Hello songwriters!  

Here’s a message from Rhea about an exciting project:

The Special Events Coordinator at the Provincial Archives (Jaclyn Landry) is looking for Songwriters to champion an inspiring summer project!   

The Provincial Archives in Edmonton houses over 3 million fascinating historic photographs of Alberta’s history.  This summer, they would like to invite 12 songwriters to compose songs inspired by photographs and celebrate the project with a special Culture Days Concert in September! The project may be filmed for a documentary. The Archives has a goal of recording the finished songs on a compilation album. 

Our first orientation will be held on Wednesday evening of June 19 at the Provincial Archives building from 7 to 9 pm.   During this first session, we will be treated to a tour of the archives after which we will do some inspired brainstorming and generate a list of topics: people, places, events in Alberta history. 

 We will begin our writing project on July 3.  At this time, the staff at the archives will pull materials identified for use from our session on June 19.  Jaclyn will work with the in-house reference and private records staff to pull additional interesting and engaging materials  (War time journals, photo collections, postcards – items that help to tell a story and share what life was like – or that inferences can be made based on that).

We will continue to meet and work together over the summer on the proposed dates of Wed July 3 / Wed July 10 / Wed Aug 14 and Wed Aug 21.   You don’t have to be present for all sessions and of course, everyone is welcomed and encouraged to spend time at the Provincial Archives and write independently.    Our finale will be two full production concerts (free to the public) at the Provincial Archives during Culture Days weekend (Sept 27 & 28)   We welcome songwriters of all ages for this project!   Here are a few details.  

• Songwriters of any age
• They can do solos or duets etc.
• Culminating experience will be a concert (or 2) at the Provincial Archives as a part of Culture Days Sept 27/28 (Can do the same concert twice (one on Friday, one on Saturday) or split the artists up on different nights).
• Provincial Archives has an 8 inch riser stage 
• Provincial Archives will contract a sound and lighting tech for the concerts
• Would like to create a slide show with archival visuals (photos etc.) as the back drop for the stage concert
• As a part of the concert, would be great if the artists were able to talk about their work at the archives, what they discovered though their research, what struck them and maybe read a small section of script from the original document, before starting to sing their song, in an effort to “set the stage” and provide some context about the story in the song.

This will be a wonderful songwriting project that has the potential to soar!   

Please let Rhea know as soon as possible if you are interested and able to attend the orientation and info session on Wednesday, June 19!

Bardic Form at EFMF 2012

We’re excited to announce the School of Song line-ups for the 2013 Canmore and Edmonton Folk Music Festivals!

Canmore Folk Music Festival
August 3, 4, & 5, 2013
James of Dark Wood
The Eerie Green
Braden Gates
Jordan Norman
Cayley Thomas-Haug
Alex Vissia

Edmonton Folk Music Festival
August 8-11, 2013
Braden Gates
Jordan Norman
Cayley Thomas-Haug
Alex Vissia

School of Song backing musicians, Connor Ellinger, Dean Kheroufi, and Trevor McNeely will be at both festivals again this year.

Watch for more details about times, stages, and where else you can find us at festivals this summer.

photo by Brian Zahorodniuk

Please join us again (or for the first time!) for the all ages Sunday Night Song Stage! Come early to sign up.

Each Sunday, Sept through June, at
Cha Island Tropical Cafe & Lounge
10332 81 Ave NW, Edmonton
7:00-10:00pm

Cha Island, all ages, licensed venue with wicked waffles & perfect panini’s!
Come & chill in one of coolest get aways in town, in Old Strathcona. Cha!