Jace Eagle Bear

“Right now, the music I want to listen to doesn’t exist yet; the orchestra that I want to watch doesn’t exist yet,” says Eagle Bear. “This project was an attempt at creating that orchestra.”

Eagle Bear, who is a member of the Kainai Nation, turned to Calgary Arts Development’s Original Peoples Investment Program Grant in order to compose and premiere this new orchestra and a new work. “That is what allowed me to be able to create this special ensemble that cannot be found anywhere else,” says Eagle Bear. “This is a very unique opportunity as well — in Calgary, we have both fine Chinese-instrumental musicians and Western-instrumental musicians.”

The name of his concert, Qing Yin (its English translation is Cyan Tones), which took place on May 15, 2026, in front of a sold-out audience, represents its fusion quality. “Qing” is the classical Chinese term that uses one word to describe two colours, typically green or blue, while “Yin” means sound.

Eagle Bear debuted his new composition, titled Metal Lion or Jin Shizi, at Qing Yin. “It’s meant to be a bit of a play on the Chinese phrase, paper tiger — something that looks dangerous but in fact, is incredibly weak,” he says. “Whereas “Metal Lion” is something that not only is assumed to be dangerous, but is far stronger than anticipated.”

The concert’s finale was an arranged adaptation of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack. That movie was where Eagle Bear first heard the erhu, a two-string bowed Chinese instrument, and it inspired him to learn to play Chinese musical instruments. Eagle Bear hired an arranger from Hong Kong to create this six-movement arrangement, making the closing of the concert a full-circle moment in his musical journey.

The Calgary Arts Development grant covered a large portion of Eagle Bear’s commission fee, as well as allowed him to pay the arranger’s fee, the musicians, a publicist, rent out cSPACE’s Studio Theatre for the concert and rent an office to work from. Being able to fairly compensate musicians was of utmost importance to Eagle Bear. For the concert, he was able to hire professional string players from the Kensington Sinfonia.

“You aren’t simply paying musicians for the rehearsal time, you’re also paying them to practice outside of that rehearsal time,” says Eagle Bear. “If you want to have good musicians, you want to pay them appropriately.”

Eagle Bear sought to create a uniquely full and colourful sound through his orchestra. Described by him as somewhat of an experiment, the mixed musical ensemble includes Western strings and oboe, as well as Chinese bowed and plucked strings, flute and dulcimer. Chinese guitars in the ensemble include the gaoyinruan (soprano) and the daruan (bass), used to play alongside the violin and cello’s range.

For the concert, he was also excited to work with Jiajia Li, leader of Gai Lan Ensemble, a local group of Chinese instrumentalists, who Eagle Bear has played with before. “My collaborator, Jiajia Li, was really instrumental in helping put on this concert. She did a large portion of the behind-the-scenes work, including selecting the rest of the concert program, finding our arranger and securing volunteers for the concert night.”

Going forward, Eagle Bear hopes to fine-tune the sound, in part by making the Chinese instruments louder, for example, by slightly increasing the outer string gauge on the erhu while staying within the designated tuning notes. He also hopes to carefully add musicians to create an even larger orchestra while maintaining the balance of the different instrumental groups.

“I hope that a concert like this can show what’s possible for other people,” says Eagle Bear. “This is just the beginning. I want to take this new orchestra project even further.”