Artists

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  Narrator  Jodi Contin

  

  Narrator  Jodi Contin

  Jodi Contin is an Ojibwe Band Member of Wasauksing First Nation where she resides with her family. She is of the Martin Clan and she is the youngest of 7 children. Her father was English, and her mother was Ojibwe. They were amazing parents and great teachers of life.  

  In 2017 Jodi was hired as the Cultural Coordinator for the Shawanaga First Nation Healing Centre, where she has engaged in many unique projects such as hand drumming and singing, hand drum-making workshops, sweat lodge and teaching lodge building, Anishnaabemowin classes, organizing annual community Powwow, Regalia and skirt making, medicine walks and harvesting, youth hunting and cultural camps, and many more. Jodi has been a hand drummer and singer for more than 15 years, and in 2018 participated in the production Sounding Thunder (via Festival of the Sound) for which she wrote the lead song “Wasauksing Enydaayong”. 

  Spirituality is very important to Jodi and she has traveled all over Turtle Island to learn more about her spiritual identity. She has been a part of the Grand Medicine Society and a devoted Sun dancer for more than 10 years, where she is now the lead female dancer, sweat conductor and clan mother of the lodge. 

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  Artist Rhonda Snow

  

  Artist Rhonda Snow

  Métis artist Rhonda Snow is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Rare Breeds Canada for her tireless work preserving the Ojibwe Horse breed. Her vivid Woodlands style canvases captivate viewers and share the knowledge she has gained from the Elders about the “small horses of the big woods”. She has personally cared for Ojibwe Horses, playing an important role in the comeback of the breed from near-extinction. 

  Rhonda is currently working intensively with breeders to help establish educational and equine assisted learning programs that feature the Ojibwe Horses. She is also actively researching the history of the breed, interviewing elders and knowledge keepers to collect and paint the stories (on hides, rock and canvas) of how Indigenous peoples related to horses both before and after contact with Europeans.

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  Conductor Naomi Woo

  

  Conductor Naomi Woo

  Conductor ​Naomi Woo, named by CBC in 2019 as a “Top 30 Classical Musicians under 30”, is the Assistant Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the first-ever Music Director of Sistema Winnipeg. Born in Newfoundland and raised in North Vancouver, Naomi conducts across Canada and is noted for her work as a socially-engaged artist and educator, with appearances at the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Regina Symphony Orchestra, and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. An advocate for opera and new music, Naomi recently led the Canadian premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone (re:Naissance Opera) and the world premiere of Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s The Night Falls (BalletCollective, American Opera Projects). She holds degrees from Yale, Université de Montréal, and Cambridge.

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  Featuring NAC Orchestra

  

  Featuring NAC Orchestra

  Since its debut in 1969, the National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra has been praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary educational programs, and its prominent role in nurturing Canadian creativity. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, reaching and representing the diverse communities we live in with daring programming, powerful storytelling, inspiring artistry, and innovative partnerships.

  Alexander Shelley began his tenure as Music Director in 2015, following Pinchas Zukerman’s 16 seasons at the helm. Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and former Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra (2009–2017), he has been in demand around the world, conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Stockholm Philharmonic, among others, and maintains a regular relationship with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the German National Youth Orchestra.

  Each season, the NAC Orchestra features world-class artists such as the newly appointed Artist-in-Residence James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Joshua Bell, Xian Zhang, Gabriela Montero, Stewart Goodyear, Jan Lisiecki, and Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds. As one of the most accessible, inclusive, and collaborative orchestras in the world, the NAC Orchestra uses music as a universal language to communicate the deepest of human emotions and connect people through shared experiences.

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