2021 Benjamin Eby Lecture

Composing Louis Riel's Dream: Exploring the history of the Red River Settlement through family stories and music

Register here to receive links to the virtual lecture and Q&A. 

This year's Benjamin Eby Lecture will be presented by Associate Professor of Music, Karen Sunabacka. 

Karen Sunabacka always knew she was Métis. Her Grandparent’s farm, near Selkirk, Manitoba, was a gathering place for the local English Métis community and Karen with her siblings spent countless hours dancing, fiddling, and exploring the rural prairie landscape. Yet her heritage is both Settler and Indigenous and her family sits at the intersection of two very different world views. Karen has started exploring this intersection by telling family stories in her musical compositions.

During this lecture, Professor Sunabacka will discuss her heritage, a number of her compositions, her inspiration for the pieces, her challenges, her collaborations with her mother Joyce Clouston, and the ways her music has been received.