Cris Derksen
Maada'ookii Songlines
About the work
Maada'ookii: Ojibwe/Anishinaabe word that means s/he distributes something, distributes gifts, shares something with others. Maada’ookii Songlines is a mass choral project commissioned by the Luminato Festival in Toronto as a free event to bring Toronto together. At the premiere, there were 8 diverse community choirs including an Indigenous Hand Drum Choir, an Italian choir, Georigian choir, Ukaranian choir, a Chinese Children’s choir, a girls’ choir, a mental health choir, a Gospel choir and the Canadian Arabic choir, as well as 3 more choirs that joined for the last movement in a flashdance kind of form. The movements were composed to bring our diverse tapestry together as an act of sharing of our cultures and ourselves and ultimately to build relationships with our neighbors.
SPECS
Duration:
20'
Instrumentation:
4 vocal soloists (must be able to improvise)
8 choirs
Hand drum choir (8 players), piano (could hire local), trumpet (could hire local), drums, cello (Cris Derksen
Tech:
On request
BACKGROUND
Date of composition:
2019
Commissionner:
Luminato Festival 2019
Performances:
Premiere: Toronto, 2019
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Juno nominated Cris Derksen, originally from Northern Alberta, Canada, is an internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. Derksen braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music. As a composer she has her foot in many worlds working in choral, symphonic, film, theatre and dance, with a new commission from the Calgary Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra premiering in 2020. As a performer Derksen performs nationally and internationally. Recent destinations include Hong Kong, Australia, Mongolia, Europe, Mexico and a whole lot of Canada: the place Derksen refers to as home.