The Saugeen Bruce Peninsula is Sarah Pratt-Parsamian’s favourite place on Earth. It’s where she grew up, and returns to each summer. If you live on it, near it, or have visited it, you understand the beauty that draws her home regularly. But, in 2021, she decided to give something back to the land that has given her so much.
Her contribution: a music festival called Music on the Bruce that has run for five years with a focus on Canadian musicians and composers. Her concept is simple: provide indoor and outdoor concerts for residents across the communities of the Peninsula to bring people together through music.
When you host a music festival on the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula, you’re inviting the scenery to join the ensemble. The ecosystem of the Peninsula is beautiful, intricate, and emotional so you need the music to match it.
Sarah is well aware of this. It’s why she’s chosen the venues, artists, and pieces she has.
The environment has always been part of her ethos for Music on the Bruce. When you grow up around the hiking trails, clear water and pristine views of Bruce County, it becomes part of you.
During one particular summer home, everything had been shut down. The first COVID summer was a difficult one for the remote communities of the Bruce Peninsula who had little opportunity to interact. This is when she had a brainchild: why not host small outdoor concerts for people to escape the lockdown life? What began as a way to bring classical music to neighbours, turned into a full fledged music festival that continues to grow each year.
“I brought my violin, and since no one could go anywhere, I went to every park and every little community I could find and played a solo recital and had people come out,” says Pratt-Parsamian of that first summer. “I called all the towns and asked if I could do it…it ended up showing how much of an audience there is for classical music [on the Bruce Peninsula]. I decided I was going to make this official.”
Sure enough, she created a non-profit and began an annual festival that spanned the many communities on the Peninsula: Lion’s Head, Tobermory, Pike Bay, Cape Croker, Wiarton and Oliphant to name a few.. She’s been able to expand every year through grant funding from The Ontario Arts Council, Bruce Power, and the Town of South Bruce.
And in her sixth year, she has accomplished something very special. She’s commissioned a piece of music that is both for and from the Peninsula. Petrichor is written by Saugeen Ojibway poet Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and composed by Canada’s Frank Horvat; it’s a project rooted in a love for the land and made possible through SOCAN funding.
“This year the big expansion was to try to get into First Nations communities because if you’re going to have a festival for the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula, you need to include First Nations,” says Sarah, who was introduced to Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm’s poetry through a friend and knew she was the perfect fit to write words for the piece. Frank Horvat was chosen to compose the music because of his inventive, versatile skill as a composer, as well as his focus on environmental and humanitarian causes.
There is a common thread that runs through Frank, Sarah and Kateri;: they all share an appreciation for nature and want to make a difference, Frank through his music, Kateri through her words, and Sarah through her festival. Together, they’ve created something special and I can’t wait to hear it. The commissioned piece for Saugeen Bruce Peninsula will be premiered at 40th Annual Neyaashiinigmiing Traditional Pow Wow at Cape Croker on August 14 with Natasha Campbell (soprano), Sarah Pratt-Parsamian and Elizabeth Loewen-Andrews (violins), Natasha Sharko (viola), and Cathy Anderson (cello)
“It’s the perfect place and the perfect time to premiere this work and dedicate it to the Saugeen,” Sarah says.
Kateri and Frank are equally excited for the premiere at Traditional Pow Wow. Kateri is a published poet who I’ve admired since I first read her poetry collection My Heart Is a Stray Bullet many years ago and is an Assistant Professor, teaching Creative Writing, Indigenous Literatures, and Oral Traditions in the English Department at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. She is the founder, publisher and art director of Kegedonce Press.
This isn’t Kateri’s first time putting words to music. She set out first to write the text before submitting it to Frank and Sarah.
“I just thought about my homeland and that was the inspiration for it,” says Kateri. “Our area and our history [on Saugeen Bruce Peninsula]. I actually wrote way too much” she says and laughs. “I’m not good at taking instructions.”
“I wanted there to be movement in terms of emotion,” Kateri says. “All of it is based in the land itself. I wanted there to be a sense of love because of my love for my territory and my love for my people. I think that love between Indigenous people is not what people often think about. They don’t think about our love stories and our love poetry. I’ve been on this journey wanting to express that.”
Both Frank and Sarah were enamored with Kateri’s words and knew they had something remarkable.
“It’s always a special thing to compose vocal music,” says Frank, who is no stranger to composing unique pieces. “A vocal piece of music is equally words and music in the presentation of the work.”
He immersed himself in Kateri’s poetry before beginning any composition. He wanted to understand the words, ask questions, and share his interpretation with Kateri. The composition came naturally from that point.
“I feel like a vessel. It just comes out of me” says Frank of the process. He delivered the piece to Sarah, who is excited to make it available to all this summer.
Sarah is very interested in hosting an accessible festival. If you do that, the growth will come.
“I want to see it become established as an annual thing where everybody who lives on the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula, both settlers and First Nations, enjoy it and benefit from it,” says Sarah. “I want them to get this great cultural experience. I also want to use the festival to showcase Canadian composers”
Frank Horvat is the Canadian composer featured this summer with multiple pieces of his being performed. You’ll also see musicians Shane Kim, Caitlin Boyle, and Rachel Desoer performing across venues from August 24 – 30. Sarah will also be performing as she has since year one.
Along with the concerts, Music on the Bruce also offers some unique programming such as the Open Rehearsals where the public can eat their lunch and watch the musicians rehearse. It’s a cool way to engage with the audience by tearing down the fourth wall as Sarah puts it.
But above all, Sarah, Kateri and Frank are all excited for the community of the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula to hear Petrichor.
“My goal when I compose music is to create something I’ve never heard before but that also touches my heart and soul” adds Frank.
“I hope they’re moved by it,” says Kateri. “And that they have a greater appreciation for the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula music. I hope my own people from SON appreciate it, and that there’s an entry point for Indigenous youth to become inspired by what can be done by classical music, and can be part of contemporary music.”
So come out to Music on the Bruce this August and get inspired by the music that is full of heart and pays homage to the land we all love.
Find the schedule, tickets and more info at http://www.musiconthebruce.com/
Written by Jesse Wilkinson
Photos provided by Sarah Pratt-Parsamian
