Carol Ann Weaver

In 2002, a Festival/ Conference on art-based and vernacular Mennonite Music bringing artists and musicians from together from all over North America took place at Conrad Grebel College entitled “Sound in the Land” and its principal organizer was Carol Ann Weaver. The Mennonite community is an extraordinary extended family, of which Carol is one of its more prolific and traveled members. Her music has taken her to African nations, often accompanied by her musical colleague Rebecca Campbell and college music students, in support of a number of social causes near to the hearts of many people.

Last year, Carol Ann was commissioned by the University of Waterloo to write a work in celebration of its 50th anniversary celebrations entitled “Water”, and the music was performed by the UW’s resident orchestra@uwaterloo (link) with Rebecca Campbell singing the vocal lines. The orchestra then scheduled a recording session several months later specifically to record the work: this involved the participation of as many of the musicians who played at the concert as possible.

UW is a co-op program, where students will often be on-campus for a term, and then on a work co-operative assignment for the next. Many of the musicians arranged their schedules and traveled distances back to Waterloo in order to take part in this seminal session… a mark of the commitment that both the orchestra’s devoted conductor Erna van Daele and Carol Ann are able to engender in musicians.

You can learn more about Carol and her music at her website.

-earl.