The soil in and around Riding Mountain National Park can take an almost black colouration. Known as chernozem, it is considered some of the most fertile soil on the prairies.
The choice for pianist Daniel Tselyakov and cellist Ariel Carrabré to name themselves the Chernozem Duo feels like a natural one in this context.
“It seemed like the perfect way to cohesively bring together a lot of our roots,” says Carrabré, adding that those roots stretch all the way back to their childhoods in the Brandon area.
That fertile ground in western Manitoba has also been the place for one of the province’s most beloved rural classical music ventures, the Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival, to take root over the course of two decades. The Chernozem Duo will be performing two concerts to celebrate this milestone on August 24 and 26 in Erickson and Gladstone, respectively.
Returning to rural roots
Although Tselyakov and Carrabré live two provinces apart (Tselyakov is a piano professor at Brandon University while Carrabré is based in Montreal), they both value the opportunities to return to the region where their bond was formed together to perform in smaller concert setting.
“I find that the audience is very welcoming to this type of music,” says Tselyakov. “I find nowadays people actually have a hunger for deeper engagement in the arts. I think nowadays… everything has to be instant and instant gratification, so there is something rewarding about having this type of music – very professional, but also not intimidating – coming directly to the community.”
Tselyakov in particular has gotten to know this dynamic between performer and audience quite well. A longtime performer in the Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival, he now serves as the festival’s co-artistic director alongside his father Alexander Tselyakov. Over his tenure, he’s seen the festival disperse out of its original venues in Wasagaming and Onanole out into the rest of western Manitoba.
“It’s been a different vibe, a different energy in all of these communities,” he says, “and they’ve been very welcoming to having this high-quality music.”
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The Chernozem Duo will be taking that high calibre of performance on the road with a new program called Beyond Boundaries. As the title suggests, it covers a wide swath of music from Bach and Beethoven to some rearranged songs by one of the duo’s favourite bands in their teens, Radiohead.
Another piece that the duo is excited to share is the Red River Sonata, a piece written for Carrabré by his father, the Métis composer and former Brandon University music professor T. Patrick Carrabré.
“It’ll be the first time performing the sonata,” says Carrabré, adding that the sonata features the various stages of the river’s life from flood to mud while also rendering the Canadian Shield and the vast prairie landscape into music. “Bringing that all together, the idea of the importance of Manitoba for the Métis people… a lot of it is that longing for being able to experience those visceral things about Manitoba and the different aspects of it.”
The Chernozem Duo’s concert will be held at 7 p.m. at Erickson United Church on August 24 and at Gladstone United Church on August 26. Tickets can be reserved ahead of time by emailing the Brandon University School of Music office.