Vetta Chamber Music – Seasons of the Sea

A cross-cultural collaboration of music and words inspired by the 13 moon season of the Coast Salish peoples.

TRACKS
1. Beginning Of The World (Intro)
2. Cold Earth Time
3. Rebirth Time
4. Hot Earth Time
5. Earth Cooling Down Time
6. Epilogue – Remembrance

CREDITS
Rosemary Georgeson, Narrator & Creative Lead
Jeffrey Ryan, composer
Joan Blackman, solo violin
Renae Morriseau, First Nations musician/drummer

Seasons of the Sea was produced by Vetta Chamber Music
With assistance from Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art

Joan Blackman – Artistic Director
Larry Blackman – Producer and Project Manager
Jennie Press, violin
Ashley Plaut, violin
Justin Almazan, viola
Zoltan Rozsnyai, cello
Dylan Palmer, bass
Jane Hayes, harpsichord

Denise Ball – Audio Producer
Don Harder – Audio Engineer
Gloria Leung – Cover Design
Jordan Nobles – Consultant

Recorded at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in Vancouver, BC located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

A special thanks to all the Elders who contributed stories and content including
X̱aad Kíl Woodrow (Woody) Morrison (in memorium), X̱aayda (Haida) Nation
August Sylvester, Spune’luxutth (Penelakut) Nation
Laura Sylvester (in memorium), Spune’luxutth (Penelakut) Nation
Latash-Maurice Nahanee, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation
Delhia Nahanee, Nisg̱a’a & Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Nisga’a & Squamish) Nations
Marissa Nahanee, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh & Nisg̱a’a (Squamish & Nisga’a) Nations
April Bennett

Funding provided by Deux Mille Foundation, British Columbia Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Additional support provided by Early Music Vancouver, Cultural Services Vancouver, Civic Theatres Vancouver, Vancouver Symphony School of Music and the Edith Lando Charitable Foundation.

Seasons of the Sea is available from:

Seasons of the Sea weaves together contemporary classical music written by award-winning Vancouver composer Jeffrey Ryan with a narrative written and performed by Sahtu Dene / Coast Salish artist, writer, and storyteller Rosemary Georgeson, recipient of the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award.

Seasons of the Sea is equal parts Ryan’s concerto for solo violin with string ensemble and harpsichord, inspired by his experience of the sea as a newcomer (and with a nod to Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’); and stories collected both from Georgeson’s own family and shared with her by Elders from several First Nations communities, drawing on the experience of generations of coastal Indigenous peoples whose daily activities are intricately linked with the seasonal changes of the sea.

Tracing a year on and by the sea, Seasons of the Sea starts on winter’s longest night, when the sea is dangerous and people stay close (Cold Earth Time). As the year progresses, with each solstice and equinox marked by a solo violin cadenza, spring emerges (Rebirth Time), the salmon make their summer return (Hot Earth Time), the autumn fog rolls in and the wind picks up (Earth Cooling Down Time), until finally we return to the beginning and a new year.

As words and music travel together, their parallel paths merge into a seamless 40-minute journey that touches on Indigenous knowledge-keeping, tides, fishing, climate change, the cycle of coastal life, and above all the profound respect, awe, and gratitude we share for the sea that sustains us.

Art speaks louder than just words. Art makes us think and it creates change from not just within ourselves but how we view our world. This amazing, powerful and passionate collaboration between Joan, Jeffrey and myself makes me realize even more that we are all the same and we all have a responsibility to this planet we call home.’ – Rosemary Georgeson