Professional musicians from the Orlando Chamber Soloists will mesh with 160 children’s voices — all recorded individually and all singing in Lakota — in the new “We Are South Dakota Virtual Choir 2013” video.

The video, which includes 281 video clips and Native American drumming, was a 15-month collaborative effort with more than 40 community and arts leaders. It will be unveiled at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 4, at the Dahl Arts Center, 713 Seventh St., then uploaded onto YouTube. The unveiling will include a demonstration of the video creation process by Dawn Marie Edwards, artistic director and producer for the Orlando Chamber Soloists, and a question-and-answer session.

“It was such a joy working with the kids and getting to know them. There is so much talent here in the Black Hills,” Edwards said in a news release.

The Orlando Chamber Soloists came up with the concept of the video to bring together the children of the four counties in the Black Hills and Pine Ridge who are served by the group during its annual summer residency. The video continues the group’s mission to break down economic and cultural barriers though music, according to the release. The text of the music is “Wahmunka oganunka inchante, He Sapa,” meaning “the heart of everything, Black Hills.”


“The kids had the choice of learning the music ahead of time by downloading the parts from our website or showing up the day of the recording and practicing,” Edwards said. “Some of the kids did show up with their parts memorized ready to record. And they sounded amazing. But most of the kids did not have access to the Internet or a computer and had little or no musical training. So, for the majority, it was a come-as-you-are situation. “
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