Jeremy Dutcher weaves Indigenous and classical into new musical cloth
Jeremy Dutcher is a classically trained singer, a musicologist, and a member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada. He is half Wolastoque, which translates to The People of the Beautiful River.
There are only about 100 people today who still speak the Wolastoq language so when Dutcher learned of a 1907 collection of wax cylinder field recordings of his people singing, he dug into them to learn the songs of his ancestors. That deep dive led to his debut album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, translated as Songs of the Wolastoq People. Dutcher combines some of the 1907 recordings with western musical instruments and traditions in order to both sing with his people and take the old songs into new musical territory - honoring them but also making something new and beautiful.
Even if it’s just 10 people that get to engage with it and it changes them and it moves them towards understanding our beauty, then that’s great. I’ve done my job and I can hang my coat up at the end of the day and say, ‘well done’.
Dutcher will perform at SUNY Potsdam on Saturday, February 26th at 7:30pm in Hosmer Hall as part of the Community Performance Series.
