Cochrane Music Society is celebrating its 25th anniversary, a milestone that deserves to be marked with a grand gesture. This year, they have commissioned two works to celebrate their enduring commitment to music, culture, and community.
They will premiere both commissioned pieces at their 25th Anniversary Concert at Cochrane Alliance Church, May 11 at 7 pm. This concert is a moment to shine a spotlight on Cochrane’s vibrant artistic community.
It also demonstrates Cochrane Music Society’s commitment to fostering cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.
Jay Michalak, one of Canada’s leading trumpeters and director of the award winning JazzYYC Youth Lab Band, has composed a Latin jazz piece, "Nieve Caliente," for Riverside Jazz. Jay found inspiration from some of the Salsa greats such as Charlie Aponte, Willi Chirinos, and Gilberto Santa Rosa to create a piece that captures an authentic salsa feel and sound, while following a traditional salsa song form which gives every section of the band a chance to shine.
The name Nieve Caliente translates to “Hot Snow.”
“This piece was primarily written on some of the coldest (-50oC) and snowiest days we’ve ever had here in Alberta. To me Latin music has always been “hot” – it captures a fire and passion in the music of the people, and what better way is there to honour such a passionate and amazing group of musicians, who just so happen to live and play through some of the coldest weather on earth,” Michalak said.
Juno Award winner Claude Lapalme (conductor, composer and arranger/orchestrator living in Red Deer) has collaborated with Sonny-Ray Day Rider (composer and pianist from the Kainai Blood Tribe pursuing advanced studies in music composition at the University of Lethbridge) to create a piece called "Meet Me At The River for Band on the Bow and Choral Waves" together.
The Cochrane Music Society has always maintained the “river” theme taken from the town’s location on the Bow River with our ensembles Band on the Bow, Riverside Jazz and Choral Waves. Sonny-Ray Day Rider is of the Blood Tribe/Káínai (BT/K), part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, whose meeting and trade sites were often at the junctions of rivers such as the Elbow and Bow Rivers.
Claude Lapalme composed Part I, “In This World of People,” on a waka poem by the Japanese poet Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875). It describes how meeting at the river brings everyone together on the same footing. He chose to use the Japanese poem partly because, though the experiences with racism vary, both newcomers and Indigenous Peoples have had broadly similar history of being subjugated by white settler-colonial society.
Pairing the wisdom of western classical music experience with Day Rider’s ability to transform the ritual of his spiritual upbringing into musical structure, nurtures local talent and showcases that Indigenous music exists in rich variety.
By producing this work with composers of this calibre, with Reconciliation in mind, Cochrane Music Society has pursued a project that allows them to challenge themselves technically, artistically, and culturally to understand our nation and place within it in a deeper way.
Further, by commissioning this work for instruments and voices, they are contributing to a part of the musical repertoire that has few representative works and are expanding the ability for school music programs and community ensembles to come together on a work of meaningful cultural value.
Cochrane Music Society thanks the Bow RiversEdge Campground Society and Calgary Association for the Development of Music Education for their generous support of this project.
Tickets at www.cochranemusic.ca and at the door.
