Greenland choir, Nunavut musicians unite for Iqaluit concert

The Qissiat men’s choir rehearses inside Qassi, a teacher’s college in Nuuk, where choir conductor Tikki Jacobsen teaches music and choir part-time. (PHOTO BY HANS JUUKU NOAHSEN)

If you’re in Iqaluit Sept. 11, you might want to check out a free concert drawing on the musical talents of Nunavut and Greenlandic musicians and singers.

Three musicians from Nunavut — Etulu Aningmiuq of Pangnirtung, Josh Qaumariaq of Iqaluit and Lasaloosie Ishulutaq of Pangnirtung — will perform Sept. 11 at Inuksuk High School in a free concert in collaboration with Qissiat, the renowned men’s choir from Greenland.

Nunavut’s performing arts society, Qaggiavuut, invited Qissiat to participate in a cultural exchange, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, the chair of the society, told Nunatsiaq News Sept. 5.

“These kinds of collaborations are essential to helping Inuit culture percolate and change in ways that we couldn’t imagine without creativity,” Williamson Bathory said.

The collaboration will bring 12 members of the men’s choir to Iqaluit Sept. 8 for a series of workshops with the Nunavut musicians that will be topped off with the Sept. 11 concert.

“Qissiat has a full repertoire of their own, but a lot of the concert will be based on the sharing of songs between Greenlandic and Nunavummiut men,” Williamson Bathory said.

The concert will feature songs in a cappella, that is, voice only, with no accompaniment, as well as dance, rock and square dancing, she added.

“The Iqaluit tour will be the first outside Greenland,” Qissiat choir conductor Tikki Jacobsen wrote Nunatsiaq News in an email Sept. 5.

The Nuuk-based choir tours Greenland as well — and recently performed for Government of Nunavut officials and the Danish royal family.

The name of the choir, “Qissiat,” means driftwood in Greenlandic, Jacobsen explained.

“That is because none of us are native Nuuk citizens, and the members all drifted towards Nuuk and settled.”

Choral music has a long history in Greenland, dating back to the arrival of Moravian missionaries to the island in the 1700s.

But this collaboration is not only about music — it’s also about cultural exchanges.

Williamson Bathory has made a plea on Facebook for country food donations and volunteer guides for clam digging so the visiting choir members can better experience Nunavut.

Qaggiavuut, which wants to see a performing arts centre in Iqaluit, received money from the governments of Greenland and Nunavut for the exchange.

Williamson Bathory said she hopes Qaggiavuut can received funding for a group of men from Nunavut to travel to Greenland next summer to complete the exchange.

“Doing these kinds of events alongside our advocacy work is really important because this is exactly what we want to have happen in our centre,” she said.

The concert will take place at 7 p.m. at Inuksuk High School, with donations accepted at the door.

“We’re so grateful to have the funding to pull the workshops together, so the concerts are sort of like a gift to the community, and if the community wants to give back, that’s great,” Williamson Bathory said.

The Qissiat men’s choir performs inside a church in the coastal town of Tasiilaq, Greenland in 2010. (PHOTO BY TIKKI JACOBSEN)