Beatboxing, throat singing and Indigenous songs—not your typical symphony concert

Photo: J.P. Squire

Quinn "Quarterback" Bates, performs with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra in Kelowna Nov. 18.

The Okanagan Symphony Orchestra made history on Saturday with a radical departure from classical music by juxtaposing its performance with beatboxing, throat singing, Indigenous songs and innovative vocals.

The Amplify concert, in a packed Mary Irwin Theatre at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna, was one of the first four concerts in the OSO’s Celebration Series and its Satellite Series. Three additional concerts in Oliver, Lake Country and Coldstream Thursday through Sunday featured eight symphony string players in Shimmering Strings who performed the chamber music of Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat Major, op.20.

After 17 seasons—this is her last—music director Rosemary Thomson is “on a quest to bring different music to different audiences in different and more intimate venues.”

“It was so much fun. It was a lot to put it together because it is just so different but it was really enjoyable,” said Thomson after Saturday’s concert, sporting a huge grin.”

“There are parts of this concert that require a lot of flexibility. We’re so used to playing every detail that’s on a page that it’s really good for the orchestra to do this kind of thing. It’s really fun to be in a different style that’s not what we normally do. And each artist is very different.”

Thomson personally knew all of the artists (all have Okanagan roots) but they were strangers to orchestra members.

“It was a real joy for me — when they all started doing their thing — to look at the faces on the orchestra and hear the great sounds they were making,” she said. “And then, the traditional Syilx songs with Cori (Derickson) and Kethra (Stewart) were very special. There is a simplicity in those traditional songs that stand the test of time and really go straight to your heart.”

Derickson, a Syilx singer song carrier, and Stewart, a Cree cellist, met two years ago and regularly perform at community events and fundraisers to share their culture.

“We never thought that this would be taken to the next level of a symphony orchestra — videoed, live and recorded — and then with my mom in the audience,” said Derickson. “It was so special,” added Stewart.

“And with Rosemary taking part (in Women’s Warrior Song), that was so amazing and very powerful,” said Derickson. “Indigenizing the symphony, getting them involved in collaboration,” said Stewart.

The pair, both wearing Indigenous clothing they designed and fabricated, were “ecstatic, grateful, happy, this was so great, perfect.” An encore? “We didn’t know we were getting this. The sky’s the limit,” said Derickson.

Throat singer/beatboxer Poppa Nuge was also ecstatic.

“That was such a rush. I had so much fun up there. It was great. I just played on stage with masters of their instruments and I just make noises with my mouth (usually to recorded music),” he said with a laugh. In his wildest dreams, Nuge never imagined performing with a symphony orchestra.

“To be honest, hearing the songs that I’ve been listening to over and over again being played by an orchestra is much different than I expected because all the drums (sounds) are up to me. I felt a little out of place at first, like I shouldn’t be up here. Oh my God, these guys are actual masters of musical training. I have no musical training. I literally just do this for fun,” he said.

“At the end, I felt like this is working and it feels right. I felt like I was part of something pretty big up there for sure. And I felt a great amount of respect for the orchestra, just watching them put their pieces together is something.”

The innovative, vocalist Quinn “Quarterback” Bates performed in the second half of the two-hour concert, the arrangements and orchestrations by Kelowna composer Kolby Zinger-Harris.

“I play in a lot of clubs and different venues like that. Performing is such a cathartic experience for me. I don’t do it enough, I feel. It’s pop music. It’s theatre. And it’s always just such a privilege being able to rearrange it all. Having an orchestra has been such a real fun experience, honestly. It’s been super crazy,” he said.

“What I love the most about it is that these players who play Beethoven and all these other things are listening to my music and coming up to me and telling me how much they love playing it. That, for me, was a very good ego boost. I think it’s a mix. My music is so serious but so unserious as well. I like to say it’s seriously unserious. My album is called Hypersexual Heartbreak. That type of sexuality is kind of silly and taboo. And then, there is heartbreak which is such a universal feeling.”

During the past 10 years, he’s toured across Canada and into the U.S. but it was “super welcoming” to come back to the Mary Irwin Theatre where he last performed with Opera Kelowna and Bumbershoot Theatre — “the space where I grew up.”