Renowned composer, cellist Derksen dead after car crash

Award-winning Cree composer and cellist Cris Derksen, who had strong ties to Manitoba’s arts community, has died following a car crash in northern Alberta. They were 45.

Derksen, originally from Treaty 8 territory in Alberta, composed the music for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s 2024 production of Cameron Fraser-Moore’s ballet Tel: Wild Man of the Woods.

According to reports, the crash occurred while Derksen and their wife, singer Rebecca Benson, were travelling home from Derksen’s father’s funeral. Benson was reportedly left in critical condition in hospital.

“It is with profound, shattering sadness that we share the news of the sudden passing of our dear friend, client, and visionary artist, Cris Derksen, following a car accident yesterday,” Derksen’s agency, AIM Booking Agency, wrote in a statement on Facebook.

“To know Cris was to know a force of nature. She was fiercely authentic and deeply generous, and she brought an uncompromising spirit to everything she touched. Her art was a reflection of her soul: poignant, powerful, grounded in heritage, and relentlessly innovative.”

Tributes from across Canada’s music and arts communities poured onto social media Sunday following news of Derksen’s death.

“Cris was a dedicated advocate for diversity in classical music,” David McLeod, CEO of Native Communications Incorporated, which operates NCI FM, said in a social media post. “Cris’s unique sound began to take shape in 2006 when she started performing with Tanya Tagaq. Her debut album, “The Cusp,” remains a staple on national radio and is frequently licensed for television and film.”

In a Facebook tribute, Derksen’s aunt Theresa Johnson remembered them as a gifted artist whose legacy will endure.

“My extraordinary, gifted, radiant, cherished niece Cris may have left us prematurely, but her profound legacy and enchanting music will perpetually uplift me,” Johnson wrote. “There has to be a divine purpose why I had to bid farewell to her merely a week after laying my brother Bernie, her dad, to rest. She serenaded him with her cello one final time, and this poignant moment will forever be etched in my memory as a testament to her remarkable talent.”

Melody McKiver, assistant professor at the University of Manitoba Desautels Faculty of Music, described the Juno-nominated artist as “a pillar of our Indigenous classical community.”

“One of my closest friends, most important mentors, co-conspirators,” McKiver wrote on Facebook. “We’ve laughed, fought, and always always had each other’s backs. It’s been a running joke for over a decade being mistaken for each other on three (?!) different continents even though we always maintained that we don’t look alike but my cello shrank in the wash. Much to our annoyance, we became the shared face of Banff Centre programming for years and years. I love you Cris and Bobby (Rebecca).”

Added Holly Nimmons, president and CEO of the Canadian Music Centre: “I want to acknowledge the tremendous impact Cris has on contemporary music, through her compositions and performances. She was a composer, a cellist, a mentor, a collaborator and a strong voice from the Indigenous classical community… inspiring and so much more. It felt like her career was soaring with varying opportunities, such as a performance at Carnegie Hall of her work “Controlled Burn” performed by l’Orchestre Métropolitan de Montréal.”

Beyond their work with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Derksen was also a frequent collaborator with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, including a May 2025 performance of Awasowin.

Earlier this month, Derksen’s music was also featured in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet production The Four Seasons, which ran from April 30 to May 3.

“The Musicians of the WSO are saddened to hear of the passing of Cris Derksen,” the group said in a social media post Sunday. “We recently performed two of her works with the RWB and also collaborated with her in the pit for her ballet T’el: The Wild Man of the Woods. We feel this loss to our musical community deeply and offer our condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues.”

Derksen founded the Indigenous Classical Gathering at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, served as artistic advisor for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and chaired the equity committee for Orchestras Canada.

“We know that Cris’ legacy will live on through their music, commitment to music education, championing of new works, and in establishing supports and opportunities for Indigenous artists,” the CPO said in a Facebook post Sunday. “Our hearts are heavy and our thoughts are with her family, friends, and everyone who was impacted by Cris.”

Along with Juno nominations, Derksen was a Western Canadian Music Award nominee and a winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award, an Indigenous Music Award and an Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Award.

Derksen made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2024.

On Sunday, Kathleen Allan, artistic director of the Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto and Chorus Niagara, said she plans to dedicate an upcoming performance later this month at the legendary venue to Derksen.

“Though this loss is immeasurable, Cris’s voice will remain at the centre of this work, and her vision and music will continue to resonate far beyond that stage,” Allan said in a release.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca