Giving Tuesday

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Give the joy of music this giving season…

Tuesday, November 27, 2018, is Giving Tuesday, the international philanthropic movement that unites communities to bring about real change by encouraging people and charities to work together.

We are proud to count you among our valued partners. Music lovers from all over recognize Camerata Nova, vocal group without fear, as one of our community’s most prized musical institutions. Since 1996, we’ve continued to push the envelope, offering early music performances, premiers of Manitoba compositions, and an eclectic array in between.
 
The impact of your support is truly extraordinary. With your help, for the past three years, Camerata Nova’s artistic director, Andrew Balfour, who is of Cree descent, has been able to bring the gift of music north to the smaller, more remote schools that do not have formal music education programs, and teach students there how to create and perform their own soundscapes to describe their community, their family or the land around them.
 
And thanks to you, Camerata Nova is presenting outstanding performances season after season, including a multi-year series of truly impactful truth and reconciliation concerts. Whether supporting our outreach efforts, programming or operations, you make it all happen! Your tax-deductible donation to Camerata Nova brings about real and lasting change.
 
What difference are YOU making this giving season? Please consider Camerata Nova for a donation today. Your end-of-year support will help empower hundreds of students this school year, enabling these children to express themselves through the joy of music.

   
Offrez la joie de la musique en cette saison de générosité….
 
Le mardi 27 novembre 2018, c’est « Mardi, je donne », le mouvement philanthropique international qui unit les communautés dans le but d’apporter de réels changements en encourageant les gens et les organismes de bienfaisance à travailler ensemble.
 
Nous sommes fiers de vous compter parmi nos précieux partenaires. Les mélomanes de partout reconnaissent Camerata Nova, groupe vocal intrépide, comme l’une des institutions musicales les plus prisées de notre communauté. Depuis 1996, nous n’avons cessé de repousser les limites de son répertoire, offrant des prestations de musique ancienne, des premières de compositions manitobaines et un assortiment des plus éclectiques entre les deux.
 
L’impact de votre soutien est vraiment remarquable. Avec votre aide, depuis trois ans, le directeur artistique de Camerata Nova, Andrew Balfour, qui est d’origine crie, a été en mesure d’apporter le don de la musique dans des écoles plus petites et plus éloignées  qui n’ont pas de programmes officiels d’éducation musicale et d’enseigner aux élèves comment créer et interpréter leur propre paysage sonore pour décrire leur communauté, leur famille ou la terre qui les entoure.
 
Et grâce à vous, Camerata Nova présente des concerts exceptionnels, saison après saison, y compris une série pluriannuelle de concerts saisissants sur le thème de la vérité et de la réconciliation qui ont eu un véritable impact. Qu’il s’agisse d’appuyer nos activités de rayonnement, de programmation ou d’exploitation, c’est vous qui faites en sorte que tout se concrétise! Votre don déductible d’impôt à Camerata Nova apporte un changement réel et durable.
 
Quel impact avez-VOUS en cette saison de générosité? Veuillez envisager de faire un don à Camerata Nova aujourd’hui. Votre soutien de fin d’année aidera des centaines d’élèves à s’exprimer à travers la joie de la musique au cours de cette année scolaire.

Click here to find out more about donating to Camerata Nova and other fantastic charities today.

Upcoming Concerts

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Following successful back-to-back performances of our concert Fallen, Camerata Nova has a quick turnaround with a free Santa Clause Parade Day Concert at the Manitoba Hydro Building (Nov 17), as well as A Concert in Benefit of Sistema Winnipeg (Nov 18). Read more below.

Santa Claus Parade Day Concert

Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 2:30 pm in the Atrium of the Manitoba Hydro Building – A light holiday concert led by conductor Vic Pankratz to get you in the spirit before watching the Winnipeg Santa Claus Parade. Enjoy cookies and hot chocolate at this free concert in the Atrium of the Manitoba Hydro Building. Our free performance features Christmas classics, Camerata Nova originals, as well as some sing-alongs.
The event is supported by Manitoba Hydro

A Concert in Benefit of Sistema Winnipeg

Sunday, November 18, 2018 at 2:00 pm, at St. John’s College, University of Winnipeg – This concert in benefit of Sistema Winnipeg will feature the Sistema students in their first public performance of the 2018 – 2019 season. Sistema Winnipeg is an intensive after-school program that uses orchestral music to serve children with the fewest resources and the greatest need. The concert will also feature the innovative choral music of Camerata Nova. The event is hosted by Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Resident Conductor, Julian Pellicano and held at the St. John’s College Chapel, University of Manitoba, 92 Dysart Road on Sunday November 18 at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $40 for adult and $15 for students and children. Help us to help this innovative inner-city music program.

