Red Rock Indian Band’s Sara Kae (Kanutski) performs with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra’s (TBSO) Rise with Sara Kae (Kanutski) concert was a hit on the first evening of two Jan. 20-21 concerts at the Italian Cultural Centre in Thunder Bay.

“The support was amazing,” says Kae, a Red Rock Indian Band citizen. “I am beyond honoured and grateful that people in the community have always continuously showed up for me — it’s like seeing a room full of aunties and uncles and just lots of love, I can’t thank everybody enough for that. I’m just grateful for this opportunity and I hope this will lead to even more Indigenous representation in every space we are in.”

Kae says she performed a range of songs, including Patsy Cline’s song Crazy, that resonated with her before completing her performance with her own song, Rise.

“I’m hoping that everyone was able to enjoy a little something from tonight’s performance,” Kae says, noting that she wrote Rise on National Indigenous People’s Day in 2021. “I was just feeling overwhelmed by the day itself and I wanted to write about Indigenous empowerment and resilience and growing up how I felt like I didn’t have that, so I was able to use my music to heal in a lot of ways and hope for better things for my siblings.”

Ron Kanutski, Kae’s father, says it was “pretty awesome” to see his daughter’s performance with the TBSO.

“Crazy was her recently deceased grandmother’s favourite song,” Kanutski says. “Her grandmother really loved Patsy Cline.”

Kanutski says two of Kae’s music instructors from Ogden Community School in Thunder Bay, who attended the concert, were among her bigger influences with music.

“They used to have afternoon choir and she loved when that day approached,” Kanutski says. “They wouldn’t sing like little kids songs, they were singing the Rolling Stones, so she would come home with all these old songs and she just loved it. I play guitar a lot at home trying to get back into music again so I was singing a lot of the classics and sometimes she would join me and sing Johnny Cash songs.”

Andrew Balfour, artistic consultant and conductor for the concert whose family is from Fisher River Cree Nation in Manitoba, says it was “really inspiring” to work with Kae and the TBSO.

“I did two pieces of mine that I wrote a couple of years ago, so it was an honour to be able to hear it,” Balfour says. “I’ve never conducted those pieces before so it was kind of a new experience for me. It was fun, this is a great group of musicians.”

Balfour says he began singing and doing music when he was six-years-old.

“Through music, I’ve been trying to rediscover my heritage as a Cree taken away from my medicine and language and ancestors,” Balfour says. “I’ve been using my music-making to rediscover my roots. It’s a lifelong journey.”

Ryleigh Dupuis, executive director and general manager at the TBSO, says the concert was excellent.

“We’re really trying to focus on highlighting our Indigenous community in Thunder Bay and in Canada — Andrew came to us from Toronto via Winnipeg and he is a gem, he is wonderful as a composer and as a conductor,” Dupuis says. “We were lucky enough to convince him to do this with us, and we had Sara Kae with us. Sara’s piece Rise that she closes with is a really powerful message about being strong and knowing who you are as an Indigenous woman in this country and in this town.”

The TBSO also has two Northern Jazz with Robin Ranger, a Fort William citizen, concerts scheduled on Feb. 17-18 at the Italian Cultural Centre.