About longshadow
music on the edges
In 2018, Yellowknife composer Carmen Braden had a idea for a music event in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories that celebrates music on the edges.
The Longshadow Music Festival celebrates music that is wild, weird, and wonderful. Each eventexplores music made in the contemporary world, yet with a connection to the music that has shaped our world in the past. Northern + Canadian music will be a special feature!
Alongside special guests and feature concerts, the festival explores ideas about improvisation, composition, performance, collaboration…
Multi-genre at its core - there has been a mix of old classical, contemporary classical, jazz, songwriter, improvised, electronic, soundscape, fiddle, Indigenous, and improvised at the Longshadows!
The inaugural Longshadow New Music Festival happened in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories on June 14 - 16 2019 almost on the summer solstice, when the sun only sets for a short time in Yellowknife. Archive link to Longshadow 2019.
After multiple postponements due to the pandemic (October 2020 and Sept 2021), the second Longshadow happened June 23 - 26 2022 as the days and shadows were looonnnnggg. Archive Link to Longshadow 2022 that brought together classical string quartet music and Indigenous and northern fiddlers.
Then a third Longshadow happened June 15 - 17 2023 with ideas of improvisation as a centre-of-gravity, with performances by by the Ragged Ass Swing Band, the Uchida-Hoekman Duo, Yellowknife singer-songwriters Rob Elo and Shea Alain, and jazz saxophonist Mike Auty.