Singing It Out

Chalk pastel on paper by Cathy Hunt 2009

[chuntstudio]

The Tagaq experience from The Great Hall stage

On Thursday November 6 at The Great Hall in Toronto, Tanya Tagaq generously invited Christine Duncan and The Element Choir to join her, Jesse Zubot and Jean Martin on stage for the first time since her Polaris Prize win. The Great Hall performance marks the start of the 'Animism' CD tour that will take her to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Montreal and into the eastern States. See it if you can! http://tanyatagaq.com/

Our 45 person Element vocal contingent was on stage for the entire show. It offered us the opportunity to listen to Tanya speak to the sold-out  crowd which included author Joseph Boyden and veteran actor Tantu Cardinal leaning on the edge of the stage in adoration. It was beautiful to watch the crowd's anticipating, smiling faces hanging on Tanya's every word. Her earthy openness and grounded connection as well as the intimacy of the beautiful old building gave the feeling that we were in a small town community hall not on Queen West in downtown Toronto. And we had the best seats in the house!

Tanya's performance began slowly, gently and as always was other-worldly - or perhaps more precisely - of-this-worldly. As her gutteral, rhythmic, dualistic improvisations built and flowed, she seemed to call up the entirety of human experience vocally and physically during the length of her 70 minute set. 

We waited to be called on by Christine as Tanya, Jesse (electro-acoustic violinist) and Jean-Martin (percussion) flowed into the first of many musical climaxes. Eyes riveted we awaited  Christine's first hand-cue to describe the type of sound we were to provide and when. Contrary to our vocal approach when performing as a solo choir, our direction in this context was to respond as one instrument to engage with the fabric of what was being laid down by the trio on stage.

All musicians on stage fed off of the other; Tanya responding to our soundings as we would hers and in kind Jesse and Jean-Martin. Christine was our fulcrum-conduit selecting the moments, texture and timbre that we were to provide - the rest was up to us. Among our vocal palette were soundscapes of water droplets, scraping steel and tonal riffs inspired by Jesse's violin & Tanya's vocals, all underpinned by Jean-Martin's ever-changing primal rhythms. In addition, our sounds were digitized, looped, delayed and slowed to create another bed of texture for the performance. 

Here's a description of the experience from the audience:

' One memorable aspect of (Tagaq's) performance is the sheer range of emotional and musical territory that she covers...Jesse Zubot of Vancouver energetically tortured his electrically amplified violin and controlled the menacing electroacoustic component of the performance. Jean Martin of Toronto evoked an entire world of sound from his drum kit, at times attacking it with positively deafening enthusiasm. The 40-voice Element Choir under its director, Christine Duncan, stood on a riser at the back of the stage. The choir is as adept at improvising as the other musicians, responding with astonishing unanimity, immediacy, and sensitivity to Duncan’s expressive hand gestures. Duncan in turn was totally attuned to Tagaq’s performance, using her choir to brilliantly amplify and comment on Tagaq’s musical ideas." - Musical Toronto

And then the moment arrived where the force of sound and the experience in the hall culminated with a sudden end to the wall of sound leaving Tanya's lone voice hanging in the velvety black silence...and it was done, and we all returned having journeyed magically together.

In the green room after the performance the choir members erupted in a spontaneous singular tone reminiscent of an OHM chant. It grounded us and our experience returning us back down to the real world after such a resonant dreamtime experience. 

With heartfelt gratitude to Tanya Tagaq,  Jean-Martin, Jesse Zubot,  Six Shooter Records and Christine Duncan.

[chuntstudio]

The Tagaq experience from The Great Hall stage

On Thursday November 6 at The Great Hall in Toronto, Tanya Tagaq generously invited Christine Duncan and The Element Choir to join her, Jesse Zubot and Jean Martin on stage for the first time since her Polaris Prize win. The Great Hall performance marks the start of the 'Animism' CD tour that will take her to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Montreal and into the eastern States. See it if you can! http://tanyatagaq.com/

Our 45 person Element vocal contingent was on stage for the entire show. It offered us the opportunity to listen to Tanya speak to the sold-out  crowd which included author Joseph Boyden and veteran actor Tantu Cardinal leaning on the edge of the stage in adoration. It was beautiful to watch the crowd's anticipating, smiling faces hanging on Tanya's every word. Her earthy openness and grounded connection as well as the intimacy of the beautiful old building gave the feeling that we were in a small town community hall not on Queen West in downtown Toronto. And we had the best seats in the house!

