Andrew Balfour, Composer - Kismet in Toronto before a journey to Cross Lake

Today we were thrilled to have the honour of meeting Andrew Balfour.  We had a wonderful lunch and conversation. As we've mentioned before, sometimes it's strange how things work out with our relationships with Cross Lake and this meeting was no exception. Andrew is actually travelling to Cross Lake in a few weeks as part of an arts council outreach. He did not know anyone in the community and was going with the purpose of making connections to work with the youth doing some music and arts programming. He met the perfect person over lunch in Toronto - Star! And both Andrew and Star were leaving Friday, and he just happened to be available on the only day we were able to meet as well!

Laura Menard, music educator at Humberside has worked on several of Andrew's pieces but had not had the chance to meet him in person so it was a huge honour for her as well. Laura's long time mentor and friend Brad Ratzlaff was also able to join us. It was really lovely and a lunch that will not be forgotten as it has opened up so many more opportunities for the youth in Cross Lake!

Pictured above: Evelyn Spence, Computer teacher Mikisew, Andrew Balfour, Composer, Star Beardy, Music and First Nations teacher Mikisew, and Brad Ratzlaff ViVa artistic director. Photo by Lisa Prinn. 

Here's some info about Andrew, and two pieces to check out - both of which Ms. Merard, music teacher at Humberside CI has performed!

http://cameratanova.com/16/about-us/artistic-director/

https://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/other-media/blog/general-music/27102-andrew-balfour-writing-an-urgent-opera?platform=hootsuite

Pieces:

Ambé - http://larrynickel.com/CypressAudio/Ambe.html

VIVA - where the music makers met.
https://www.vivayouthsingers.com/about-us/artistic-staff/brad-ratzlaff/