By Christopher Snook

PARADISE HILL (Sask) – When they hear the words “early music”, many people wonder, “what’s that?” From March 10-14 the residents of Paradise Hill, a small ranching and oil community in west-central Saskatchewan, will have the opportunity to find out.

As an exciting new way of opening its doors to the community and thanks to a grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board, in March the historic Holy Trinity “Little Stone” Church will host a four-voice early music ensemble, voix sirènes, who will conduct community workshops and perform a concert. The members of the group include Paradise Hill resident Barbara Swanson and three other performers from Wisconsin and Ohio, all of whom studied together in Case Western Reserve University’s early music faculty in Cleveland, Ohio.

Throughout the week the group will lead workshops at Paradise Hill School including renaissance rounds and improvisation (did you know that ‘Three Blind Mice’ is at least 500 years old?), renaissance dance, and medieval music & culture.

The concert, on Thursday March 13 at 7:30pm in the Little Stone Church, will feature medieval rounds (with audience participation!), renaissance ballads including the famous “Barbara Allen,” and Lenten hymns from Reformation England and Germany.

Thanks to the Saskatchewan Arts Board grant, Holy Trinity Church (which is nestled just east of the North Saskatchewan river) will also host Soprano Casey Peden Davies, from Glaslyn, in another concert in May.

The ensemble will get a taste of rural Saskatchewan hospitality and will have an opportunity to appreciate the beautiful landscape surrounding Paradise Hill.

This event promises to be memorable!