Cantus Borealis Broadcast on CBC

The Boreality Project continues with a broadcast and podcast on CBC radio.

" A few years ago, Prairie Fire Press teamed up with Manitoba Chamber Orchestra to launch a multidisciplinary arts project called Boreality. The first result of this collaboration is Cantus Borealis, an original composition for musicians and singers by Sid Robinovitch with words by Katherine Bitney and soundscape by Ken Gregory. The world premiere of Cantus Borealis occurred on April 13, 2011, performed by the MCO conducted by Scott Yoo and Winnipeg Soloists choir directed by Elroy Friesen. CBC Radio will broadcast this concert on Sunday, August 21 at 9:00 AM.

We invite you to tune in to CBC Radio 2 and listen to new music written to celebrate the boreal forest of Manitoba over all four seasons. You can also hear this work through CBC’s Concerts on Demand."

Cantus Borealis

The completion of the second leg of the Boreality Project is only two weeks away. I just dropped off the final master tapes for my contribution to Sid Robinovitch's concert work for the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

The series starts with a concert in Hollow Water on April 11, followed by another concert in Pine Falls on April 12 and then finally a concert at Westminster Church in Winnipeg on April 13.

click for more information ----> details

Mandy Malazdrewich's photography is here --->borealityphoto.ca

Here's a photo I took during our first trip to Hollow Water.

Fall trip- Boreality Project

My last scheduled trip with the Boreality crew happened at the the beginning of October. We travelled back to the Bisset area and hiked around looking at the forest and the Canadian Shield with a couple of botanists. Then we headed south a little bit to Nutimik Lake to look at the petroforms at Bannock Point and the ones deep in the forest at Tie Creek. We hiked into the forest with Ron Bell, the Keeper of the Petroforms, who gave us tons of info about the forest, the petroforms and the ongoing spiritual significance of everything. A very good week.

Report from Jack Pine

The Boreality Project continued with our Summer trip to the forest. We had planned to go to Bloodvein Reserve on the east side of Lake Winnipeg but when we got to the the ferry crossing on the west side of the lake, the ferry couldn' t run due to the super choppy water conditions. We had to re-jig our plan rather than head back to Winnipeg. So we turned back and went in search of the Jack Pine Lodge near Pine Dock. We eventually found it, checked in and figured out what we were doing for the week. There was a lot of rain, grey skies, mosquitos, and windy conditions, but we managed to fill out the week with hikes into the bush, lots of discussion, making fires, wild strawberry picking and eating together. I spent a lot of time trying to find interesting forest sound elements to record. The rain soaked days I spent reviewing and editing the Spring trip recordings and a jam session we had at Sids place. I also worked on some soundscape ideas using some elements from the Spring sessions. A very good week.