Reception and Silent Auction to follow the concert.

For more info and to purchase tickets, please visit Sistema Winnipeg.

Fallen: From a Singer’s Point of View – Dr. Liz Przybylski

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Before the band started to play, the director came to the mic to prepare the audience for what we were about to hear. The players on stage were about to begin their version of an armed forces salute. The director invited those of us seated in the concert hall to stand if we or a family member served in the branch of the armed services when we heard the corresponding anthem. Dozens of college students picked up their instruments, and the band began to play. With my fellow audience members, I turned to see men and women stand around me in the hall, the audience applauding service members past and present and their families. This salute, the director explained, was a way for the band at my city’s local college to pay tribute to veterans. It’s something I’ve heard before here where I live in the U.S., but the timing resonated with me as I’d never experienced before: we had convened to raise money and support for local people experiencing homelessness.

Why a military salute at a concert for those in our community who are not stably housed? Veterans are represented in significant numbers among people who lack stable housing. In that concert hall, I felt the discomfort of the juxtaposition of the audience’s desire to honor veterans even as we have a way to go in terms of providing material and social supports to individuals who served in the armed forces.

At the First World War centenary, concerts and events are being staged to honor veterans throughout Canada, the U.S., and around the world. Yet, how many of these programs encourage us also to act and reflect in response to how veterans were and are treated upon their return home?

I felt that question strongly when I was in the audience at a concert hall. Group music making generates a reflective space in which these questions can resonate. It’s fitting then to listen for another concert space that offers an opportunity to work through answers.

This November, Camerata Nova will be performing Andrew Balfour’s new work “Notinikew.” In collaboration with conductor Mel Braun, pop ‘cellist Cris Derksen, Drummer/singer Cory Campbell, the Winnipeg Boys’ Choir, and an ensemble of vocalists, Balfour will share a musical story that sits between reverence and responsibility. While acknowledging the service of Indigenous veterans such as Sergeant Tommy Prince, “Notinikew” will let us ask ourselves, what might it mean for Indigenous young people to have signed up to fight for their country, and then returned home second-class citizens? This piece, while historical in nature, has us face contemporary questions: Where are we in our journey towards remembering Indigenous individuals among the canon of Canadian historical greats? What has – and has not—changed in the past hundred years in the relationships between First Nations and the Canadian state, and what work needs to be done?

I was honored to sing with Camerata Nova when Balfour first presented “Take the Indian” at the New Music Festival in 2015 and later at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. This composition in many ways sparked the three-part series of concerts that serves as the ensemble’s response to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I’ll be in the audience at the concert Fallen this November 3rd and 4th, ready to listen to Camerata Nova’s reflection on service, responsibility, and community. As in the concert I heard this past weekend, I’ll also be ready to ask myself, what can I do to move us together towards fulfilling our collective responsibility towards each other? I hope you’ll join me.

An Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside, hip hop scholar Dr. Liz Przybylski specializes in Indigenous popular music practices in Canada and the United States. A graduate of Bard College (BA) and Northwestern University (MA, PhD), Liz has presented her research nationally and internationally. Her recent publications have appeared in Ethnomusicology, Journal of Borderlands Studies, IASPM@Journal, and others. She teaches courses on Indigenous music, popular music, ethnographic methods, and gender studies. In addition to her university teaching, Liz has taught at the American Indian Center in Chicago, hosted the world music show “Continental Drift” on WNUR in Chicago, and has conducted interviews with musicians for programs including “At The Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research” on CJUM in Winnipeg. Liz serves as the Media Reviews Editor for the journal American Music.

Dr. Liz Przybylski

An Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside, hip hop scholar Dr. Liz Przybylski specializes in Indigenous popular music practices in Canada and the United States. A graduate of Bard College (BA) and Northwestern University (MA, PhD), Liz has presented her research nationally and internationally. Her recent publications have appeared in Ethnomusicology, Journal of Borderlands Studies, IASPM@Journal, and others. She teaches courses on Indigenous music, popular music, ethnographic methods, and gender studies. In addition to her university teaching, Liz has taught at the American Indian Center in Chicago, hosted the world music show “Continental Drift” on WNUR in Chicago, and has conducted interviews with musicians for programs including “At The Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research” on CJUM in Winnipeg. Liz serves as the Media Reviews Editor for the journal American Music.