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 North Tall Cree Reserve on her father’s side and a line of strong Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s side. She’s a classically trained cellist and composer whose music braids the traditional and contemporary. Derksen weaves her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music.

For her third studio album, Orchestral Powwow, Cris paired up with Tribal Spirit music and traveled, researched, worked and collaborated with powwow groups to create a cinematically symphonic and truly Indigenous album. In her words “what excites me most about this project is bringing our Indigenous music to the centre of the European model and we as Indigenous artists lead the way with our drums and our heart beat to create new forms of music.” The album was nominated for 2016 Instrumental Juno Album of the Year.

Cris creates music that challenges, enlightens and is uniquely powerful. She is thrilled to be back at Prismatic for the second year in a row with her drummer Jesse Baird and dancer Nimkii Osawamick.