Michelle Farrell

To follow in the tradition of my forefathers.  To honour my parents.  To increase the good vibrations.  To teach my son.  To learn. To connect.   This is why I sing my song.  Nia.  Thank-you.

Michelle is a lawyer in private practice, a member of the NDC Board of Directors and a soprano.

NICK KREWEN
Reading of bestseller accompanied by live music in concert

Bestselling novel The Book of Negroes is going multimedia.

‘This is a wonderful juxtaposition of literature and music. . . . It’s illuminating a part of history.’ BRAINERD BLYDEN-TAYLOR

On Valentine’s Day, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, led by founder and artistic director Brainerd BlydenTaylor, is teaming up with author Lawrence Hill and jazz veteran pianist and composer Joe Sealy at Toronto’s acoustically pristine Koerner Hall. There they will present an evening of music and narrative based on Hill’s award-winning novel, a fictional work inspired by a non-fictional historical registry of the same name, and portions of Sealy’s Juno Award-winning Africville Suite.

AARON HARRIS PHOTOS FOR THE TORONTO STAR Brainerd Blyden-taylor, centre, leads the Nathaniel Dett Chorale as Hill, far left, looks on in rehearsal last week.

The Nathaniel Dett Chorale will be be performing this weekend at NAAC. The chorale visit comes as part of a three-year residency in the North. - photo courtesy of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale

Nathaniel Dett Chorale visits Yk as part of three-year residency

Adrian Lysenko
Northern News Services

SOMBA K’E/YELLOWKNIFE – As part a three-year residency, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale will be performing this week in Yellowknife.
NNSL photo/graphic

“We’re here to spread the good word, so to speak,” said Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, the founder, artistic director and conductor of the chorale.

The group’s 21 vocalists are dedicated to Afrocentric music of all styles, including classical, spiritual, gospel, jazz, folk and blues.

The group has shared the stage with artists such as Juno Award-winning jazz pianist Joe Sealy, singers Molly Johnson and Jackie Richardson, and opera star Kathleen Battle and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

They were also the only Canadian ensemble invited to perform as part of the celebrations surrounding the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama in January 2009.

The ensemble’s visit to the North comes after Blyden-Taylor met Ben Nind, executive director of the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (NACC) a few years ago in Ottawa.

“He was interested in part because of the kind of music we do which is Afrocentric chorale music, but he was also interested in telling a story that is not so often known.” said Blyden-Taylor.

This story is the building of the Alaska-Canadian Highway by a battalion of African-American soldiers from Louisiana during World War II.

“He’s been wanting to tell this story,” said Blyden-Taylor.

This year’s concert will serve as an introduction for the community to hear the chorale’s style of music.

Next year Blyden-Taylor said he plans to return to the territory with a few other members from the group conduct workshops with community choirs.

And for the third year, he said he plans on bringing back the entire ensemble to join Northerns in a theatrical production of the story about the African-American battalion building the highway.

“So that’s the plan,” said Blyden-Taylor. “It’s a big plan.”

For the chorale, which played a concert in Inuvik yesterday, it was their first performance in the Northwest Territories.

“It definitely an awesome opportunity being able to share this music with different parts of Canada, it has been a real privilege and especially for this time of the year for Black History Month,” said Caroline Williams, soprano with the chorale.

“I’m really looking forward to going dog sledding.”

The artistic director said that touring in the territory not only gives members of the communities a chance to experience their style of music, but benefits the chorale as well.

“It is way for us to intersect with those communities and find more about them,” said Blyden-Taylor.

“It’s ambassadorial, if you will.”

The Nathaniel Dett Chorale will be performing at Northern Arts and Cultural Centre on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.

Published Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Given that they formed in 1998, it’s been a long wait for the first CD from the Nathaniel Dett Chorale. Happily, it’s here now in the form of Listen to the Lambs – The Music of R. Nathaniel Dett, a diverse but always compelling collection of choral music.

The Nathaniel Dett Chorale

Chorale founder and artistic director Brainerd Blyden-Taylor acknowledges that “it has been a long time coming, both for the Chorale and for the music of Nathaniel Dett. Releasing a recording of his work is something I set as a goal for the Chorale. We were not formed strictly to do his music, but I certainly wanted to honour him.”

If you draw a blank over the name of Dett, don’t feel bad. “Canadians really didn’t know much about his life or his music,” notes Blyden-Taylor. “He was better known in the United States, because of his adult life and work there.”

Dett is an Afro-Canadian composer we should be proud to claim, as his work has stood the test of time. The liner notes in Listen to the Lambs explain that he was born in the Southern Ontario community of Drummondville, one populated largely by blacks escaping slavery in the South. Dett was born there in 1882, then educated at Niagara Falls Collegiate Institute, and later in the U.S.

He studied in Paris, performed at Carnegie Hall and in front of two Presidents, taught at prestigious U.S. schools, and compiled an extensive and groundbreaking body of work.

Dett was dedicated to the cause of African Canadian and African American music, and his compositions were strongly influenced by spirituals and folk songs as well as more orthodox classical music elements.
His work served as an inspiration to Brainerd Blyden-Taylor. He’s long been a leading figure in Toronto choral music, via a long stint as artistic director of the Orpheus Chamber Choir (1987-2002). He has conducted The Ontario Youth Choir and served as Music Director of some major gospel and chorale events across Canada.
The Nathaniel Dett Chorale is clearly his primary passion. It is Canada’s first professional choral group dedicated to Afrocentric music of all styles, including classical, spiritual, jazz, gospel, folk and blues.

“I’ve set out to make people much more aware of Afrocentric music and chorale music in general. We have already done some mainstream classical stuff, spirituals, gospel, jazz, and a few African folk songs, and we are beginning to stretch this further too.”

That eclectic approach is shown on Listen To The Lambs, with material ranging from a version of “Ave Maria” to work based on Afro-American folk songs and the epic “The Chariot Jubilee,” inspired by classic spiritual “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”

The 21-voice Chorale features classically trained vocalists, and their strength in performance has been shown in well-received tours across Canada. Listen To The Lambs is released on local label Marquis Classics, and distributed here via EMI. It has also just been released in the States.

It stands as the first-ever CD recording of Dett’s choral work, and takes its name from a Dett piece. Listen to the Lambs is an eight-piece anthem that was recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. “It has been performed all over the world, and is his most well-known choral piece,” explains Brainerd. “It’s the title of the catalogue of the Dett collection and is the inscription on his gravestone in Niagara Falls, so it seemed natural for us to use it as our title.”

Tracking down Dett’s work has required some sleuthing by Blyden-Taylor, as some is out of print. “In June, I was doing a workshop at Hampton University in Virginia. Dett founded the School of Music there, so I had an opportunity to get into the archives there. I was able to get a number of new pieces, and we included two of those on the CD.”
When the Nathaniel Dett Chorale perform at the Markham Theatre on February 6, they will feature a variety of Afrocentric cantatas, including “The Chariot Jubilee.”
A new series will premiere at York University on February 26. Entitled Voices Of The Diaspora, it will, says Brainerd, “feature Afro-Cuban choral music, focusing on the texts of African poet Nicholas Guillen.”

Listen To The Lambs is out on Marquis Classics/EMI. The Nathaniel Dett Chorale perform at Markham Theatre on Feb. 6 and at York University on Feb. 26. A TV documentary on the ensemble screens on Vision.