Tanya's performance began slowly, gently and as always was other-worldly - or perhaps more precisely - of-this-worldly. As her gutteral, rhythmic, dualistic improvisations built and flowed, she seemed to call up the entirety of human experience vocally and physically during the length of her 70 minute set. 

We waited to be called on by Christine as Tanya, Jesse (electro-acoustic violinist) and Jean-Martin (percussion) flowed into the first of many musical climaxes. Eyes riveted we awaited  Christine's first hand-cue to describe the type of sound we were to provide and when. Contrary to our vocal approach when performing as a solo choir, our direction in this context was to respond as one instrument to engage with the fabric of what was being laid down by the trio on stage.

All musicians on stage fed off of the other; Tanya responding to our soundings as we would hers and in kind Jesse and Jean-Martin. Christine was our fulcrum-conduit selecting the moments, texture and timbre that we were to provide - the rest was up to us. Among our vocal palette were soundscapes of water droplets, scraping steel and tonal riffs inspired by Jesse's violin & Tanya's vocals, all underpinned by Jean-Martin's ever-changing primal rhythms. In addition, our sounds were digitized, looped, delayed and slowed to create another bed of texture for the performance. 

Here's a description of the experience from the audience:

' One memorable aspect of (Tagaq's) performance is the sheer range of emotional and musical territory that she covers...Jesse Zubot of Vancouver energetically tortured his electrically amplified violin and controlled the menacing electroacoustic component of the performance. Jean Martin of Toronto evoked an entire world of sound from his drum kit, at times attacking it with positively deafening enthusiasm. The 40-voice Element Choir under its director, Christine Duncan, stood on a riser at the back of the stage. The choir is as adept at improvising as the other musicians, responding with astonishing unanimity, immediacy, and sensitivity to Duncan’s expressive hand gestures. Duncan in turn was totally attuned to Tagaq’s performance, using her choir to brilliantly amplify and comment on Tagaq’s musical ideas." - Musical Toronto

And then the moment arrived where the force of sound and the experience in the hall culminated with a sudden end to the wall of sound leaving Tanya's lone voice hanging in the velvety black silence...and it was done, and we all returned having journeyed magically together.

In the green room after the performance the choir members erupted in a spontaneous singular tone reminiscent of an OHM chant. It grounded us and our experience returning us back down to the real world after such a resonant dreamtime experience. 

With heartfelt gratitude to Tanya Tagaq,  Jean-Martin, Jesse Zubot,  Six Shooter Records and Christine Duncan.

[chuntstudio]

The Tagaq experience from The Great Hall stage

On Thursday November 6 at The Great Hall in Toronto, Tanya Tagaq generously invited Christine Duncan and The Element Choir to join her, Jesse Zubot and Jean Martin on stage for the first time since her Polaris Prize win. The Great Hall performance marks the start of the 'Animism' CD tour that will take her to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Montreal and into the eastern States. See it if you can! http://tanyatagaq.com/

Our 45 person Element vocal contingent was on stage for the entire show. It offered us the opportunity to listen to Tanya speak to the sold-out  crowd which included author Joseph Boyden and veteran actor Tantu Cardinal leaning on the edge of the stage in adoration. It was beautiful to watch the crowd's anticipating, smiling faces hanging on Tanya's every word. Her earthy openness and grounded connection as well as the intimacy of the beautiful old building gave the feeling that we were in a small town community hall not on Queen West in downtown Toronto. And we had the best seats in the house!

Tanya's performance began slowly, gently and as always was other-worldly - or perhaps more precisely - of-this-worldly. As her gutteral, rhythmic, dualistic improvisations built and flowed, she seemed to call up the entirety of human experience vocally and physically during the length of her 70 minute set. 

