By Emmanuel Sossou – Features Editor
Last Friday, Nov. 3, rounds of applause erupted in Bandeen Hall as members of the Bishop’s community and Sherbrooke welcomed Deantha Edmunds and the Philippe Dunnigan String Quartet for their concert. Originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, Deantha Edmunds is Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer. Through her voice and her work, she empowers Indigenous people and helps in the sharing of their stories. Her performance along with the Philippe Dunnigan String Quartet, former professor of the music department Tom Gordon and our very own BU singers, was the culminating point of a three-day visit to Bishop’s where she shared the tradition of Moravian Inuit music and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The three-day visit began with a lecture, film screening and a Q&A with Professor Gordon and Deantha Edmunds, during which the audience had the chance to learn more about Moravian Inuit music.
During the 18th century, Moravian missionaries sailed from Eastern Europe and settled among Inuit on the Labrador coast in eastern Canada. As the missionaries preached Christianity, music became one of their main tools. Inuit communities in this region saw their traditional throat singing get banned, as a result of the missionaries’ perception of these vocalisations as sounds from the devil. Settlers gave them these European classics, and not long after this encounter, Inuit choirs could be heard performing the classics of Haydn and Bach in Inuktitut. “They made [these European classics] their own,” explained Deantha Edmunds.
The documentary Till We Meet Again by Canadian filmmaker Nigel Markham, showcases this musical heritage as a small choir and a few instrumentalists from St. John’s Newfoundland tour the Labrador coast to perform with locals and learn more about the Inuit tradition.
During the second day of her visit, the Inuk soprano hosted a workshop with the Bishop’s University Singers alongside musical directors Jamie Crooks and Fannie Gaudette. Members of the BU Singers had the chance to work with Edmunds and prepare for the final event.
Henry Mitchell, a first-year geography student who is also a member of the choir, described the experience as being something special. “It was special to take part in that tradition and long history of Moravian Inuit music,” Mitchell said. Many of the songs performed had parts in Inuktitut, and members of the choir got to learn certain pronunciations with Ms. Edmunds.
The final event took place in a packed Bandeen Hall. Members from the Bishop’s community and Sherbrooke showed up in big numbers for the concert. Sons of Labrador/Labradorimiut, by Sid Dicker, started the program of the night, which then proceeded with This is My Home, by Harry Martin.
During both songs, the Inuk soprano took her audience to Labrador and introduced us to her native land. As she performed, all heads were pointing out to the stage where harmony seemed to reign as violin, cello, viola, organ, piano and voices complemented each other very well. After each song, Bandeen Hall would break out into rounds of applause, as members of the crowd regained their sustained breath.
The performance, which included 11 songs, concluded with the song Legacy from Edmunds’ last album Connections. In this last song, she honours missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people, and gives hope as she sings “I know that you will be found.”
The Campus 