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Jeremy Dutcher Trio
“There is no one making music like this.” – NPR Music
JEREMY DUTCHER is a Two-Spirit song carrier, composer, activist, ethnomusicologist, and classically trained vocalist based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal), Québec. A Wolastoqiyik member of Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Dutcher is widely celebrated for his groundbreaking work that bridges Western classical music with the traditional songs and language of his people.
His debut album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, which earned the 2018 Polaris Music Prize and a Juno Award, reimagines archival recordings of his ancestors and breathes new life into the endangered Wolastoqey language. Dutcher’s work plays a vital role in a growing movement to revitalize Indigenous languages and cultures—resisting deficit-based narratives and instead highlighting the urgency, beauty, and strength of resurgence.
With fewer than 100 fluent first-language speakers of Wolastoqey, activists and artists like Dutcher are at the forefront of keeping the language alive—not as a relic of the past, but as a vibrant voice of the present and future. His music refuses colonial erasure, weaving jazz, opera, and traditional song into a sonic act of resistance and reclamation.
As Dutcher reminds us:
“Don’t bury it before it’s dead—communicate the urgency, and focus on the good work that’s happening to keep it alive.”
Jeremy Dutcher – Piano/Vocal
Naomi McCarroll-Butler – Woodwinds
Stefan Schnieder – Drums
