The Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre are thrilled to announce Cris Derksen as the winner of the 2024 Friends of Canadian Music Award. Cris has selected Sonny-Ray Day Rider to receive support as an emerging artist.
Cris Derksen, a Juno-nominated Indigenous cellist and composer, is internationally renowned for her genre-defying music that bridges the traditional and contemporary. Hailing from Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta, Derksen comes from a lineage of chiefs from the NorthTall Cree Reserve on her father’s side and strong Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s.
Derksen is a passionate advocate for diversity in classical music. She founded the Indigenous Classical Gathering at the Banff Centre for the Arts, serves as the Artistic Advisor for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and chairs the Equity Committee for Orchestras Canada. Through these roles, she strives to make classical music more reflective of Canada’s diverse population, opening doors for BIPOC composers and performers.
As a soloist-composer, Derksen has performed with most symphonies and chamber orchestras across Canada and has been commissioned by prestigious ensembles such as the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Thunder Bay Symphony, and Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In 2022, she composed for the Canadian Pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai. Her work on the podcast “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” by Connie Walker and Gimlet Media earned both a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award.
Sonny-Ray Day Rider is a Blackfoot composer and pianist from the Kainai Blood Tribe. Currently pursuing graduate studies at the University of Lethbridge, Sonny-Ray was selected as one of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 2024/25 NextGen Composers. He also sits on the Indigenous Advisory Circle to the Library and Archives Canada.
