Music and poetry to honour our rivers; our free community holiday concert, WinterSing!; and Mexican Indigenous Baroque music fused with contemporary Cree – our 29th Winnipeg concert series promises to tell stories, innovate and celebrate!
Check out the breakdown of our full season below, including individual concert details. We’re looking forward to singing for (and with!) you this year!
Nestaweya
October 20, 2024, 3:00 pm, Desautels Concert Hall, University of Manitoba
Curators: Andrew Balfour and Mel Braun
Conductor: Mel Braun
Commissioned works by Andrew Balfour and poet Katharena Vermette
Special thank you to concert sponsors Winnipeg 150, City of Song
Nestaweya means “three points” in Cree. Locally, it represents The Forks and the great rivers that brought the Cree, Ojibwe and Dakota peoples together. As a special offering for Winnipeg 150, City of Song, Dead of Winter celebrates water and the pre-settler roots of Winnipeg with a concert featuring the music of Indigenous composers Melody McKiver, Ian Cusson and Andrew Balfour set to the words of Metis poet/author Katharena Vermette, and will include Indigenous Songkeepers.
This concert has been chosen as one of the first to be performed in the new Desautels Concert Hall, opening in September 2024 at the University of Manitoba.
Get your tickets HERE
WinterSing!
November 24, 2024, 3:00 pm at the Crescent Arts Centre, 525 Wardlaw
Curator/Conductor: Victor Pankratz
Guest Artists: Oberih Ukrainian Choir
WinterSing! is Dead of Winter’s annual free community concert. This year, we are celebrating the Ukrainians of Winnipeg, both long-standing and newcomers. Come to hear stories, enjoy the exceptional beauty of Ukrainian Christmas music and exercise your own vocal chords with well-known carols.
Be sure to secure your FREE tickets through the link below and bring your family and your vocal chords to this extraordinary experience created by curator/conductor, Vic Pankratz!
Support Harvest Manitoba, bring a tin for the bin!
Space is limited, please secure your FREE tickets HERE
WaaWaa Steewak (Early Music and the Doctrine of Discovery)
April 6, 2025, 3:00 and 7:30 pm at St. John’s Chapel, St. John’s College, University of Manitoba
Curator/Conductor: Andrew Balfour
Guest Artists: Emily Eng, violist; Cheri Maracle, narrator/singer; Joseph Naytowhow, Elder/Songkeeper
Special thank you to Winnipeg Baroque Festival sponsors:
Drs. Bill Pope and Elizabeth Tippet Pope and Ron and Sandi Mielitz
Created by Andrew Balfour, this is Dead of Winter’s innovative entry in the 2025 Winnipeg Baroque Festival. For years, Andrew has been fascinated by the fact that Mexican Indigenous composers were involved in writing Spanish-influenced Renaissance and Baroque music for Mexican churches back in the 17th and 18th centuries. Andrew has woven this music together with the four movements of Waawaa Steewak (Northern Lights), his first Indigenous-influenced work which tells the story of Chepi, a young Cree woman living pre-Contact who is spirited by a trickster into current life in downtown Winnipeg. Mysterious, beautiful, sometimes sad and scary bridges between distant cultures.
Please note: This concert is part of the Winnipeg Baroque Festival to be held March 30-April 19, 2025. Early Bird ticket package available soon through the Winnipeg Baroque Festival website.
