First Nations' and other issues
Read more »
Long way home: For Indigenous youth, an epic road trip brings them back to their rootsFor many northwestern Ontario students, going to high school means leaving their First Nation communities and families for Thunder Bay. This is their journey back
Read more »
Winnipeg Man Convicted For 2016 Murder Of Indigenous WomanBrett Overby testified that he doesn't remember killing Christine Wood. A jury found him guilt of second-degree murder.
Read more »
Chris Selley: ‘Self-declared’ Indigenous inmates continue to make a mockery of our prison systemNewly minted Métis inmates include Casper Ouimet, a senior Hells Angels leader. His Indigenous ancestry is 13 generations old
Read more »
Jury finds Winnipeg man guilty of second-degree murder in Indigenous woman’s deathBrett Ronald Overby admitted to killing Christine Wood, but his lawyer was asking for a manslaughter conviction because Overby said he didn’t remember what happened and didn’t mean to harm her
Read more »
Winnipeg man guilty of murder in Indigenous woman's deathA Winnipeg man has been convicted of murdering an Indigenous woman in what Crown prosecutors have called a crime worse than any horror movie.
Read more »
Man accused of killing Indigenous woman testifies that he 'just snapped'A man accused of killing an Indigenous woman in Manitoba after a night of drinking and sex told a jury Monday that she came at him with a knife and he blacked out.
Read more »