Diverse As This Land
August 28 and 29, 7:30 p.m.
Rolston Recital Hall, The Banff Centre
Tickets: Adult $20 · Student/Senior $15 · Child $9
Box Office: 403.762.6301 or 1.800.413.8368
Presented as part of the 2009 Banff Summer Arts Festival
Two nights of concerts by some of the most talented Indigenous performers from Mongolia, the United States, and Canada will close the 2009 Banff Summer Arts Festival on a high note. Diverse As This Land will bring together Aboriginal performers to showcase the vast character of mountain songs from a diversity of Indigenous nations, representing traditional, electronic, rock, folk, and contemporary musical genres. The concerts will take place on August 28 and 29 in the Rolston Recital Hall.
The nature of land and the diversity within Aboriginal cultures is the inspiration behind Diverse as This Land. “Land informs the way we sing, move, sense, think, and ultimately how we connect,” says Sandra Laronde, director of Aboriginal Arts programming at The Banff Centre. “I’m deeply interested in how land shapes voice, movement, and cultural expression. We are all inextricably linked to the land, and we carry our sense of place wherever we go.”
The concerts will feature performances by Altai Kkangai, a group of Indigenous traditional musicians from Mongolia whose unique sound includes throat singing, horse-head fiddle, and two-stringed violin. Also performing is Pura Fé from the Tuscarora nation in the United States, a singer-songwriter and musician who’s performed with such iconic artists as Sting, Neil Young, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. And representing Canada will be George Leach, from the Sta’atl’imx nation from British Columbia, an award-winning singer-songwriter-musician and actor who’s opened for Bo Diddley, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Robbie Robertson, among others.
Diverse As This Land marks the second year in a seven-year vision for music programming in The Banff Centre’s Aboriginal Arts. “We are excited by the prospect of our first international installment of Diverse as this Land this year,” says Laronde. “We tend to see Aboriginal people through a limited lens that does not always encompass our true size and potential. We want audiences to experience that, truly, our art and culture is as diverse as this land.”
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