We waited to be called on by Christine as Tanya, Jesse (electro-acoustic violinist) and Jean-Martin (percussion) flowed into the first of many musical climaxes. Eyes riveted we awaited  Christine's first hand-cue to describe the type of sound we were to provide and when. Contrary to our vocal approach when performing as a solo choir, our direction in this context was to respond as one instrument to engage with the fabric of what was being laid down by the trio on stage.

All musicians on stage fed off of the other; Tanya responding to our soundings as we would hers and in kind Jesse and Jean-Martin. Christine was our fulcrum-conduit selecting the moments, texture and timbre that we were to provide - the rest was up to us. Among our vocal palette were soundscapes of water droplets, scraping steel and tonal riffs inspired by Jesse's violin & Tanya's vocals, all underpinned by Jean-Martin's ever-changing primal rhythms. In addition, our sounds were digitized, looped, delayed and slowed to create another bed of texture for the performance. 

Here's a description of the experience from the audience:

' One memorable aspect of (Tagaq's) performance is the sheer range of emotional and musical territory that she covers...Jesse Zubot of Vancouver energetically tortured his electrically amplified violin and controlled the menacing electroacoustic component of the performance. Jean Martin of Toronto evoked an entire world of sound from his drum kit, at times attacking it with positively deafening enthusiasm. The 40-voice Element Choir under its director, Christine Duncan, stood on a riser at the back of the stage. The choir is as adept at improvising as the other musicians, responding with astonishing unanimity, immediacy, and sensitivity to Duncan’s expressive hand gestures. Duncan in turn was totally attuned to Tagaq’s performance, using her choir to brilliantly amplify and comment on Tagaq’s musical ideas." - Musical Toronto

And then the moment arrived where the force of sound and the experience in the hall culminated with a sudden end to the wall of sound leaving Tanya's lone voice hanging in the velvety black silence...and it was done, and we all returned having journeyed magically together.

In the green room after the performance the choir members erupted in a spontaneous singular tone reminiscent of an OHM chant. It grounded us and our experience returning us back down to the real world after such a resonant dreamtime experience. 

With heartfelt gratitude to Tanya Tagaq,  Jean-Martin, Jesse Zubot,  Six Shooter Records and Christine Duncan.

[chuntstudio]

Jung with a paint brush

Well I have to say I was shocked. 

Having just started this Studio blog I thought that I would share some of the artists who have inspired me. But when I came upon Georgia O'Keefe's Pelvis with Moon my jaw dropped and my pulse raced with the resonance of connection I felt between it and my most recent body of work - Seal Bones; in particular Dancing Bones 1.

I have always loved Georgia O'Keefe for her luscious organic folds, her use of colour and contrast. As far as her imagery of bones I'd only remembered her skulls, at least consciously and I have absolutely no memory of ever having seen nor intended to emulate, Pelvis with Moon.  

Georgia's paintings were inspired by the bleached bones she found and collected from the desert floor of the Southwestern United States. In her paintings they transcend their physical reality and the ethereal lightness of their sweeping, organic forms is exhalted as is the unrelenting light and heat of the daytime desert.

My most recent work is inspired by seal bones discovered on the North Atlantic by our family cabin in Newfoundland. The backgrounds reflect an amalgam of the North Atlantic shore, Lake Ontario horizons, and those on L'Isles de la Madeleine in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. The etymology of my imagery has had gesture and movement at its root and in this series has shifted from the initial settled heaviness of Nestled and Discovered, to the ever-increasing lightness of Floating, Dancing and Ghost Bones. 

You might think me bold to link myself with Georgia O'Keefe. But the beauty, if not the essence, of being an artist is that it offers the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the exploration of the human mind and our physical surroundings. By so doing, we can encounter iconic, archetypes that may also have been discovered  by our contemporaries and those from visual history. Think Jung with a paint brush. Consequently, O'Keefe's and my shared choices to make the bones float could be seen as deriving from the collective unconscious. 

Resonant synchronicities such as these are exciting when they occur because, in my opinion, they affirm that one has struck a rich vein,  discovered a symbolic language that other visual poets have also tapped into and that in some way aptly describe the human condition. 

