Paris to Kyiv brings its unique sound to Quebec City Carnaval (02/29/04)

Paris to Kyiv brings its unique sound to Quebec City Carnaval

by Mike Reshitnyk

QUEBEC CITY - An intricate weaving of Ukrainian, Irish and French-Canadian musical culture highlighted the 50th anniversary of Quebec City's world-famous winter Carnaval at the historic Le Capitole theater and cabaret on Thursday, February 12, with an unusual concert held before an appreciative crowd of 1,200.

The concert was the fruit of a cross-cultural collaboration between CBC Radio, the French sister service, Radio-Canada and the Carnaval de Québec featuring Winnipeg's Paris to Kyiv, Quebec City's Rosheen Celtic band and the Shannon Irish Dancers. The concert was broadcast live on Radio-Canada Chaîne Culturelle's Radio Concerts, and on the program "In Performance" on CBC Radio Two the following day, and was hosted by Radio-Canada's Montreal bilingual producer, Mario Paquet. Mr. Paquet had previously worked in Regina, and was a natural choice to MC this cross-cultural event.

The concert was co-produced by Winnipeg's CBC producer, Sandy Thacker, and Radio-Canada's Chantal Bélisle.

The timing for the event couldn't have been better. Organization of the schedules of CBC/Radio-Canada, Paris to Kyiv, Rosheen and the Shannon Irish Dancers had to converge, complicated by the availability of the Le Capitole venue. Planning looked promising to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the modern era of Quebec City's Carnaval. As an added bonus, the Carnaval's featured international country this year happened to be Ireland. Quebec City is blessed with a sizeable historic Irish presence within both the anglo and franco communities.

Recall that Ireland shares many similarities with Ukraine's historic experiences - famine, religious strife, occupation by a foreign power, exodus of its population to points world-wide, language assimilation, a rich rural, folk and cultural tradition, to name a few.

It was only logical that a Celtic flavor was sought for this concert, and ironically, Alexis Kochan's Paris to Kyiv contribution fit the bill magnificently.

Paris to Kyiv's musical style, and instrumentation compliments well with Rosheen's Celtic heritage. Richard Moody's viola matched the fiddles of Rosheen, Julian Kytasty's sopilka went head to head with Rosheen's tin whistle while his bandura complimented the Celtic strings.

Ms. Kochan's Ukrainian vocals symbiosed flawlessly with that of Rosheen's singer-songwriter Lynn Valliéres, who sings both in French and English.

But, without question, the inherent Celtic influence of Paris to Kyiv's Martin Colledge on cittern and Northumbrian pipes was key to the success of the performance.

To ensure a seamless blending of the two ensembles, Mr. Kytasty spent a few days with Rosheen last January to tutor them on Paris to Kyiv's music and the Ukrainian words of their songs. Incredibly, the two groups performed without a hitch after only several hours of practice together.

Even the popular Shannon Irish Dancers' performance could draw parallels to our beloved Ukrainian folk dancing, reinforcing cultural similarities.

And to cap the evening's performance, the Carnaval's rotund ambassador, Bonhomme Carnaval made an appearance to enthusiastic cheers and applause by the partisan crowd.

Following the Quebec City performance, Paris to Kyiv left for Montreal where they performed on Sunday, February 15, before leaving for a New York engagement.

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