USask’s Greystone Singers and Aurora Voce choirs create beautiful music with the SSO.

The winter term often feels incessantly dull. The weather is cold, classes pile on faster than you ever expect and the mid-term break never feels truly like a break. Sometimes it feels easier to lay awake, look up at the stars and let your mind wander into obscurity. An upcoming performance from the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and the USask’s Greystone Singers and Aurora Voce choirs might have found the perfect middle ground between star-gazing and curing those winter blues.

On Feb. 25, Dr. Jennifer Lang, Associate Professor of Choral and Music Education at USask, will be leading the university’s choirs in a grand performance of Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Nordic Light — among  other sensational pieces — as they perform alongside the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra as part of the  Northern Lights festival.

Nordic Light is described on Ešenvalds’ website as “a multimedia work dedicated to the aurora borealis, the largest optical phenomenon in the Earth’s atmosphere. It tells the story of the Northern Lights through the folklore of Nordic peoples from Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, Siberia, Norway, Finland, Karelia, Estonia, and Latvia.” The SSO website describes the concert as “a treat for the eyes and ears,” as it combines audio and video mediums.

The concert features the symphony — led by conductor Nicolas Ellis — performing music composed by Ešenvalds, Marcus Goddard and Sibelius Jean. The concert’s program is set to videos of the northern lights, starry night skies and crashing ocean waves interspersed between pre-recorded audio and video projections of Nordic Indigenous storytellers sharing their perspectives and tales on what the aurora borealis mean to them.

Lang described the multimedia concert as “powerful” when she first experienced its Canadian premiere in 2018: “To bring the orchestra together with choirs with all sorts of singers and having this multimedia production go on at the same time … [while] hearing people’s voices in their own language telling stories about the northern lights is really powerful,” she said. “It’s just a really multi-sensory experience.”

Lang further highlighted this aspect of the concert being a multi-sensory experience as something integral to the life of Nordic Light, especially as audiences will be confronted with depictions of the northern lights that oppose our standard Canadian conception of them as awe-inspiring lights in the sky.

“I think the arts always have a role and a responsibility in having us confront our own understanding of life, people and communities,” she said. “This [show] challenges us to think of things in different ways to get inside someone else’s experience. 

“[The northern lights] all take different shapes, they all take different colors and therefore they take different meanings as we as humankind try to come to terms with what is unfathomable, what is intangible, and what is indescribable.”

One instance of how the sky (and thus the northern lights) are depicted in contrast to the rest of the concert was highlighted to me by Andrew Balfour. Balfour is the composer of Qilak, a piece being conducted by Lang and performed by the Greystone Singers and Aurora Voce in the second half of the concert. 

Andrew explained that his composition depicts his experience of stepping off of a plane in Iqaluit, Nunavut and looking up at the sky in a state of awe. “There is something all encompassing about the sky. Not just in the sight, but in its aspect to our culture and heritage,” he said. “In [Cree] Indigenous culture it is said that we come from the stars, that we are made from stardust. So to look up at the stars and the sky we are literally looking at where we come from.”

Balfour went on to explain how other cultures view things differently: “Other Indigenous cultures, such as those in Scandinavia, also view looking at the northern lights as even offensive, dangerous, and something that should be refrained from out of respect.”

Lastly, Balfour touched on how ultimately the cross-cultural appreciation of the sky was something that connected us all as humans. “I feel there is something inspiring about the sky. Despite our differences we are drawn to look up at it with just awe. It is awe-inspiring, it’s something we want to gaze at.” 

These differing perspectives on the sky being this grandiose, beautiful, yet possibly haunting entity is something Lang explained as being strongly portrayed in the sonics of the show: “We’re showcasing the diversity of the tone colors and timbres that you get with the voice and with instruments,” she said, before explaining how dynamic shifts and vocal textures can be used to mimic “how the northern lights change colour, fade, and come alive.”

Aside from the grand cultural influences the performance may provide to audiences, those so inclined may even find bewilderment in the technical and logistical elements of the show.

Matthew Praksas, a member of the Greystone Singers and librarian and production assistant for the SSO, explained that the audio-visual syncing of Nordic Light is “a whole other ballgame.”

Praksas explained that this performance is unique  in comparison to past audio-video performances because “there are separate video clips that have to be started at certain times.” (in past SSO shows the clips have been one long uninterrupted sequence.) What this means for the performance is that there will be times where the orchestra is in complete control of the music, and other times where the videos take over and run the show. It is quite a complex system for the musicians to keep up with.

What Praksas is most excited for audiences to experience are the unique sounds brought out by the choirs as they perform body-percussion, play drums, and use specially tuned wine glasses to create a “cosmic effect” on stage.

The emotion, movement and improvisation created through these techniques is more than your typical orchestra, Praksas says. “It’s not about what you’re supposed to hear. It’s not about what you’re told you have to listen to. It’s what you as a human being hear in that moment, when all these things are changing in the concert, so you’re experiencing a new culture at the same time.”

For Lang, community is at the core of this performance. “There are many of our students that play in the orchestra, and there are many of our alumni that play in the orchestra, so it really is the community, the music community of Saskatoon, coming together bringing difficult and really meaningful music to the Saskatoon audience.”

Personally, I think that’s something we all deserve in this little city under the stars. So, stop the winter moping, go out there and enjoy a journey across the bounds of space, human experience, and intellectual understanding. Let the music move through you and let its grandeur ground you from head to toe, from soil to sky. Tickets for the Feb. 25 Nordic Light concert can be found on the SSO and TCU Place websites.