Wandering with Wonder Takes Flight
Samantha Whelan Kotkas with Jennette Miller, Executive Director of the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra.
Joel Goundry - Roadwest Pictures - Artistic Producer & Production Manager
So, I just opened the journal I started in 2016 to see what my thought process was when we started ‘Wandering with Wonder’ and I found a dead mosquito. That must have meant I was writing in my journal outside, which is perfect because the goal of this project was to create a multi-disciplinary work, including many musical genres, that was inspired by the land, the sky and the water. The goal was not to kill mosquitos.
In my journal I wrote: 'As I watch my daughter struggle - I think anything that can put us into a more positive frame of mind - bring us into being more present by breathing, seeing, feeling and touching the natural world around us is so vital and important. What can I contribute to my community and create for the world around me to bring people back to nature and help myself and them see the wonder and awe that surrounds us? How can we wake up to the world around us and make the invisible become visible?
These were the questions swirling in my mind as I embarked on this remarkable and sometimes tumultuous journey that led to the making of 'Wandering with Wonder'.
At this time, I was also doing an artist residency at Edgemont School where one of my favourite teachers, Alison Katzko, was teaching. I was casually talking to her about this project at lunch. She listened, in the way only a master teacher does, and at the end of the residency she gifted me this beautiful book: 'Braiding Sweetgrass' by Robin Wall Kimmerer. She knew this was a book I would need to know if I was going to proceed with this project. There is a beautiful quote I love in this book that I wrote in my journal which also informed some of the story:
“‘For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.’”
This stuck with me and you will hear and see these words come out in different ways throughout the work. In order to infuse them into all the art and be inspired by the land, sky and water it was going to be important for our team to be on the land learning as we created ‘Wandering with Wonder’.
About a year later, my friend Erin invited a group of artists out to her family's ranch in Southern Alberta. This was an amazing opportunity for us to walk the land and think about this project. We looked at a buffalo jump the first people used to hunt buffalo, rocks the buffalo used as rubbing stones, walked on original prairie grass that has never been cultivated by humans, observed wild animals through binoculars and spotting scopes as we heard stories from ecologists, and we learned how to move quietly so we wouldn't alert the animals of our presence. We were able to take our time thinking about how this piece of art could tie to the land and take our time with the creative process. The time we spent at the Ranch is indelibly tied to this project through the story and the music as much of it was written there.
As we were getting closer to the premier of the work we also had the opportunity in 2019 to meet at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The three days Chris Andrew, Sherryl Sewepagaham, Matt Epp and I spent there really formed the backbone of this project. We were able to create in one of the most beautiful places in the world and research other land-based works similar to what we were hoping to create. We worked hard and made friendships that will last a lifetime. After the residency the intense work of creating ‘Wandering with Wonder’ continued and I had the incredible honour of listening to the music as it all took shape. Sherryl and Chris collaborated through the winter in Edmonton, Matt worked tirelessly from Ontario and Walter went through iteration after iteration of ‘Bear Love’. Love is after all, the most perplexing of all the emotions. We were right on track for a September 2020 World Premier.
Once the core of the project was in place, we had to record all the music the audience would hear through their headphones. This is the moment the pandemic in 2020 postponed the launch by an entire year and stalled the project changing it in ways we had never imagined. Thanks to our amazing recording engineer and technical director, Paul Johnston and Tobias Kalden, we kept moving slowly and steadily forward and recorded the entire project, something we were never planning on doing. You can hear the soundtrack on Bandcamp. The musicians we worked with throughout this entire process were amazing and very flexible and somehow over 4 separate recording sessions we managed to get all the music recorded. Tim Shantz and Luminous Voices have been incredible partners and so have the Lily String Quartet, Rubim de Toledo, Jamie Cooper and Jordan Andrew.
While the music was being recorded Lynne Huras created beautiful artwork to accompany the show, Anni Kuhn designed and made the costumes and Dean and Shelley Bareham, with their team from Green Fools, birthed Wonder. It was so cool to watch her take shape as we got closer to the premier.