I have often wondered how it is that imagery can float in the mind and then find resonance in one's work at a later date? An artist friend recently responded to this question: "Maybe they just do when they need to." 

Please watch performance artist Miyoko Shida Rigolo's work and see if you agree that Ghost Bones shares with it an iconic resonance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW2YhHAot6I

[chuntstudio]

Jung with a paint brush

Well I have to say I was shocked. 

Having just started this Studio blog I thought that I would share some of the artists who have inspired me. But when I came upon Georgia O'Keefe's Pelvis with Moon my jaw dropped and my pulse raced with the resonance of connection I felt between it and my most recent body of work - Seal Bones; in particular Dancing Bones 1.

I have always loved Georgia O'Keefe for her luscious organic folds, her use of colour and contrast. As far as her imagery of bones I'd only remembered her skulls, at least consciously and I have absolutely no memory of ever having seen nor intended to emulate, Pelvis with Moon.  

Georgia's paintings were inspired by the bleached bones she found and collected from the desert floor of the Southwestern United States. In her paintings they transcend their physical reality and the ethereal lightness of their sweeping, organic forms is exhalted as is the unrelenting light and heat of the daytime desert.

My most recent work is inspired by seal bones discovered on the North Atlantic by our family cabin in Newfoundland. The backgrounds reflect an amalgam of the North Atlantic shore, Lake Ontario horizons, and those on L'Isles de la Madeleine in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. The etymology of my imagery has had gesture and movement at its root and in this series has shifted from the initial settled heaviness of Nestled and Discovered, to the ever-increasing lightness of Floating, Dancing and Ghost Bones. 

You might think me bold to link myself with Georgia O'Keefe. But the beauty, if not the essence, of being an artist is that it offers the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the exploration of the human mind and our physical surroundings. By so doing, we can encounter iconic, archetypes that may also have been discovered  by our contemporaries and those from visual history. Think Jung with a paint brush. Consequently, O'Keefe's and my shared choices to make the bones float could be seen as deriving from the collective unconscious. 

Resonant synchronicities such as these are exciting when they occur because, in my opinion, they affirm that one has struck a rich vein,  discovered a symbolic language that other visual poets have also tapped into and that in some way aptly describe the human condition. 

I have often wondered how it is that imagery can float in the mind and then find resonance in one's work at a later date? An artist friend recently responded to this question: "Maybe they just do when they need to." 

Please watch performance artist Miyoko Shida Rigolo's work and see if you agree that Ghost Bones shares with it an iconic resonance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW2YhHAot6I

[chuntstudio]

Jung with a paint brush

Well I have to say I was shocked. 

Having just started this Studio blog I thought that I would share some of the artists who have inspired me. But when I came upon Georgia O'Keefe's Pelvis with Moon my jaw dropped and my pulse raced with the resonance of connection I felt between it and my most recent body of work - Seal Bones; in particular Dancing Bones 1.

I have always loved Georgia O'Keefe for her luscious organic folds, her use of colour and contrast. As far as her imagery of bones I'd only remembered her skulls, at least consciously and I have absolutely no memory of ever having seen nor intended to emulate, Pelvis with Moon.  

Georgia's paintings were inspired by the bleached bones she found and collected from the desert floor of the Southwestern United States. In her paintings they transcend their physical reality and the ethereal lightness of their sweeping, organic forms is exhalted as is the unrelenting light and heat of the daytime desert.

My most recent work is inspired by seal bones discovered on the North Atlantic by our family cabin in Newfoundland. The backgrounds reflect an amalgam of the North Atlantic shore, Lake Ontario horizons, and those on L'Isles de la Madeleine in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. The etymology of my imagery has had gesture and movement at its root and in this series has shifted from the initial settled heaviness of Nestled and Discovered, to the ever-increasing lightness of Floating, Dancing and Ghost Bones. 

