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OMÉIGWESSI ENSEMBLE
Oméigwessi Ensemble brings Métis traditional music a unique youthful energy with old-style melodies. Manitoba old-time music artists Lawrence ‘Teddy Boy’ Houle and his brother James Flett join emerging Toronto musicians Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk, and her brothers Conlin, Nicholas, and Danton (The Métis Fiddler Quartet) along with Scott Kemp to form Oméigwessi Ensemble. These musicians all share a common thread beyond a love for music; they are all Manitoba born and their aboriginal ancestry is deeply rooted in Manitoba.
Oméigwessi was the nickname of Manitoba old-time fiddler Walter Flett, and it means Ukrainian in Ojibwe. Walter Flett (born in 1906) learned to play the fiddle from his father and older brothers. His fiddling style reflects the musical language of the Métis as far back as the early fur trade. Walter Flett passed on the fiddling traditions to his stepson, Lawrence Houle and his son James Flett. Oméigwessi Ensemble pays tribute to the late Walter Flett for his life long contributions to old-time Métis fiddling in Canada.
Shortly after Walter Flett passed away at the age of 80, Toronto based Canadian fiddler and musicologist Anne Lederman compiled his fiddle recordings in his ‘old time’ Ebb and Flow Métis style and other Native fiddlers in the community as a research project. Back in Toronto over 20 years later, Anne shared these old-style tunes to Alyssa. These recordings became a central focus of Alyssa and her brother’s Métis music repertoire development. They all absorbed the music, and The Métis Fiddler Quartet was born as a performing ensemble of old-time Métis music. After years of studying old-time Métis fiddle tunes with Anne Lederman, Alyssa was awarded an Ontario Arts Council mentorship grant entitled Tracing My Métis Roots to study Métis fiddling and jigging with Lawrence ‘Teddy Boy’ Houle. Alyssa was invited to present her mentorship project along with Lawrence at the Métis Artists’ Collective’s Louis Riel Day Celebration of Métis Arts and Culture in a showcase of the Métis fiddle.
In the summer of 2007, Oméigwessi Ensemble celebrated Métis traditional music from Manitoba in a series of performances, workshops, and demonstrations to aboriginal communities in Toronto and Winnipeg. With this central generations theme, Lawrence Houle and his brother James Flett pay tribute to their father and musical mentor Walter Flett alongside a younger generation of Métis musicians from Toronto (Métis Fiddler Quartet and Scott Kemp) playing music in the old-time Métis style of their father. They performed at Buffalo Jump Collective Aboriginal Day celebrations, Toronto Habourfront Centre for Canada Day, and The Métis Arts Festival at Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto.
With Alyssa on lead fiddle, the group recorded their first Métis fiddling CD entitled Oméigwessi: Reel Métis, a tribute to Walter Flett. This recording became available August 2007.
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Recent Awards:
Toronto Exclusive Magazine
2007 MUSIC AWARDS
Best Folk Instrumental
Métis Fiddler Quartet "Hang Man's Waltz"
Recent nominations: Ontario Independent Music Awards
Best Folk "Medicine Fiddle"
View Metis Fiddler Quartet's EPK
