Singing to the Land

Work in Progress

Singing to the Land  involves four musicians that sing to the Prairie grasslands in gratitude and grief.

For the human voices I invited 4 musicians to each respond to this land in their own ways. All of the invited performers have a history with this land or with other natural spaces that have shaped their lives. I first heard Regina-based Helen Pridmore’s classically trained voice when she participated in the Hole Residency. When Joseph Naytowhow came to the land, he offered a crucial blessing to the land.  Joseph is a Plains/Woodland Cree (nehiyaw) singer/songwriter and spiritual knowledge keeper from the Sturgeon Lake First Nation Band. Paddy Tutty’s Celtic music has always included an element of connection with nature, and especially songs about the land as a living entity. Jay Semko, a singer/songwriter with the award-winning Northern Pikes band, has a wonderfully intuitive sense about how to work musically and physically with the land.

In addition, several trail cameras installed throughout the land provided a range of animal and bird activities and sounds.