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Students share their talents
Grade 5 students lend voices to throatsinging album

Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Published Monday, February 9, 2015

IQALUIT
Alianait festival co-ordinator Kathleen Merritt gets to meet a lot of talented musicians and as she prepares to release her first throatsinging album, she's taking the opportunity to discover some new talent, too.

Faith Veevee and Talia Armstrong, Grade 5 students from Nakasuk School in Iqaluit, went into the studio this month to contribute their voices to Merritt's forthcoming and unnamed album.

"I was excited," Faith said. "But when we were going there, I had butterflies in my stomach. When we were done, I was so happy."

Faith and Talia are best friends who have been throat-singing together since they were four years old, and are members of Grade 1 teacher Elizabeth Ryan's new after-school throatsinging club, which has about 40 members from grades one to five.

"Last year, when I did my internship as a student teacher here, when I did my playground duties, I would hear these girls throatsinging during recess," Ryan said. "I wondered if there were a place where these girls could come and share throatsinging with other girls in the school."

There wasn't, so she started the club in September, and already it's at capacity. When Merritt asked Ryan to choose two members of the club to sing on the album, she went with the most experienced singers.

"They're both very strong throatsingers, they're good partners, and they show strong leadership skills," Ryan said. "I just really liked seeing how well they worked with each other as well as (with) the other girls in the club."

The pair will be working with singers well-known on the local arts scene. "One of the songs on the album is Qimmiruluapik, a three-way throatsong with myself, Nancy Mike, and Marie Belleau," Merritt said, noting it's the first time she has heard three-way throatsinging. The addition of the young girls brings at least two more voices to the song.

"I wanted it to begin with the young girls because the sounds in Qimmiruluapik are so different, and they differ between every throatsinger. At a younger age, they have a very different and unique sound, as do elders. I also recorded Qimmiruluapik with male vocals, and we may include that."

Merritt's album, due to be released after Alianait wraps up in July, is expected to have about 11 songs. She is working with Chris Coleman at Nuvu Music in Iqaluit, and the album is funded through the Department of Economic Development and Transportation's arts development fund.

"I listened to the recording, and they were fantastic," Merritt said of the girls. "They were very good. I was very happy to hear their performance. They could sing for a very long time, too, which was very neat to hear from young throatsingers.

When I was younger, I had only heard throatsinging a few times at local talent shows. It wasn't as commonly heard as it is today. I love the fact that they're teaching young kids in schools."

Faith, who lives with her grandparents Jukipa and David Veevee, and Talia, whose parents are Sarah and Seamus Armstrong, see themselves singing together for a long time.

"The possibilities are endless for them," Ryan said. "There's so much they can do with throatsinging, and the future looks bright."

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