Following a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Samantha Whelan Kotkas decided to combine her passion for music and storytelling with her interest in early education and created the Rocky Mountain Fairy Tales. She teamed up with composer Keon Birney and visual artist Lynne Huras and released her first children's CD entitled Rocky Mountain Fairy Tales which includes 4 original fairytales; each one featuring a different family of instruments and four Canadian folk songs also featuring a diferent family of instruments. During the pandemic, Samantha worked with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra to create a film of these fairytales and folksongs to bring music and nature to life through sound.
Filming of the ‘rocky mountain fairy tales’ with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra - Jack Singer Concert Hall
Teacher Resource Kit: rocky mountain fairy tales
As a child, Samantha spent much of her time exploring the trails and hiking the mountains that surround her family's cabin in the Alberta Rockies. Inspired by her love of the outdoors, the RMFT are set in the beauty and wonder of the meadows, rivers, forests and peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The stories follow the adventures of a young girl on her journey through the mountains with the help of her fairy friends.
The Red Fire Fairies, Green Forest Fairies, Yellow Wind Fairies and Blue Water Fairies each have a special role to play and share their wit and wisdom voiced with a musical motive all their own: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Each of the four stories on the CD are also accompanied by their own instrument family: brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion. The RMFT are a wonderful introduction for children to the various sections of the orchestra and for learning about nature.
