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Bird Sanctuary Concert
DATE :
DEADLINE: March 2, 2025 - 10:00 pm
Da Camera Singers upcoming concert features Edmonton singer/songwriter sensation Mallory Chipman, who will join us to share her research and her beautiful music about Alberta’s endangered and at-risk birds. Mallory’s 2023 album, As though I had wings is a solo EP reflecting her love of nature, and specifically, bird calls. As described on her website:
“Each of the four songs on As Though I Had Wings is based on sounds of birds native to Alberta, all of which are endangered or threatened, such as the burrowing owl, the black tern, the red-winged blackbird, and the peregrine falcon. Mallory says that the inspiration for the project struck one day when she heard a common birdcall and it suddenly reminded her of a film score buried deep in her memory. From there, she began tuning in more closely to birdcalls on her regular hikes, while thinking of how to transcribe them into playable music by establishing a key and making sense of their rhythm.”
As simply a songwriting experiment, the results are stunning, but on another level, Mallory’s approach perhaps opens up previously unexplored ways of thinking about melody—melodies that only birds can produce.
The concert program is shaped around Mallory’s music and presentation, from which we’ll learn about the origins of birdsong in music, her creative process, music as activism, interspecies kinship, and of course about many of Alberta’s at-risk birds. Our music will frame and complement each of these topics, and we are thrilled to combine musical forces, bringing the choir together with Mallory to perform some of her music as part of her band!
Bring along your birding journal for this feathery feast of fabulous folk and fine choral works from the Renaissance to today, including the premiere of a stunning new commission by BC composer Nicholas Ryan Kelly!
We are very excited to also announce our concert sponsor – Wild Birds Unlimited! www.mywbu.com/edmonton