Celebrating Margie Frost & Inaugural Togiak Bristol Bay Yuraq Festival

Spring 2026 Margie Frost's dream to host a multigenerational Yup'ik dance festival in the Togiak school became a reality. This - Bitanga Produciton, in association with the Alaska State Council on the Arts - video highlights the INAUGURAL TOGIAK BRISTOL BAY YURAQ FESTIVAL and how founder Margie Frost helped promote and facilitate indigenous ceremonies important to her, her family, her community and her region.

Margie and her yuraq singer & drummer husband Aaron Frost, coordinated with - local and regional - tribal affiliates, arts associations, educational institutions and guest artists to host a week-long festival centered around indigenous learning.

Yuraq singer husband Aaron Frost records while Margie admires on

Yup’ik crooner Martin Paul performs with Pamyua for surprise concert at the training

Youth representing six remote towns and villages located within the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska became the student body of this program inspired by their heritage.

Yuraq is an interactive multigenerational dance ceremony that is ancestrally practiced by Yup’ik and Cup’ik families, but was aggressively prohibited through colonial abuse and institutional systems introduced by European settlers.

This festival centers the indigenous traditions of yuraq to promote creative and spiritual expression. Strengthening this practice promotes language retention; it also brightens an awareness of the environmental relationships enjoyed between breathing and non-breathing citizens indigenous to the region.

Ivan Night, Margie Frost, Qacung and Phillip Blanchett

Congradulations and QUYANA to all of the participants and visitors of the first Inaugural Togiak Bristol Bay Yuraq Festival. ###

PAMYUA on Paramount Pictures’ Heart of the Beast Soundtrack

Award-winning film and television composer Jared Michael Fry collaborates with PAMYUA on film score, starring Brad Pitt.   

Heart of the Beast is a survival thriller film starring Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe. Directed by David Ayer and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film premieres in theaters September 25, 2026.

Fry invited Pamyua members to add vocal performances to his score after researching Alaska music. Pamyua is known for their unique indigenous Alaska sound.

“To provide an authentic, culturally specific foundation for the score, Fry brought in the award-winning Alaskan Inuit group PAMYUA, whose vocalizations, Yup’ik-language singing, chanting, humming and drumming were recorded remotely. He merged these elements with ethereal vocals from the London-based choral ensemble London Voices.” – Rachel Stone/BroadwayWorld

Coinciding with the theatrical release, September 25th, the soundtrack will be released by GRAMMY-winning record label Lakeshore Records, on vinyl and digital distribution.

The film setting is deep in the remote Alaska Wilderness. After being stranded from a small plane crash, former Army Special Forces officer James Belmont (Pitt) and his retired combat dog Odin, struggle together facing harsh weather, dangerous terrain and their own inner struggles while fighting to survive and return to civilization.

Pamyua members Phillip Blanchett and Ossie Kairaiuak also co-composed a song with Fry and award-winning musician/composer Wayne Ingram, titled Ak’a Tamaani.  The song showcases lyrics in Yugtun (Yup’ik language) and speaks about living on the land and reminiscing about seasonally learning from grandparents.

Pamyua recorded at their Anchorage studio, but also composed music for the film while on tour in Rural Alaska. “We were super busy, teaching Yuraq (traditional Yup’ik dance) by day in Togiak then recording all night for this Brad Pitt Hollywood movie,” Blanchett said.

(left to right) Ossie Kairaiuak, Qacung and Phillip Blanchett at Kennedy Center 2023. Photo taken by Kyle Gustafson