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Spring 2023 Concert:

NORTH WINDS

 

A concert exploring our relationship with the natural world, framed by three choral works by Manitoba Cree composer, ANDREW BALFOUR

 

Concert date: Sunday May 7, 2023

Music Director: Kathryn Whitney; Assistant Conductor: Kristina Stevens; Pianist and violin soloist: Robert Dukarm

 

All are welcome to sing with us! Click on the Join Us page to take part.

 

Rehearsals start Tuesday, January 17, 2023

 

The Newcombe Singers Spring 2023 program take us on a journey to explore the geography, creatures, and peoples of Northern Turtle Island (Canada) from coast to coast to coast.

Following the rising North wind, we travel over the plains, up to the sky, along the West coast and through the Eastern seaways, exploring how human hearts are shaped by our shared place in the geography, animals, beauties and challenges of the natural world.

 

Our all-Canadian program is designed in three parts, each of which is framed with a piece by Cree composer Andrew Balfour (see side bar for recordings).

 

Part 1 – Abundance

 

  1. Andrew Balfour – Ambe (SATB) – Ojibwe text: ‘Come in, all people!’ – see sidebar
  2.  Stephen Chatman
    1. Trees (SATB): watch
    2. Nor’Easter (SATB): watch
    3. Minke Whale (SATB): watch
    4. Sunset (SATB): watch
  3. Sarah Quartel – Songbird (Sop & Alto only): listen

 

Part 2 –  At Water’s Edge

 

  1. Andrew Balfour – Qilak (SATB) Inuktitut text: ‘Water reflected in the sky at the floe edge’ – see sidebar
  2. Bruce Cockburn, arr. Larry Nickel – All the Diamonds (SATB): listen
  3. Gordon Lightfoot, arr. Alan Dunbar – The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Tenors & Basses only, with Robert Dukarm, violin): watch

 

Part 3 – Transcendence

 

1. Joy Decoursey-Porter – There was the One (SATB). A setting of the Wessobrun prayer about the unity and oneness of all things:  listen

2. Andrew Balfour – Vision Chant (SATB) – Ojibwe text ‘Babamadizwin’ = ‘Journey’ See sidebar.

 

 

 

Ambe – Andrew Balfour

‘Welcome!’

Andrew Balfour’s stunning piece ‘Ambe’ is a hugely uplifting piece with wonderful repetitive cross-rhythms. It is a message of welcome to all people:

 

The Ojibwe text reads: “Come in, two-legged beings, come in all people. There is good life here!”

 


 Click image to hear Ambe sung by The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir

 

Qilak – Andrew Balfour

The sky at the Arctic floe edge

A beautiful homophonic choral piece depicting the moment during white-out when the Arctic sky reveals the floe edge, teeming with life, below.

 

 

 

 

Click image to hear Qilak sung by SING THE NORTH

 

Vision Chant – Andrew Balfour

Journey

A stunning SSAATTBB choral piece, combining a repetitive chant-like central section with fluid singing on either side.

The text ‘babamadizwin’ means ‘journey’ in Ojibwe.

 

Click image to hear Vision Chant sung by SING THE NORTH