What Does Diversity Sound Like?

“Where else but in Canada today, at this moment, can artists from different traditions come together to create a new body of work or, even, a new tradition?” asks the Royal Conservatory of Music on their website.  Their answer is the New Canadian Global Music Orchestra which the Conservatory has created by bringing together professional musicians from around the world who now live in Canada.

The orchestra includes:

Padideh Ahrarnejad (Iran) on tar
Sasha Boychouk (Ukraine) on woodwinds and ethnic Ukrainian flutes
Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk (Canada – Métis) on violin, viola, jaw harp, spoons, and vocals
Luis Deniz (Cuba) on saxophone
Anwar Khurshid (Pakistan) on sitar, flute, esraj, tabla, vocals, and harmonium
Lasso (Salif Sanou) (Burkina Faso) on Fulani flute, kambélé n’goni, tamanin (talking drum), balafon, djembe, doum-doum, and vocals
Paco Luviano (Mexico) on bass
Aline Morales (Brazil) on Brazilian percussion and vocals
Demetrios Petsalakis (Greece) on oud, guitar, lyra, bouzouki, riq, and Greek baglama
Matias Recharte (Peru) on drums, percussion, cajón, conga, and timbales
Dorjee Tsering (Tibet) on dranyen, flute, piwang, yang chin (dulcimer), and traditional Tibetan vocals
Dora Wang (China) on bamboo flute, flute, hulusi, xiao, panpipe, and ocarina
David Buchbinder (United States), Artistic Director

This orchestra is an attempt to create an orchestra  that sounds like Canada for the 150^th anniversary.  Although there are musicians in Canada from all over the world, they usually stay within their own musical traditions and cross-cultural collaborations are rare.  The executive director Mirvan Mehta wants to create the sound of these cultures coming together and expects a "distinctive audience experience."  After weeks of intensive co-creating and working with communities, their inaugural concert will be next week at Koerner Hall in Toronto.

So what does diversity sound like?  You can hear it on the 5 minute video on this webpage.  Just scroll down until you see the video box.  It explains and shows some of the process that the orchestra went through to create a new kind of music.  It looks like a lot of fun.  It is the sound of people creating a brand new sound from a process of collaboration.  Maybe this is the some of the music of our new story.