About longshadow
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!
In 2018, Yellowknife composer+singersongwriter Carmen Braden had an idea for a music event in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories that celebrates music on the edges.
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.
The fourth Longshadow was on June 6-9 2024 with a Yellowknife cache of singer-songwriters Cassandra Blondin-Burt, Rob Elo, LJJ, Ryan McCord and the amazing visiting Garneau String Quartet. Kay Sibbeston was the Longshadow commissioned composer.