I had the pleasure of attending my first U of M musical performance of the year, Unidad en Ritmo, on Dec. 4, 2025. I went into it blind, and to my surprise, it was not only a performance by the U of M Concert Band, but the Canadian Mennonite University Concert Band as well.
The CMU Concert Band opened with “Jocuri Poporale Romanesti,” meaning “Romanian Folk Dances,” by Béla Bartók. This was piece was a fitting start to the concert — its upbeat and engaging rhythms encapsulated the concert’s theme of “rhythm not only as a musical element but as a symbol of unity across cultures and generations,” as described in the program notes.
This is not to say that all the performances were similar in their rhythm and tone. The second piece performed by the U of M Concert Band, “Elegy” by James Barnes Chance, flipped the script and brought a somber, introspective mood to the concert hall. Written for a deceased band member of West Genesee Senior High School Band, “Elegy” carries its sadness slowly and with a heavy heart. Every note of its building climax feels like a fleeting memory, and the final fanfare is abruptly cut short. This was not the first or last time the mood had changed during the performance, and it was a testament to the skill and range of the musicians on stage.
When attending performances like these, putting the emotions one feels into words can be difficult. Instrumental music touches our soul in a more esoteric and fleeting way than vocal music. Nevertheless, U of M director of bands Jacquie Dawson summed up the performance in a few words — community, sharing and energy.The star performance of the show came near the end of the CMU Concert Band set, where Winnipeg-based composer Kenley Kristofferson debuted his concert band arrangement of Stan Rogers’s famous Canadian folk song “Northwest Passage.” Most notably, Bella Rogers, Stan Rogers’s granddaughter, was the guest violinist for the piece. Not only was the piece moving and beautifully played (resulting in a much-deserved standing ovation near the end), the story behind the performance is also worth telling. Kristofferson wrote he started going “down a bit of a Stan Rogers rabbit hole” after being sent an Instagram story of a group singing “Barrett’s Privateers.” When he got to “Northwest Passage,” he said the arrangement just came to him, and he “heard the whole instrumental piece just laid out in front of [him].”
After its completion, his arrangement got the attention of music educator Ross Brownlee from Westgate Mennonite Collegiate during a group instrumental music reading session at Long & McQuade. Brownlee told Kristofferson that Bella Rogers attended his school, and Kristofferson soon found out she was a violin major at CMU. After Kristofferson reached out to Bella Rogers and the CMU Concert Band director Cheryl Ferguson, they began rehearsing, and everything fell into place.
Dawson also explained the U of M Concert Band and Wind Ensemble normally perform together, but the Wind Ensemble was performing with the Jazz Orchestra, leaving them without a performing partner. Being good friends with Ferguson, Dawson thought it was a natural choice to bring the CMU Concert Band on board.
Kristofferson also praised his collaborators. “It was an instant connection,” he said. “So much of that speaks to the incredible musicianship of Bella, the ensemble members and the leadership of Cheryl Ferguson in that group.” He added, “The standing ovation was for Bella, and she deserved every second of it.”
I would like to think the standing ovation was for everyone who made the concert happen. Either way, it felt important, and the world needed this moment to bring people together.Dawson echoed the importance of musical collaboration, writing that creating community through music is valuable, and that it “takes people ‘where they are at’ and allows them to experience music in a variety of ways.”In an era of streaming, music is on demand and personalized, and it is rarely a shared experience. However, when we experience music live with other people, we do not just experience the music itself — we experience the process, the practice, the emotion and the collaboration of the musicians and their art. Funnily enough, as impactful and important as I found this performance, Dawson was surprised by the news coverage of the concert, describing it as “low-key.” However, this shows how even an unassuming performance can be memorable and thought-provoking. So, whether it is at the U of M, or anywhere else in your community, you never know what you might experience when you go to a concert. So, grab your tickets, take your chances and go see some live music!
