The Jubilate Singers, University of Guelph Choirs, and Woodsworth College Spirit Singers (University of Toronto) will come together to perform a concert titled Ambe: Choral Reflections from Indigenous Composers. The concert takes place March 28 in Guelph, and March 29 in Toronto.
Andrew Balfour will be a special guest. The program will also include music by Indigenous composers Sherryl Sewepagaham, Corey Payette (“Gimikwenden Ina” from the musical Children of God), Alex Vollant, Beverley McKiver, Kristi Lane Sinclair, and Tara Williamson.
Ambe means, “come” or “let’s go” in Ojibwe/Anishinaabemowin. It’s a musical invitation to the conductors, singers, and audience to go on a journey of understanding Indigenous perspectives via music.
The events will incorporate imagery by artist Mark V. Nadjiwan, including his The Emissary, pictured above. The Turtle is thought of as such, a carrier of knowledge between worlds. It’s an apt metaphor for the spirit of the concert, that of bridging worlds. The Turtle also hears with ears that are hidden to the eye, which links to the notion of listening beyond a superficial understanding.
The concert was inspired by Balfour’s Nagamo project. Balfour was a child of the Sixties Scoop, taken from his Indigenous homeland and raised in the Anglican choral tradition. His music, and the Nagamo project in particular, explore the possibility of “nation to nation respect and musical dialogue between the nations of the so-called New World and Old World,” as he writes.
Ambe is not a recreation of the Nagamo project, but a concert inspired by its message.
Andrew Balfour & The Nagamo Project
Andrew Balfour was born in the Fisher River Cree Nation north of Winnipeg. His adoptive father, of Scottish descent, was a minister at a church in Winnipeg, and his adoptive mother was a violinist. He was interested in music as a child, and sang in the choir as well as playing trumpet and trombone.
Largely self-taught, Balfour founded a vocal ensemble called Dead of Winter in 1996, and began composing music. His works have since been commissioned and performed by prominent ensembles across Canada, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
Balfour’s Nagamo project takes the choral music of Elizabethan and other European choral composers and reworks the text, changing Latin to Ojibway or Cree both in language and perspective. He does not translate the lyrics directly, but instead infuses the works with Indigenous notions of spirituality.
The Nagamo project was originally developed with Vancouver’s musica intima choir, performed and toured, and released on the Redshift Records label in 2022. The album was nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award.
Andrew Balfour: The Interview
Balfour will be present at both concerts to conduct and also sing some of the solo parts.
The Nagamo project includes music by English Renaissance composers William Byrd and Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger, along with Balfour’s arrangements of other works, including pieces by Thomas Tallis, Henry Purcell, and more.
Two pieces, Omaa Biindig and Trapped in Stone, are Balfour’s original works.
“That was with musica intima,” Balfour says of Nagamo. He had approached the choir after admiring their work. “They’re an incredible chamber ensemble,” he adds, noting their support for Canadian composers.
How did he come up with the idea for Nagamo?
“I was always interested in the story of the four kings in the 18th century,” he begins. In 1710, three kings from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and one Mohican leader travelled to London, England to meet with Queen Anne. They were treated as equals by the British monarch.
“That was a fascinating idea for me of Indigenous people in England in the 18th century,” Balfour says. “That’s where the idea came from,” he explains.
“The idea of respect and nation to nation — of course that didn’t happen [in the end].” Nonetheless, it led him to think about what history could have been like.
Andrew travelled to England himself with the Winnipeg church choir, and heard the music of the iconic English choral composers in their own homeland. “I loved that music,” he says.
“I wanted to go back to that music with an Indigenous perspective.”
While he avoided direct translation of the original texts into Ojibway or Cree, there are many parallels.
“A lot of the texts did kind of match up,” he explains. He carefully considered the rhythms of the language and the way it would go along with the music.
Nagamo Lives On
“It was a dream gig,” Balfour says of the project. The tour and JUNO nomination were icing on the cake. Since then, the music has continued to gain in recognition.
“It continues to live, which really shouldn’t surprise me,” he says. “We published all these scores, and all these other choirs have picked it up.”
