May 2, 3 2026 at 3 pm | The Newcombe Singers, Music Director, Kathryn Whitney
Earth Song is a concert co-curated by Kathryn Whitney and Rebecca Hass
Featuring a new choral composition premiere by Rebecca Hass
How shall we live well on the earth? First, we must ask the earth how it would like
to be lived upon. .
The concert EARTH SONG takes us on a journey, curated jointly by Métis singer
and composer Rebecca Hass and Newcombe music director, Kathryn Whitney, to a
place where we can hear the Earth sing.
Taking the idea of a Land Acknowledgment as our point of departure, our concert
mixes indigenous and non-indigenous voices, each of which, through singing,
brings us closer to the sounds of the natural world.
Listening to these voices, and lifting our voices to sing along with them, we hear
the earth and the sound of the tundra, trees, warm sun, and tall mountains. The
sound of our own footprint, as well as the history of the footprints of our own
ancestors on the land, becomes clearer, leading to understanding of our
relationship to the land, and to ourselves.
EARTH SONG offers our singers and audience the chance, through group singing,
to come to a new understanding of what it means to live on, and be part of, the
land.
You can learn more about this concert here
November 11, 2025 Reflection by Rebecca Hass
In the land acknowledgement that I often hear there is a line that strikes me ‘ we give our gratitude to the Indigenous people’s of this place who have stewarded it since time immemorial’. It’s that word: stewarded. That word leaps out at me. I am a visitor on the territory I live on, and I take caring for the land very seriously. I feel the responsibility to be a good caretaker, in relationship to, and in respect to, this land. I’m attentive to my own role as a visitor in being a good steward. This comes from how my Dad raised me, and the Métis teachings he carried from his mom. I grow medicine plants in my garden and have been working to restore my small yard to more of the Garry oak meadow it once was. I think about what I harvest, and from where, and think about how what I take might impact other creatures that also live on this land.
When Kathryn first spoke to me about working with the Newcombe Singers, it was my land based music creative practice that I wanted to share. I believe that we can all find ourselves and our role in the land acknowledgement. As visitors, we have a responsibility and an opportunity, to care for this place. The first step is to begin to listen more deeply to the place we are. To build a relationship to the land we are on.
If you were to stop and listen, what might you hear? Could you move beyond the sound of traffic, and the noise of city living? If you moved beyond the pavement, could you hear the lands tonality? Could you feel the beat of the ocean? Or the tempo of the forest at Beacon Hill?
I’m excited to begin this journey of listening and relationship building with this place with the Newcombe Singers. It is my vision to learn from the choir members what the land is telling them and let that lead into the choral composition for the May performance. What is it to sing the land? What is the song the earth is singing to us? I’m looking forward to exploring these questions and hearing the song that arises.