Kelowna orchestra teams up with First Nation beatboxer for musical performance

An Indigenous beatboxer and throat singer is intertwining hip-hop and electronic music with a classical symphony.

Nuge Bird, whose stage name is Poppa Nuge and who is Anishnaabe Plains Cree from the Shoal Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, will be one of the stars of Amplify, the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra's new show.

The 26-year-old performer, now based in West Kelowna, started beatboxing when he was 12 years old. 

Bird said he discovered it while skateboarding, after being introduced to a friend who knew how to beatbox.

"After that hangout session, I went straight to my grandma's and I started practicing." 

His venture into throat singing, on the other hand, was by "total fluke," he said — adding the first time he throat sang, it hurt.

"I just wanted to get better at this beatboxing thing and dubstep was the most popular music at the time," Bird told Radio West host Sarah Penton on Nov. 16. 

Rosemary Thompson, music director of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, said she was interested in collaborating with Bird since the first time they met six years ago, at a Red Dress walk for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.  

"I was breathless. Like I was so excited by the sounds that he was creating and the authenticity of the emotion behind it," said Thompson of the first time she heard Bird perform, adding, "you could hear a pin drop in the room and I thought I needed to meet this guy." 

Thompson gave Bird tickets to Tanya Tagaq's show, which the orchestra was putting on. During the show, Bird ended up performing solo on stage. 

"It was my first time performing in a theatre, on a stage like that, in front of a full crowd," said Bird. "I was just asked to, you know, say something from the heart and that's what I did.

"I still feel the emotion when I think about it today." 

Afterward, Thompson said she needed to find a way to get Bird back on stage with the orchestra.

Thompson said they worked together to find music he could beatbox over, including music by artists like the Wu-Tang Clan. 

"I arranged it for the orchestra and put it down on the page so they'll be reading it," she said.

The music director said the show is important for the orchestra to become more sustainable as an organization

"The more we can move outside of our orchestral comfort zone and embrace the musical traditions that are happening in today's world ... we also become more relevant to our listeners and to new listeners," she said. 

Amplify will be staged at the Rotary Centre for Arts in Kelowna on Nov. 18 at 8 p.m.

Syilx singer and song carrier Cori Derickson, Cree cellist Kethra Stewart, and vocalist Quinn "Quarterback" Bates are also performing.