Leanne Zacharias and Koda Maxon have been tuning into the Prairies’ dawn chorus their entire lives, and have both committed their careers to telling stories through music. From the distant echoes of a receding glacier, to swirling barn swallows overhead, these artists are exploring their relationship with nature and inviting others to join in the song.
You’re listening to Where the Bluestem Grows: stories from Manitoba’s prairie grasslands.
I’m Evan Woelk Balzer.
From meadowlarks to leopard frogs, prairies are full of song. For generations, grasslands have been both the inspiration and backdrop of music. Today we’re going to meet two musicians whose work is inspired in different ways by that landscape.
First up, Dr. Leanne Zacharias, a cellist, composer, and educator at Brandon University’s School of Music. She’s been creating and performing music based on the natural world for years.
Here’s her performing a piece called Music for Magpies:
When composing, Leanne finds inspiration in nature, something that she’s always felt connected to. Growing up, she lived on a ridge overlooking a creek, where she spent a lot of time absorbing the sights and sounds of the outdoors.
LEANNE:
As soon as I got home from school, I'd be out in the bush just tramping around, exploring until um, my mom would play a trumpet to signal that it was time to come in.
And she’s never really stopped tramping around the wilderness, only now, she’s the one with the instrument.
Now, before there were grasses growing and bison roaming in Manitoba, there was ice. Lot’s of it. And as that glacial ice receded, it left a basin in the landscape that shaped the future of Manitoba’s prairies forever. This basin once held glacial Lake Agassiz, whose ancient shoreline can still be observed in the massive sandy ridges that exist across Manitoba.
A few years ago, Leanne was invited to compose a piece that reflected the unique environments which span the glacier’s historic range from…
LEANNE:
Wapusk in Churchill, the Riding Mountain area, um and also Winnipeg really, and then Grasslands National Park.
And that last spot - Grasslands National Park - was where she found inspiration in the sounds of some of that landscape’s most iconic resident vocalists…
LEANNE:
It was at sunset, at dusk. I mean, it wasn't one. It was dozens. Um and so I was at a campsite in Grasslands National Park. Yeah. They were not far. They were on the other side of the hill.
So I just immediately grabbed my recorder and ran off, um and I didn’t have to go far.
Like a dance, you can hear how Leanne and her cello take the lead for bit, and then steps back so the sounds of the grasslands - rushing water and animals - can take the lead…
… and then she follows.
Leanne says that for many people it can be hard to slow down, listen deeply, and get to understand places like the prairie grasslands. She sees her performances as a way to invite people in - and maybe even help them fall in love with grasslands, as she has.
LEANNE:
There are certain places that are easy to appreciate quickly, but I would guess there are many more landscapes and environments that simply take more time. If folks aren't going to think to make that time themselves, then this is an avenue through which to do that.
You can listen to Sounding the Wake of a Glacier at leannezacharias.com/landmarks.
Not too far from Leanne’s studio at the university, I had the chance to sit down at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba to chat with a young artist whose work spans piano, voice and beyond.
KODA:
So my name is Koda Maxon, uh and my pronouns are they/them and I am a contemporary composer and musician um based here in Brandon, Manitoba.
Like Leanne, Koda grew up exploring the outdoors. They were always running around with their golden retriever, finding adventures in their parents’ big backyard or at their grandparents’ farm a few minutes away.
Here, amidst the mixed grass prairie of the rolling Brandon Hills, they began to discover a world of music around them.
KODA:
Especially at my parent- or at my grandparents’ farm. Barn swallows, they're always building nests in the barn and everything. And you just see these like ugly little things stick their heads out of this little nest and it's just so funny and they're so weird and like, they make all these crazy sounds and then meanwhile their mom is just like, flying back and forth and protecting the nest and doing all these things. And I think that spoke to me about my relationship with my mom, cause I'm the baby bird and I have a mother and I, and I'm clumsy and goofy, and she just always seems to know what's going on, so (laughs) I thought it would be fun to kind of explore that through music.
At the family farm, Koda often spent afternoons connecting with their grandparents at the kitchen table. Side by side with their grandfather, they talked about the family’s Finnish and Scottish history, their land, and more.
KODA:
We called it ‘Coke Time’. And we’d just sit down and have a little Coca Cola and just chat about our family history and different stories of him growing up here and like being in the Brandon Hills area and I just spent a lot of time chatting with him.
Koda’s grandfather farmed that property for 60 years, and built the homestead from the ground up. His work ethic and appreciation for the natural surroundings was one of the things that really stuck with Koda.
KODA:
Finding a love for how things grow, that's that's one thing that I really learned from my Grandpa. He was always fascinated by how his crops started out as a seed and then grew into these big things that helped sustain people. And I think that's an aspect of nature that I find just like a miracle.
After high school, Koda spent a year living in Finland where they sought connection to their family heritage and a chance to see the world. During that time, Koda’s encounters with nature gave them a renewed appreciation for the environment they grew up in.
KODA:
So I think like a maybe a pinpoint time for me was like going abroad, appreciating nature in a different perspective, seeing it in Finland and then coming home and seeing it with a whole new set of eyes.
Upon their return, Koda launched into undergraduate study and began composing more and more. As a part of their final undergraduate recital, Koda arranged a traditional Finnish lullaby called Nuku Nuku.
It’s a song about spirits bringing gifts of peace and rest to a dying child.
KODA:
Finding a way to arrange it for double bass and extended piano technique was just like a really fun project that we collaboratively did together and um the result was really really great and uh was really meaningful to, to my Poppa, so… yeah.
Two days before we sat down to connect, Koda’s grandfather passed away. They said that music has always helped them process grief.
KODA:
Some of my compositions can be so dramatic because I I really face hard emotions when they come and I find ways to express them that will allow other people to connect. Um, so yeah, this being one of them, grieving the loss of my grandfather.
From barn swallows tumbling and soaring through prairie skies, to the lush and crisp boreal forests, Koda has found peace among the sounds of Manitoba’s wild places. But they’ve also found the gift of creative inspiration.
KODA:
Everything starts somewhere, and it can be the smallest idea, but it can grow into something magnificent and big and inspiring. Um, my compositions, they start with one small idea, or one little motif, and then they turn, they can turn into a whole orchestra.
In their own ways, Koda and Leanne both emphasize how important it is to slow down and pay attention, to look for beauty in unexpected places. And when it comes to the prairies, there’s endless music to be heard.
Where the Bluestem Grows was created by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Our editor is Ashley Ahearn. Sound design and music by Jordan Jackview.
The audio for this episode was recorded on Treaty 2 land, the traditional territory of the Dakota, Anishinaabe, Anishininiwak, and Ininiwak peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. We are grateful for these lands and their many stewards.
This project was undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada through the federal Department of Environment and Climate Change.