You might think me bold to link myself with Georgia O'Keefe. But the beauty, if not the essence, of being an artist is that it offers the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the exploration of the human mind and our physical surroundings. By so doing, we can encounter iconic, archetypes that may also have been discovered  by our contemporaries and those from visual history. Think Jung with a paint brush. Consequently, O'Keefe's and my shared choices to make the bones float could be seen as deriving from the collective unconscious. 

Resonant synchronicities such as these are exciting when they occur because, in my opinion, they affirm that one has struck a rich vein,  discovered a symbolic language that other visual poets have also tapped into and that in some way aptly describe the human condition. 

I have often wondered how it is that imagery can float in the mind and then find resonance in one's work at a later date? An artist friend recently responded to this question: "Maybe they just do when they need to." 

Please watch performance artist Miyoko Shida Rigolo's work and see if you agree that Ghost Bones shares with it an iconic resonance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW2YhHAot6I

[chuntstudio]

Jung with a paint brush

Well I have to say I was shocked. 

Having just started this Studio blog I thought that I would share some of the artists who have inspired me. But when I came upon Georgia O'Keefe's Pelvis with Moon my jaw dropped and my pulse raced with the resonance of connection I felt between it and my most recent body of work - Seal Bones; in particular Dancing Bones 1.

I have always loved Georgia O'Keefe for her luscious organic folds, her use of colour and contrast. As far as her imagery of bones I'd only remembered her skulls, at least consciously and I have absolutely no memory of ever having seen nor intended to emulate, Pelvis with Moon.  

Georgia's paintings were inspired by the bleached bones she found and collected from the desert floor of the Southwestern United States. In her paintings they transcend their physical reality and the ethereal lightness of their sweeping, organic forms is exhalted as is the unrelenting light and heat of the daytime desert.

My most recent work is inspired by seal bones discovered on the North Atlantic by our family cabin in Newfoundland. The backgrounds reflect an amalgam of the North Atlantic shore, Lake Ontario horizons, and those on L'Isles de la Madeleine in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. The etymology of my imagery has had gesture and movement at its root and in this series has shifted from the initial settled heaviness of Nestled and Discovered, to the ever-increasing lightness of Floating, Dancing and Ghost Bones. 

You might think me bold to link myself with Georgia O'Keefe. But the beauty, if not the essence, of being an artist is that it offers the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the exploration of the human mind and our physical surroundings. By so doing, we can encounter iconic, archetypes that may also have been discovered  by our contemporaries and those from visual history. Think Jung with a paint brush. Consequently, O'Keefe's and my shared choices to make the bones float could be seen as deriving from the collective unconscious. 

Resonant synchronicities such as these are exciting when they occur because, in my opinion, they affirm that one has struck a rich vein,  discovered a symbolic language that other visual poets have also tapped into and that in some way aptly describe the human condition. 

I have often wondered how it is that imagery can float in the mind and then find resonance in one's work at a later date? An artist friend recently responded to this question: "Maybe they just do when they need to." 

Please watch performance artist Miyoko Shida Rigolo's work and see if you agree that Ghost Bones shares with it an iconic resonance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW2YhHAot6I

[chuntstudio]

It Begins

Going public can be a scary thing.  

My studio has until today been a place of creative retreat, a place to indulge my inner introvert -but it can also becoming isolating. Sometimes the pressure to produce work has overwhelmed the process. So this blog's intent is to get back to celebrating the process - honouring the small, daily moments that over time, create a body of work.   I also plan to share the many facets of my creative life which includes visual art, vocal music and movement. 

It is usually the final product an audience experiences but there is much behind that final piece, more than one sees in a gallery or on a website yet I do want the images I create to be seen. The possibilities of exposure through social media sharing offers an incredible opportunity for today's artists to have their work seen from the privacy of their studios.

With this blog I hope to reach all kinds of art-lovers. I hope that you will comment if something you see here resonates with you. There is no right or wrong in art appreciation.

Over the next year I hope that this blog will expand the audience for my work, engender ongoing feedback that will enhance and challenge my studio practice. I hope that it creates a discussion that celebrates lateral thinking and poetry of artistic expression. 

Watch this space...

[chuntstudio]

It Begins

Going public can be a scary thing.  

