Composer: T. Patrick Carrabré
Artists: Vancouver Chamber Choir, Kari Turunen (director)
Recording details:
WinterWind Records, 2024. Recorded by James Perrella at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts.
The story of the Métis people is not so well known. Jean Teillet’s amazing book, The North-West Is Our Mother has been a big step in documenting our truths, so I was beyond excited to work with her on Histoires des Métis: The Freedom Songs. In addition to five of Jean’s poems, we decided to include the texts from two traditional Métis songs (La Montagne Tortue and Pierre Falcon’s Chanson de la Gornouillèr).
The collection was commissioned by Kari Turunen and the Vancouver Chamber Choir with funding support from thee British Columbia Arts Council. It was premiered on June 8th, 2024 during a concert in the Sty-Wet-Tan Great Hall in the First Nations Longhouse at the University of British Columbia and recorded on June 11th in the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
I hope that our work is up to the task of representing both our community’s vitality and the challenges we have faced. The songs explore not only our love of the wide-open prairies, but also the battles to protect our homeland, the need to change our way of life as the Buffalo disappeared and above all our quest for the freedom to make our own destiny.
Learn more here