Song project connects all
Students' lyrics professionally composed and performed
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, December 15, 2016
INUVIK
When Gryphon Trio and Patricia O'Callaghan came to Inuvik to perform earlier this month, they weren't just playing their own songs and the classics.
Composer Carmen Braden addresses the audience before the Gryphon Trio and Patricia O'Callaghan play Stitches and Dreams, written by East Three Secondary School students. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photos
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The group also performed Stiches and Dreams, written by Inuvik youth.
"It was like 'yay,'" explained East Three Secondary School student Anibe Abba, who had a hand in the writing process.
She was one of 10 students who met for two days of classes earlier in the year with Carmen Braden, a Yellowknife-based composer who runs Black Ice Sound, her internationally recognized music and sound company.
In addition to writing their own songs, students jointly came up with Stitches and Dreams, which centred around themes of belonging, family and identity.
Braden took the song and arranged it for Gryphon Trio to play on violin, piano and cello, with O'Callaghan to provide vocals.
Putting the students' thoughts into song and having it performed is all about connection, she said.
"We were talking about identity or belonging to a community or big ideas like war and peace and how that feels to a young person," she said.
Combining all of that in a two-and-a-half-minute piece of music connects the writers, performers and anyone who hears it.
"It builds connection through sound," said Braden. "It's a very powerful thing."
The students touched on some deep subjects, such as suicide, in her meetings with them, said Braden.
"I'm always humbled," she said. "I'm continuously surprised when I work with young people. They have so much creativity and curiosity."
They were tackling ideas that are big even for older people, she added.
After performing the song at East Three Secondary School, O'Callaghan said it was a great way to involve the community and find out what the young people are thinking about.
"It's very touching," she said of Stitches and Dreams.
"It's very moving. I like the simplicity of it. It's very sincere. A couple of people came up to me and said they had tears in their eyes after they heard it, because it just seems like a very honest song."
Abba said she wants to pursue music further in life.
"It's important to all of us," she said.
