Orchestral Powwow braids Indigenous beat with symphonic sounds

A powwow drum will soon lead the Symphony New Brunswick, braiding together their sounds aspart of Cris Derksen's vision ofan Orchestral Powwow.

"I'm a strong supporter of us telling our own stories so this is the way for me to tell our story, to include actual Indigenous performers in classical music, " said Derksen, who is Cree from North Tallcree First Nation, about 500kilometres north of Edmonton.

Derksen willtour Orchestral Powwow with Symphony New Brunswick in Moncton, Saint John and Frederictonthisweek.

At the centre of the show is powwow group Chippewa Travellers with six of their singers. Its drum will largely lead the symphony orchestra, instead of the conductor.

"The original idea behind it was it's just time for us to start listening to the heartbeat of the Indigenous folks," said Derksen.

Derksenis a classically trained cellistand wanted a way to blend classical sounds with traditional music. In 2015 she created the album Orchestral Powwow, after receiving permission from each drum keeper from the powwow groups to use their work. Derksen received a Juno nomination for Instrumental Album for the project.

After the success of the albumshe developed theshow and has brought it across the country.

"When I first did It was like a concept album so there were like six different drum groups and the Chippewa Travellers was the group that I worked with the most in the studio," said Derksen.

"They wrote some songs specifically for me to write around but I never really expected it to become a full show."

Derksen said afterworking with the Chippewa Travellersthe past seven years they've become like family and she's proud through this project more Indigenous people are in classical music spaces.

"There's not many classical Indigenous performers out there at all but bringing the powwow into such a white space is really I think transformative," said Derksen.

Mlanie Lonard, the music director for Symphony New Brunswick, said Derksen is a talented and inspiring artist and Orchestral Powwow brings a new perspective and sound.

"It will be a very exciting, powerful and profound musical experience," said Lonard.

She said she'll conduct some pieces but largely the symphony willfollow the drum.

"It requires the musicians to really listen and rally around the drum and, you know, really work in synergy with the whole group," said Lonard.

"It's a different way of working and approaching music."

Orchestral Powwow tours in New Brunswick May 29-31.

Derksen is nowworking on a commission with Montreal's Orchestre Metropolitainwith a world premiere in September.