The last, and probably most important, piece of land for our team to be on was the land at the Leighton Art Centre. They had agreed to partner with us in 2018 and we felt so fortunate to be able to access the amazing land they are stewards of. Sherryl Sewepagaham and I visited in the winter so she could feel the land before she wrote her beautiful choral work Okâwîmâw Askiy (Mother Earth). Matt Epp and I visited in the fall of 2019 just before our Banff Centre residency and we had several visits with Tobias Kalden and Dean Bareham to talk through all the logistics for the performance. I wrote about this in a previous blog post, but I will never forget going out to the land with Yukichi Hattori so he could see the space and envision his eagle dancing and when we looked up, there was an eagle above us. The Leighton Centre has been incredibly generous with the use of their space and we were very honoured to premier the work there for three sold out shows in September of 2021.
We are now seven years in the future from the first inkling of an idea, we have premiered the work live, made a recording from the soundtrack and then filmed and recorded the entire project again. Next week, the new film 'Wandering with Wonder' produced by the Red Deer Symphony in association with Roadwest Pictures will be launched virtually on Friday, October 14 @ 7:00pm. WOW!!! I never ever thought I would be writing those words about this project. This is all very exciting for me and my team. Working with Joel Goundry and his crew has been amazing and we are still adding some exciting new surprise elements to this project for you and I know October 14 @ 7pm is going to be 'Wonder' FULL!
So, what have I learned throughout this process and the last 7 years?
1. If you are going to get stuck in the middle of a project at the beginning of a pandemic it is really great to be stuck with your friends. I had so many incredible conversations with the entire team throughout several postponements and we stuck it out together boosting each other up when it was needed. Some of the artists on this project became friends through this process which is just the most wonderful thing in the World to me and some of the artists joined this project in the middle of the pandemic and showed us what true grit is all about.
2. Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you don't have the answer to a problem call someone and then someone else and then someone else and eventually you will find a solution to your problem.
3. Art is hard work. I already knew this but I wanted to write it down so when I start a new project and re-read these words, I will remember how much work it was to get this project to this stage and then I can say 'I told you so' to myself.
4. Never give up. Inside you there are ideas no one else has had and when you are looking at that blank canvas in whatever you are doing in life lines will eventually start to appear and make sense in the way that speaks to you and your heart and then they may just speak to someone else's heart too.
5. When one door closes, another one opens or stated the way my friend Mary likes to say it, “I guess that isn't the path you are supposed to take since every time you have run into an obstacle there has been a better way forward." She had to repeat those words to me many times over the years as this project went through its twists and turns.
6. When you start out on a journey you will have many adventures, some will be amazing and some will break your heart. The journey is still worth going on.
7. Simple is best. My team will laugh at me for this one because nothing seemed simple with this project but once we had the right people in place and it all made sense it became simple.
8. Community matters. This project was built around relationships and community which became even more important when the pandemic hit. My community also reached out to see if they could partner with this project and that is how this film came into being. THANK YOU CLAUDE LAPALME, JENNETTE MILLER and the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra for your leap of faith. You two are both amazing humans and the RDSO has been my home orchestra most of my adult life. Without your support the orchestrating and filming of ‘Wandering with Wonder’ simply could not have happened. Our community stepped up with spaces for us to work in at Grant MacEwan, OCL Studios in Chestermere, the Polaris Centre and C-Space. So many great spaces run by passionate people who really believe in the arts. We reached out to Brilliant Images Films and Photography in Stratford last week and once again I was reminded companies are run by people like Maaike not robots.
9. It takes team work to make the dream work. :) Joel Goundry you made filming this project a fantastic experience for all of us. Thank you for your professionalism, incredible organization, work ethic and artistic eye. Our entire team is made up of such special people who truly believe the arts are an integral part of being human and help us to understand the world around us. This team worked very hard for you so we can share this work of art with you and their work shines through in this film. The teamwork on this project is responsible for making this dream work.
10. Two of the most important words in the English language are THANK YOU! I have said these words a lot throughout these seven years but I will keep saying them as we journey on.
Trailer for Wandering with Wonder
Thank you for reading this, thank you to those of you who have supported this project in any way and thank you for taking the time to watch the trailer for this new rendition of 'Wandering with Wonder'. We hope you will join us on Friday, October 14 @ 7:00pm MST on zoom for the Virtual Film Launch to watch ‘Wandering with Wonder’ take flight. At the launch I will be hosting a one-hour session with artists from the project and then we will be watching the World Premier of ‘Wandering with Wonder’ the film. You can sign up to join us in celebration at the button below or on the Red Deer Symphony's website at: www.rdso.ca