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Growing up, Alex (3rd Generation fiddle player) followed his mother Patti to Old time dances around Manitoba where he was enriched with the Métis fiddle from a very young age. By age 7, the passion for music became apparent and fiddle became the focus of Alex's life.
Culture has always played a huge part in Alex's music and his life. His father, a treaty Indian from Wabigoon Lake First Nation in Ontario made sure that Alex learned of his aboriginal heritage which transferred into his music and gave him a set of values in which he lives his life. Between his mother's fiddle and his father's guitar, there is no question that Alex would take to the music and continue to pass on the tradition. Alex's music is very much about family. Every time he plays it is for his late grandparents John and Eva, his mother Patti, and his father Gerald who so freely gave him the gift of music.
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Neil Weisensel is an opera composer and conductor based in Winnipeg, Canada. His eight critically and popularly acclaimed operas have been performed over 240 times across Canada and the United States. On March 9th, 2019 the Regina Symphony Orchestra premiered his newest work, a music theatre piece about Louis Riel entitled Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North (libretto by Suzanne Steele). This piece will also be performed by the Winnipeg Symphony in October 2021. Vancouver Opera premiered Neil’s anti-bullying opera Stickboy (libretto by spoken word superstar Shane Koyczan) in October of 2014. In 2016 Winnipeg’s Little Opera Company presented the world premiere of his 1997 opera Merry Christmas Stephen Leacock, which was subsequenty remounted by Saskatoon Opera and the Saskatoon Symphony in fall of 2018.
Neil collaborated with Michael Bublé on a set of big-band music and co-wrote a few songs, one of which garnered a Genie nomination in the Best Song category for the film Here’s To Life. With his wife, the vocalist/songwriter Rachel Landrecht, Neil has performed for former US President Bill Clinton, Oscar-winner Al Gore, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a host of other luminaries.
Neil has received grants, awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (U.S.), the Canada Council for the Arts, The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Manitoba, Winnipeg, and British Columbia Arts Councils, and the Banff Centre for the Arts, among others. His concert music, stage works and arrangement have been performed by the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Opera, the Arts Club Theatre (Vancouver), Opera Lyra Ottawa, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Vancouver New Music, the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir, the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, Edmonton Opera, The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, and Edmonton’s Hammerhead Consort. Neil serves as Adjunct Professor (Theory, Composition) at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, where he lives with Rachel and daughter Miracle.
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Workshop, August 18, 2018 Winnipeg, MB.
Text by Suzanne M. Steele; music by Neil Weisensel.
1. Qui-est-ce aria (with Red River Jig).
2. Trio Riel, Black Geese, Marguerite (3:41).
3. Josephine Marie/Black Goose ending dialogue (4:30).
4. Riel Aria Take this Josephine Marie (6:00).
Performers: Rebecca Cuddy, Julie Lumsden, John Anderson, PJ Buchan, Melissa St. Goddard, Francis Fontaine, Alanna McPherson, Cary Denby, and Matthew Lagacé.
June Bruce, Lorraine Coutu, Agathe Chartrand and Jules Chartrand (St. Laurent, MB), and Verna DeMontigny (Brandon, MB) were our Michif translators. Debra Beach Ducharme and Donna Beach (Ebb and Flow 1st Nation) produced the Saulteaux translation.
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Julie Lumsden is a Métis actor hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, known for her “marvelous voice” and giving “smart, sensitive” performances (CBC Winnipeg). In May 2015, she graduated with a Bachelor of Music Performance degree from the Desautels Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba, where she studied under the incomparable Donna Fletcher. Some highlights of recent years include playing Minnie in "The Flats" (Prairie Theatre Exchange), Veronica Sawyer in "Heathers: The Musical" (Winnipeg Studio Theatre), Miss Spider in "James and the Giant Peach" (Manitoba Theatre for Young People), Eponine in Les Miserables (Rainbow Stage), Beth in "Little Women" (Dry Cold Productions), and Cinderella in "Into The Woods" (District Theatre Collective).
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Three excerpts from Riel's Heart of the North with Julie Lumsden singing "Ni mayagenimaak" [I find it strange] in Saulteaux, Rebecca Cuddy, Julie Lumsden, John Anderson, Peter John Buchan, singing "The Names" Chorus (at 4:14) and "I am Charmed by My Country" (at 5:33) with the Michif chorus (Serge Carriere, Lola Whonnock, Marlena Muir, Madison Mosher, Brianna Pirrie, Rebecca Chambers, Mike Chambers) and narrators Alanna McPherson and Francis Fontaine. Book and text by SM Steele. Music by Neil Weisensel. Translators: Donna Beach, Debra Ducharme, Jules Chartrand, Lorraine Coutu, Agathe Chartrand, Patsy Millar, June Bruce, and Verna DeMontigny.
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Two excerpts from Riel's Heart of the North with Julie Lumsden and Rebecca Cuddy singing the duet "Ni Nakamoo Min" (We Sing the North) in Saulteaux and Michif and (at 2:36) the Michif chorus (Serge Carriere, Lola Whonnock, Marlena Muir, Madison Mosher, Brianna Pirrie, Rebecca Chambers, Mike Chambers) singing Apres Maachiwin (After the Hunt). Book and text by Suzanne M. Steele. Music by Neil Weisensel. Translators: Donna Beach, Debra Ducharme, Jules Chartrand, Lorraine Coutu, Agathe Chartrand, Patsy Millar, June Bruce, and Verna DeMontigny.
