Canadian Cree composer Andrew Balfour made the news this week when he was denied entry into the United States where he was scheduled to conduct the Amabile Choirs of London Ontario at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall. In the current horrifying climate of overreaching US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it’s a relief that Andrew was allowed to return to Canada after being detained in unpleasant circumstances. And despite their disappointment, it was undoubtedly a relief to all the young singers he had prepared, that familiar, capable hands of trusted partners Carol Beynon and Sherryl Sewepagaham, were already standing by to ensure a performance worthy of Balfour’s preparation and their own for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
To share a taste of the choir’s sound, I’m including a short YouTube video here of the choir in dress rehearsal with Balfour in London, along with an album of still photos (mostly from Sherryl Sewepagaham). Sewepagaham, designated “Song Keeper” for the group, led the choir in her own compositions. Balfour’s pieces and the remainder of the program by “Indigenous Standard-Bearers” were conducted by his colleague, Carol Beynon.
This “Cree Literacy Network” is all about connectedness of people and places (in the sense of wâhkôhtowin), and choral music is a connection in itself. Still, I feel compelled to claim my own connectedness (however trivial) to a small part of this story: as a young choral singer in Winnipeg, I was lucky to grow up singing in choirs conducted by the late Donald Hadfield, who also trained Andrew Balfour. (Hadfield also helped train Tomson Highway at Churchill High School in Winnipeg in the 1960s, but that’s a story for another day.)
