SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Late in the 19th century, French impressionist painters represented a mood by covering a canvas in a soft melange of colour and a gentle blend of texture. Their abandonment of realism accentuated light and flow over line and form.

French classical music of the period achieves the same effect with sound.

A group of classical musicians in Yellowknife will pay homage to French impressionism with two evening concerts at Northern Arts and Cultural Centre this weekend.

"That lovely, hazy, dreamy painting does have its corollary in music, I guess you could say," flutist Maureen Crotty said.

Crotty will share the stage with pianists Anita Kuzma and Amy Hendricks, clarinetist Adrian Wright and sopranos Shelly Gislason and Susan Shantora.

They will be joined by visiting Edmonton pianist and professor Janet Scott Hoyt, who supervises the graduate program in piano pedagogy in the faculty of music at the University of Edmonton.

The concerts feature three works by Claude Debussy for clarinet and piano, a selection from Gabriel Faure's requiem, The Invisible Flute by Camille Saint-Saens and compositions for flute and piano by Francis Poulenc.

Gislason will sing pieces by naturalized French composer Reynaldo Hahn.

"It's all music set to poems about taking off in a gondola and young love and all that kind of nonsense," she explained.

Shantora will present a familiar selection of traditional French-Canadian music arranged by Canadian composer Godfrey Rideout and traditional French folk songs arranged by Georges Bizet.

"It's a pretty full program with lots of variety," Gislason said. "We've been working hard putting this set of music together. It will be quite fun, I think."

The concerts begin at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.