School of Music Tours

Brass Ensemble Tour of Moravian Labrador

From September 19-26, 2008 the Brass Ensemble from Memorial University’s School of Music will embark on a tour of Moravian Labrador. Travelling by air and sea, the ensemble will visit Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Northwest River, Makkovik, Nain, and Hopedale. In each community, the ensemble will present educational concerts and workshops in elementary and high schools as well public concerts in local churches.

The concerts will feature standard works for brass as well as selections drawn from the Moravian brass band tradition which was introduced to Labrador by Moravian missionaries during the 19thC. While brass bands fell out of use in Moravian churches in the late 20thC, the band in Nain was recently revived. One of the goals of this tour is to renew interest in this important tradition of brass playing in our province. In addition to performing a set of Moravian anthems arranged especially for this tour, at each public concert the ensemble will lead the audience in a “sing-along” of popular Moravian hymns.

The School of Music first sent a brass group to Labrador in the summer of 1977 when a student brass quintet, under the direction of Professor Kjellrun Hestekin, spent a month on a longliner visiting and performing in communities along the Labrador coast. On that trip the quintet had the unique opportunity to play alongside members of brass bands that were still active in several communities. In revisiting this initiative, the MUN Brass Ensemble hopes to both create new ties and re-establish old relationships between the School of Music and the Labrador Inuit.

The MUN Brass Ensemble’s Tour of Moravian Labrador has been made possible by the support of many community, institutional and corporate partners, in particular the Ulapitsaijet Committee in Nain, the Makkovimiut Trust in Makkovik, Provincial Airlines, Memorial University and CBC – Newfoundland and Labrador.