An multicultural Inuit and Mongolian throat-singing show was the highlight of the night at the Montreal First Peoples Festival last week. The festival has been taking place from 7- 14 August. Every evening, the public has been able to hear local and international performers.

Renowned composer Katia Makdissi-Warren has created a chorus blending the Katajjaq (Inuit throat singing) and Khuumii (Mongolian throat singing) ancestral music, as part of the intercultural show that also included Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Turkish music.

The Société de Musique Contemporaine du Quebec (SMCQ) organized the participatory event at the Place des Festivals.

The “khuumii” or throat singing is an ancestral overtone singing that consists in reproducing natural sounds like the flow of water, the breath of wind, the echo of the mountains, the rumble of thunder, the singing of birds, etc. Khuumii is said to come from the area of Khovd, in the Altai Range in the far west of Mongolia.