Jeremy Dutcher

“Canada, you are in the midst of an Indigenous renaissance. Are you ready to hear the truths that need to be told? Are you ready to see the things that need to be seen?” – Jeremy Dutcher

Winner of the 2018 Polaris Prize winner, and a 2019 Juno for his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, this incredible artist makes his first appearance on the Festival Stage.

A Wolastoqiyik member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Dutcher studied music and anthropology at Dalhousie University. He recorded Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, following a research project on old archival recordings of traditional Maliseet songs at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He painstakingly transcribed Wolastoq songs from 1907 wax cylinders. As he listened to each recording, he felt his own musical impulses stirring from deep within. Long days at the archives turned into long nights at the piano, feeling out melodies and phrases, deep in dialogue with the voices of his ancestors.

’’JEREMY DUTCHER’S NEW ALBUM REACHES ACROSS GENERATIONS TO A NEARLY FORGOTTEN HISTORY AND BRINGS ANCESTRAL VOICES BACK TO LIFE. THE OPERATIC TENOR AND COMPOSER HAS NOW INTERTWINED VOICES FROM THE RECORDINGS WITH CLASSICAL AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC.’’ – CBC ”