My studio has until today been a place of creative retreat, a place to indulge my inner introvert -but it can also becoming isolating. Sometimes the pressure to produce work has overwhelmed the process. So this blog's intent is to get back to celebrating the process - honouring the small, daily moments that over time, create a body of work.   I also plan to share the many facets of my creative life which includes visual art, vocal music and movement. 

It is usually the final product an audience experiences but there is much behind that final piece, more than one sees in a gallery or on a website yet I do want the images I create to be seen. The possibilities of exposure through social media sharing offers an incredible opportunity for today's artists to have their work seen from the privacy of their studios.

With this blog I hope to reach all kinds of art-lovers. I hope that you will comment if something you see here resonates with you. There is no right or wrong in art appreciation.

Over the next year I hope that this blog will expand the audience for my work, engender ongoing feedback that will enhance and challenge my studio practice. I hope that it creates a discussion that celebrates lateral thinking and poetry of artistic expression. 

Watch this space...

[chuntstudio]

Elementals with Tagaq at Polaris 2014

The Element Choir was standing in The Carlu performance hall in downtown Toronto. We had been invited to back up Tanya Tagaq, a finalist for the Polaris prize that honours artistic merit in the Canadian Music Industry.  We had never met and we were there to rehearse briefly for the performance the following night. The connection was our conductor Christine Duncan and her partner Jean Martin, the drummer in Tagaq's band.

A petite smiling woman wearing a David Suzuki emblazoned pink t-shirt  and snug blue jeans came bounding up to greet Christine. Tagaq's smile and energy lit the room and  I thought that she was no more than 20 years old (she's the mother of two daughters). Immediately impressed with her modesty and generosity,she was brimming with thanks for us coming to be a part of the show when it was us who were honoured to be included. She then told us that the names of the more than 1000 missing or murdered aboriginal women in Canada would be projected behind us as we sang. I knew that this was going to be an important moment for us all. I was so grateful to be given the opportunity to honour these women; to sound our outrage at this ongoing injustice.

The following night, our 45 member ensemble were summoned to the stage from The Skyroom. As we lined up ready to go on a member of the backstage crew asked us  if we were excited. Excited didn't cover it. "Pumped" was the unanimous response. We got the signal to come on stage so we climbed the stairs and manoeuvred our way around cables and the drum kit to group ourselves snugly behind four sets of microphones.

Instinctively the sopranos wrapped their arms around each other's waists. There was a fair bit of set up occurring and the theatre lights were up so we had lots of time to take in the scene. The Carlu was filled with music industry folk chatting, imbibing, milling about and sitting up in the balcony. We saw Jian Ghomeschi of CBC Radio One's 'Q"; Shad; George Strombolopoulos having his picture taken with Win Butler of Arcade Fire. Stage left I could see Tagaq behind the curtains, barefoot in a body-hugging red satin dress, her hair loose, her body already moving to her inner fire.

And then the lights began to dim. We were reading the teleprompter as accordionist Geoff Berner began the introduction. His laid back way of speaking began to gain force and the truth of his words built momentum.  My heart began to pound as I anticipated the power of the sound to come.

And then Tagaq. She danced lightly across the stage in front of us to take her place. And then she began to sound her visceral chanting - calls that played off the drum, violin and computer sampling - delicately building the rhythm; throat soundings that varied from higher tones on the  inhalation to gutteral growling on the exhalation. 

The sound was in our bodies and our eyes were riveted on Christine. On her cue we shot out vocal hits or created tonal tapestries  inspired by what the band was creating. Together we were creating a brew, stirring the pot, raising the energy, "riding the rapids" (Tagaq) in a musical trance. In her voice I could hear life beginning and ending; animals fighting, children playing and the energy of the earth. When  the energy had reached its peak Tagaq broke into a wolf howl that united us all in silence. It was the moment when everyone in the room was united in reverance for that which  cannot be spoken - grief, anger, pain, loss and release.

And then the room erupted. In the only standing ovation of the evening they stood acknowledging that we had all shared something intimate and profound. And that is what Tagaq does so very well.

