All-women ensemble brings Kulintang music to Yellowknife

Zerline Rodriguez | TFC News Yellowknife

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OhRDyWTgfZc?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>“Folk on the Rocks,” named the Small Festival of the Year by the 2023 Canadian Live Music Industry Awards, was the hottest annual summer music festival in Yellowknife.This year, over 40 artists across Canada flew up north to bring diverse music.But none could compare to the music of Pantayo, an all-women Kulintang ensemble from Toronto. The distinct music from the Kulintang is something the north has never heard before.&quot;It&#x27;s a freeing experience,&quot; said Steph Woodworth, a festival attendee. &quot;All of them are queer and I&#x27;m queer myself. To see representation on stage, it&#x27;s really special to me.&quot;Pantayo became a band in 2012 after meeting in a workshop group where they wanted to learn how to play the kulintang.&quot;It&#x27;s not an instrument that you always see,&quot; said Pantayo member Katrina Estacio. &quot;These gongs that we have are from Manila. It&#x27;s come a long way from Mindanao to Manila, to Toronto and now up here in Yellowknife.&quot;Pantayo&#x27;s debut album was on the 2020 Polaris Music Prize shortlist. Earlier in June, the band launched its second album named &quot;Ang Pagdaloy&quot; (The Flow).&quot;Our songs are very varied,&quot; Estacio said. &quot;We connect our songs with our own experiences. For us, we see the kulintang as a vehicle to our expression. [It&#x27;s] our way to present ourselves as Filipinos in music in Canada.&quot;Aside from performing, Pantayo also holds cultural workshops to discuss the instruments and their relationship with Filipino culture.&quot;We want to be able to put that context in our music,&quot; said Estacio. &quot;The workshop gives us an opportunity to talk about the narratives and different stories.&quot;The sound of the kulintang mixed with electronic and synth-based grooves also brings a Filipino sound that connects with the young Filipino-Canadian audience.

An all-women ensemble played the Kulintang during the biggest summer music festival in Yellowknife.

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All-women ensemble brings Kulintang music to Yellowknife

All-women ensemble brings Kulintang music to Yellowknife

Zerline Rodriguez | TFC News Yellowknife

Published Aug 02, 2023 09:29 PM PHT

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Canada

Northwest Territories

Yellowknife

Filipino Canadian

Music

Kulintang

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