He’s pleased that the work has been performed by different choirs across Canada, and sung by younger voices. Jubilate’s co-Music Director Isabel Bernaus contacted him a few months ago.
“I get to conduct some, I get to sing solos,” he says. “It’s a very unique concert, even for Toronto.”
He notes the work of other composers, including both men and women, are included in the program.
“It’s going to be a real thrill for me personally.”
Balfour points out that his pieces, originally composed for 12 voices, will be sung by some 130 singers for Ambe. He appreciates the significance. “To hear Indigenous stories and songs sung by non-Indigenous voices.”
Early Music
One of the pieces is his adaptation of Purcell’s Hear My Prayer, O Lord. “It’s a masterpiece,” Balfour says. “When I approached that, I sound the words ‘we are, she mourns’ — Pakaskitawew. I didn’t have to change the notes. I found a text that works,” he says.
“It’s still Purcell, but to me it has a deeper meaning in Cree. That’s exciting,” he says.
“I’m an early music nerd myself.”
Byrd is one of the composers he’s adapted for Nagamo. “In my mind, he’s certainly one of the greatest of that period.” Balfour says he’s also attracted to the music of Bach. “He’s the master, and certainly one of the greatest of that period. I would love to do a follow up, and I would do more Byrd.”
While he’s always been attracted to the music, when he was younger, there were only older recordings to reference. He excited by the renewal of early music that he’s seen during his lifetime, beginning with the Tallis Scholars and how they popularized early music for a new generation.
“I think that really changed things. It’s quite thrilling in our lifetime that we’ve seen that change.”
When he lived in Toronto, he worked with many of the city’s early music ensembles, including Tafelmusik. He’s now in the process of working with Diapente Renaissance Vocal Quintet. Working with early music material with a view to adaptation and developing it keeps that centuries old music alive.
“Museum pieces, which I feel like a lot of classical music falls into,” he says. “But, with early music — I don’t even like that term; it’s now music.”
Developing Renaissance material with Mohawk perspectives seems to be his unique niche in the music world.
“It seems to be the direction I want to take.”
One day, he’d like to translate the Vespers, and the Tallis 40 voice motet, setting each part in a different Indigenous language.
“Things like that would be a lot of fun,” he says. “I think that choir directors today are really open to that.”
He appreciates the more open environment for classical music, even sacred music, that he sees today. “Even in my career, over the last 25 years, I’ve seen it,” he says.
It’s not only with larger or professional choirs. “I find great satisfaction either working with community choirs or youth choirs. It is all to me, a big act of healing. Through choral music, I see a lot of non-Indigenous people’s true understanding of reconciliation.”
He says working with choirs puts him in a safe space where he’s respected by directors, singers, artists.
“We still have a long way to go for healing. But, it’s not going to be the politicians that lead the way.”
The Audience
The audience reaction to Nagamo has been gratifying.
“It’s always been really amazing.” The tour brought the music to various communities. “It was well thought out by intima. They included community,” he says.
“That was kind of the whole idea, was not to take a show, but build community. It’s relationship building. To reach out to local communities and make that connection.”
Audiences took in both the music and the message.
“It was really inspiring.”
The Minnesota State Mankato Choir performs Andrew Balfour/Henry Purcell Hear My Prayer, O Lord:
The Concerts
“I’m actually singing the wonderful aria by Purcell,” he says, calling the music powerful. As he sings the solo part in English, the choir will sing an ostinato part in Cree.
He emphasizes that Ambe is an evolution, not a re-creation.
“My feeling of this particular Ambe concert, it’s not Nagamo, it’s pieces form Nagamo with all these other wonderful pieces. These are all pieces that deserve to be, just as much as [the others] to be heard.”
Balfour credits Bernaus and Jubilate co-Music Director Marta McCarthy with weaving all the music together into a compelling program.
“It’s going to be a great experience.”
The Concerts: Details
The concert will be performed in Guelph at Harcourt Commons on March 28, 2026, and in Toronto at
Calvin Presbyterian Church on March 29.
- Find concert details and tickets [HERE].
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