Heartfelt thanks to Tagaq, Jean Martin, Jesse Zubot and Christine Duncan for inviting The Element Choir  to share in this remarkable music event. It was an experience we will not soon forget. 

[chuntstudio]

Elementals with Tagaq at Polaris 2014

The Element Choir was standing in The Carlu performance hall in downtown Toronto. We had been invited to back up Tanya Tagac, a finalist for the Polaris prize that honours artistic merit in the Canadian Music Industry.  We had never met and we were there to rehearse briefly for the performance the following night. The connection was our conductor Christine Duncan and her partner Jean Martin, the drummer in Tagaq's band.

A petite smiling woman wearing a David Suzuki emblazoned pink t-shirt  and snug blue jeans came bounding up to greet Christine. Her smile and energy lit the room and  I thought that she was no more than 20 years old (she's the mother of two daughters). I was immediately impressed with her modesty and generosity. She was brimming with thanks for us coming to be a part of the show when it was us who were honoured to be included in such a prestigious event. She then told us that the names of the more than 1000 missing or murdered aboriginal women in Canada would be projected behind us as we sang. I knew that this was going to be an important moment for us all. I was so grateful to be given the opportunity to honour these women; to sound our outrage at this ongoing injustice.

The following night, our 45 member ensemble were summoned to the stage from The Skyroom. As we lined up ready to go on a member of the backstage crew asked us  if we were excited. Excited didn't cover it. "Pumped" was the unanimous response. We got the signal to come on stage so we climbed the stairs and manoeuvred our way around cables and the drum kit to group ourselves snugly behind four sets of microphones.

Instinctively we wrapped our arms around each other's waists. There was a fair bit of set up occurring and the theatre lights were up so we had lots of time to take in the scene. The Carlu was filled with music industry folk chatting, imbibing, milling about and sitting up in the balcony. We saw Jian Ghomeschi of CBC Radio One's 'Q"; Shad; George Strombolopoulos having his picture taken with Win Butler of Arcade Fire. Stage left I could see Tagac behind the curtains, barefoot in a body-hugging red satin dress, her hair loose, her body already moving to her inner fire.

And then the lights began to dim. We were reading the teleprompter as accordionist Geoff Berner began the introduction. His laid back way of speaking began to gain force and the truth of his words built momentum.  My heart began to pound as I anticipated the power of the sound to come.

And then Tagac. She danced lightly across the stage in front of us to take her place. And then she began to sound her visceral chanting - calls that played off the drum, violin and computer sampling - delicately building the rhythm; throat soundings that varied from higher tones on the  inhalation to gutteral growling on the exhalation. 

The sound was in our bodies and our eyes were riveted on Christine. On her cue we shot out vocal hits or created tonal tapestries  inspired by what the band was creating. Together we were creating a brew, stirring the pot, raising the energy in a musical trance. In her voice I could hear life beginning and ending; animals fighting, children playing and the energy of the earth. When  the energy had reached its peak Tagac broke into a wolf howl that united us all in silence. It was the moment when everyone in the room was united in reverance for that which  cannot be spoken - grief, anger, pain, loss and release.

And the room erupted. In the only standing ovation of the evening they stood acknowledging that we had all shared something intimate, profound and necessary. And that is what Tagac does so very well.

Heartfelt thanks to Tagac, Jean Martin, Jesse Zubot and Christine Duncan for inviting The Element Choir  to share in this remarkable music event. It was an experience we will not soon forget. 

[chuntstudio]

@huntstudioc#walnutstudios #artist open studio till 11pm tonight

[chuntstudio]

#walnutstudios #art #torontoartist Open Studio till 11pm tonight.

[chuntstudio]

#bones #nature #colour #canadianart #art#torontoartist #acrylicpainting #contemporaryart

[chuntstudio]

#bones #nature #contemporaryart #canadianart #torontoartist#artist #art #colour #acrylicpainting

[chuntstudio]

#bones#colour##contemporaryart #torontoartist #canadianart #nature #acrylicpainting

[chuntstudio]

#bones #nature #contemporaryart#fineart #canadianart #torontoartist#artist #colour#acrylicpainting