How Deantha Edmunds is decolonizing opera
by Sue Carter, Inuit Art Quarterly
Published: June 20, 2022
“I really want people of all walks of life and listeners of all different styles of music to check out the music that I’m doing, because it is something different.”
Unique and authentic: Deantha Edmunds lets go of the rules for her latest album
by Paula Gale, CBC News
Published: July 10, 2022
“Edmunds said the album’s title — Connections — is about her own journey. “I had just really been thinking about who and what led me to where I am … the people that we meet, the experiences that we have, the family we were raised in, the land on which we grew, how connected all of that is and how it propels us forward in life and into knowing more about ourselves.“
The Canadian Press
Published: July 30, 2022
“The pontiff smiled and clapped after a performance by Inuk soprano Deantha Edmunds.”
CBC News
Published: May 17, 2022
“Inuk classical singer Deantha Edmunds sang Sons of Labrador, the anthem of Nunatsiavut, the ancestral homeland of the Labrador Inuit.”
How Handel’s Messiah became a ‘Canadian’ Messiah: by inviting Indigenous and BIPOC soloists to make it their own
thestar.com
Published: December 10, 2020
For soloist Deantha Edmunds, born and raised in Newfoundland and known as Canada’s only Inuk professional classical singer, the song “How Beautiful Are The Feet” was a chance to spread the fact that classical music has been an Inuk tradition for hundreds of years, tied to her father’s upbringing in Labrador.
In rocky, salt-sprayed Petty Harbour, Newfoundland & Labrador, Deantha Edmunds gifts this truly transcontinental Messiah with a magical, windblown How beautiful are the feet sung in Inuttitut
Ian Ritchie
Published: December 19, 2020
operatogo.com
“Our work reimagines this standard oratorio by illuminating the diversity of artists across what we now call Canada,” says Deantha Edmunds, a Messiah/Complex featured soloist from Newfoundland and Labrador
myscena.org
Published: November 10, 2020
https://myscena.org/newswire/against-the-grain-theatre-presents-messiah-complex/
Edmunds shares original poetry and songs at “Echo Village” as part of Sound Symposium 2020
By Heather Barrett – cbc.ca
Published: September 19, 2020
Inuk soprano performs at the Arctic Inspiration Prize ceremony
By John Thompson – nunatsiaq.com
Published: February 8, 2020
Deantha Edmunds, Canada’s first and only classically trained Inuk soloist and recording artist, delivers a chilling Inuktitut vocal performance during the Arctic Inspiration Prize’s awards ceremony in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
REVIEW: Singing for water with Xara Choral Theatre
By Michael Lake – thecoast.ca
Published: August 24, 2019
Rings Through Water is part ode to water protectors, part call to action.
In part one of Rings Through Water, Deantha Edmunds takes the stage, backed by the impeccable Xara choir, in a polemic about the ill treatment of our waters. Edmunds is an Inuk classical soloist and storyteller, whose magnetic presence and powerful voice guides the audience through a story of wonder, pain, and ultimately the search for ancestral wisdom through a relationship to water.
Inuk soprano embraces all the things that make her who she is
By Heather Barrett – CBC.ca
Published: June 27, 2019
Have a First Listen to My Beautiful Home by Deantha Edmunds
When Deantha Edmunds left her hometown of Corner Brook a few decades ago, she took a little bit of her Labrador heritage with her. “My family would watch [television program Labradorimiut], and I would get a glimpse of my father’s life as a young child and youth in Labrador,” Edmunds told CBC. The theme song, Sons of Labrador/Labradoriumiut, by Sid Dicker, was one of her favourite songs to sing.
Thumbprints in seal oil
By Angela Antle – CBC News Interactives
Published: March 29, 2018
Discover how 18th century German music helped define Inuit identity in Labrador
In the 1770s, Moravian missionaries sailed into Inuit communities on the coast of Labrador with freshly written musical scores by Handel, Bach and other composers. At the time, they couldn’t have known what an enduring role that music would play in the lives of generations of Inuit.
Musicologists now believe hymns by Handel, Bach and others made their North American debuts in the small wooden churches of Makkovik, Okak, Nain and Hopedale…
Unique In The World
By Marcia Porter – Memorial University Gazette
Published: March 2, 2018
Giving voice to a centuries-old Inuit tradition
When soprano Deantha Edmunds performs her favourite aria from Handel’s Messiah in Inuktitut on Saturday night, she’ll think about her father Albert Edmunds who grew up in Hopedale on the Labrador Coast. “It’s such a privilege to share this music,” said Ms. Edmunds, a classically trained Inuk singer. Ms. Edmunds joins 150 members of the Lady Cove and Newman Sound choirs,…
Musical tapestry from The Big Land
The Telegram
Published: Feb 23, 2018
Lady Cove Women’s Choir partners with the NSO to present Makkipok! Labrador Inuit Music for Passiontide and Easter
Edmunds, a classically trained singer, will be featured in the event which will also pay tribute to the memory of Karrie Obed, the tradition-bearer and lead tenor of the Nain church choir. “When Moravian missionaries arrived in Labrador in the 1700s, they didn’t just bring religion to the Inuit in the area, they brought the music of Mozart, Handel and other German composers, translated it into Inuktitut, and started a musical cultural tradition that has survived for centuries,” a release from Lady Cove said…
A Review: PILLORIKPUT INUIT: Inuktitut Arias for All Seasons
By Susan Felsberg – Inuit Art Foundation
Published: Winter, 2018
This collection of anthems is a tribute to the devotional faith and choral tradition of northern Labrador for over two centuries.
They range from the modified classics of Handel and Haydn, to the Moravian traditional compositions of Gregor, Grimm and the LaTrobe family, all with their 18th century roots. This disc is the splendid result of recent rescue, thanks to a decade of diligent research and activism. Gathered and edited by Dr. Tom Gordon of Memorial University, the songs are performed by two Inuit soloists who complement each other sensitively and respectfully: Deantha Edmunds, a professional soprano with a rich glorious voice, and Karrie Obed, the powerful lead tenor in a region of talented choristers. This is a delicate and rewarding partnership…
The Melody of Inuktitut
mun.ca
Published: September 26, 2016
Normally when you think of grand arias sung in operas, you think Italian, French, German, or other European languages. Inuktitut rarely comes to mind. But singing classical arias in Inuktitut is exactly what Nunatsiavut’s Karrie Obed and Deantha Edmunds do. The pair are carrying on the tradition first brought to Labrador by Moravian missionaries hundreds of years ago.