"Music will take you places" - Konektis goes to Carnegie Hall 

Manitou's Lexi Hacault, her brother Jackson and cousin Sarah Sharpe just came back from a rare opportunity with their Westman choir Konektis, made up of singers from 9 different Manitoba communities.

Lexi shared the exciting experience.

"So, we were one of six choirs that were invited to sing at Carnegie Hall in a mass Canadian choir. So, all the choirs joined together to sing. We got to sing 6 pieces that were all written by Canadian composers. So, it was very national and patriotic."

Jackson interjected. "Four of them were in the audience at the time that we were singing, and they worked with us. In the rehearsals, we stopped for them and then they replied with something that we need to work on for how they wanted it performed."

And Sharpe, expounded on the significance of the opportunity. "Yeah, not often do you get to actually work with the composers for pieces, especially little choirs."

Choirs ranging in age from Grade 5 students to older adults gathered from BC, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to form the 250-person choir.

The three have a depth of musical experience that comes from taking every musical opportunity available to them, as well as giving tribute to their Lea Family roots in the Lea Family Band.

Family members joined them on the trip to New York, where they went early to take part in tourist type activities before the intense rehearsals began for their final performance, representing Canada.
 

(submitted) Family members in Carnegie Hall 

Lexi described what it was like to walk on stage for the first-time hours before the performance for a sound check.

"You're leading in the lines with the choir, and you look and you see all the seats, and the lights, and the beautiful auditorium. It was truly just like an, 'Oh, my gosh, I made it,' moment."

Jackson said the moment felt very short.

"It's hard to believe the fact that we got the opportunity to sing in there and the performance that we did went by so fast. I wish I could go back and do it again. We were on the stage for like 45 minutes and then we were off. It went by so fast."

Sharpe noted they were able to be part of the audience as well.

"We switched spots with another choir after the intermission, so we got to sit in the auditorium and watch another performance. So that was also very cool."

Sharpe enjoyed the opportunity to meet and hear feedback from Saral Quartel who composed the song "The Wind is my Shepherd."

Lexi shared a very special moment, for her, meeting one of the composers.

"We also got to sing another piece by a man named Corey Payette, and it was called 'Gimikwenden' and it was from an Indigenous musical he had actually written, and he was actually the soloist of the song. So, not only did he write the song, but he was the soloist and he led us through this really powerful drum section of the song. It was just such a 'goosebumps up your arms' moment. So, that was really special to not only get feedback from these composers, but actually performing with one of them was just truly amazing."

Jackson shared his favourite song to sing was 'Singkap Siaga' composed by Tracey Wong, she was unable to be there to give feedback during the rehearsal time but was in the audience and gave her praise after the performance.

The three expressed their gratitude to their own conductor of Konektis, Michelle Chyzyk for the opportunity to be part of this amazing opportunity.

Lexi noted what this means to them.

"You're from a small town and you sing in your local festival, in your local choir, you don't think of it much, but the connections you can make along the way and saying, 'We've sung at Carnegie Hall.' You've made it as singer, essentially, it's just really cool. especially being from small town Manitoba. You'd never think that we would make it that far, so to say that we got to experience that at such a young age, too. Maybe one day we could experience it again. It's definitely an opportunity that doesn't come by very often to small town kids like us."

Hear the full interview with Reporter Robyn Wiebe here: