In a world where almost everything — people, music, cultures — get labelled and slotted into simple categories, Cris Derksen represents a challenge. Originally from Northern Alberta she comes from a line of chiefs from NorthTall Cree Reserve on her father’s side and a line of strong Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s.

I wanted to take all of my heritage and all of my traditional learnings – that includes Western classical learning – and put them together.
— CRIS DERKSEN
She is a JUNO-nominated, classically-trained cellist and composer who braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music. Derksen has performed nationally and internationally with some of Canada’s finest including; Tanya Tagaq, Buffy Sainte Marie, and Naomi Klein, to name a few.

For Luminato this year, Derksen will be curating a special concert bringing together a hand-picked band of string, horns and drums and other special guests who will share the bill. Bryden Gwiss Kiwenzie received a JUNO nomination for Best Indigenous Music Album in 2017 for Round Dance & Beats, (Pow Wow); Ansley Simpson’s recent album, Breakwall was described by RPM as “a swelling, soft symphony of emotion that builds in gentle intensity”; and Simone Schmidt (aka Fiver) whose 2017 release Audible Songs from Rockwood, was described by Exclaim! Magazine as “an important, passionately inventive work” and by CBC’s Andrea Warner as “one of the most fascinating and musically satisfying records you’ll hear this year.”

Cris Derksen is known for music that builds layers of sound into captivating performances and this concert promises a night of unique and profoundly stirring music by some of the most exciting young musicians to be heard locally today.

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