East Coast comes to the Kivalliq
J.P. Cormier to perform in Rankin Inlet, Arviat
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
RANKIN INLET/ARVIAT
East Coast recording artist J.P. Cormier will perform in Rankin Inlet and Arviat this coming week.
J.P. Cormier jams with his former bass player, Emily Dingwall, during the opening of the Alianait Arts Festival in Iqaluit. Cormier will be performing in Rankin Inlet and Arviat this coming week. - photo courtesy of Ed Maruyama |
Cormier will appear at the Siniktarvik Hotel in Rankin on May 25, and at John Arnalukjuak High School (JAHS) on May 26.
The Rankin show is a partnership between the Alianait Arts Festival and the Rankin Inlet Music Society, while Arviat's has Alianait partnering with the hamlet.
Festival co-ordinator Kathleen Merritt said during Alianait's 2014-2019 strategic-planning session it was decided one direction it wanted to take was to engage more Nunavut communities in presenting performing art or hosting training.
She said Alianait has started to expand its programming and training into other communities in an effort to become more of a Nunavut-wide organization.
"We also want to have more representation on our board of directors outside of Iqaluit," said Merritt.
"As part of that, we looked at what communities in the other regions we could partner up with when planning our concert series.
"J.P. Cormier was at our festival a couple of years ago, and we wanted to have him back to join our 2015 concert series.
"We felt he would do very well in Rankin and Arviat because of the growing music scenes in both communities."
Arviat has a huge arts and performing-arts scene, making the community quite happy to partner for the first time with Alianait to bring Cormier to town.
Merritt said to date, the Alianait partnerships have been going very well and the organization is really excited about its upcoming concerts.
She said this will be J.P.'s second time in Nunavut, but the first time for the Canadian bluegrass/folk/Celtic singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist to perform outside of Iqaluit.
"There's a huge East Coast population in both communities so I'm sure there will be a good turnout.
"J.P. is a known and respected artist across Canada, and we're excited to have him.
"We owe a big thank you to the Hamlet of Arviat and JAHS for their awesome participation in this.
"In Rankin, we have to thank the local music society, the Siniktarvik for providing a venue, Nanuq Lodge for accommodations, and both Calm Air and Canadian North for bringing J.P. to the Kivalliq."
