A classically trained operatic tenor explores his Indigenous roots through music – and the result is a concert that “promises to be one of the most incredible things you’ll see at the Massey Theatre.”
That’s how a press release from the theatre describes the upcoming performance by Jeremy Dutcher. A Musical Mosaic is onstage Saturday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m.
Dutcher, a member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, studied music in Halifax before taking a chance to work in the archives at the Canadian Museum of History, transcribing Wolastoq songs from 1907 wax cylinders.
“Many of the songs I’d never heard before, because our musical tradition on the East Coast was suppressed by the Canadian government’s Indian Act,” Dutcher said in a press release.
Dutcher heard ancestral voices singing forgotten songs and stories, and he found himself drawn to creating his own music in dialogue with those voices. Those “collaborative” compositions were collected together on his debut LP Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa – an LP that earned him the 2018 Polaris Music Prize.
“I’m doing this work because there’s only about a hundred Wolastoqey speakers left,” he said in the release. “It’s crucial for us to make sure that we’re using our language and passing it on to the next generation. If you lose the language, you’re not just losing words; you’re losing an entire way of seeing and experiencing the world from a distinctly Indigenous perspective.”
Massey Theatre is at 735 Eighth Ave. Tickets for the Jeremy Dutcher concert are $22 regular or $10 for students and seniors, available through www.ticketsnw.ca.
