Hear an opera performed in a disappearing Indigenous language

Jeremy Dutcher, is a 28-year-old classically trained singer, an activist and a fashion plate from Fredericton. His fall tour gives his award-winning album the orchestral treatment. Here’s what you need to know about one of our most talented musicians.

• His 2018 album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, is an experimental opera, recorded entirely in Wolastoqey, an Indigenous language currently spoken by about 100 people worldwide. The album samples 100-year-old wax cylinder recordings of traditional songs.

• He’s two-spirited (a pansexual identity specific to Indigenous communities) and equally fluid in his fashion choices, which range from shorts and T-shirts to skirts and hot pants. He made a major splash on the Juno red carpet in a floor-length floral cape worn over a sheer unitard. The cape was printed with Cree for “We Will Succeed.”

• During his acceptance speech for best Indigenous album at the 2019 Junos, Dutcher got cut off during his impassioned acceptance speech (he addressed Justin Trudeau directly on reconciliation). He was invited back on stage by Max Kerman, when Kerman’s band, Arkells, won Rock Album of the Year. • He performed Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa last spring accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. For his current cross-Canada tour, he will share the stage with some pretty impressive backup bands, including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (October 9) and the Calgary Philharmonic (November 8).