Jeremy Dutcher
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Jeremy Dutcher is a classically trained Canadian Indigenous tenor, composer, musicologist, performer, and activist who is a Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) member of the Tobique First Nation in North-West New Brunswick. He studied music and anthropology at Dalhousie University. After training as an operatic tenor in the Western classical tradition, he expanded his professional repertoire to include the traditional singing style and songs of his community. Jeremy Dutcher made history by becoming the first artist to win the Polaris Music Prize twice. His first album "Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa" won the 2018 Polaris Music Prize and the JUNO Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the 2019 JUNO Awards. In 2024, he won the Polaris Music Prize for his second album, becoming the first artist in Polaris history to win the prize twice. He recorded "Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa" following a research project on archival recordings of traditional Maliseet songs at the Canadian Museum of History. The classically trained operatic tenor and composer studied 110-year-old wax cylinder recordings of his ancestors, which became the inspiration for the album. Dutcher aims to preserve both Wolastoq culture and language through his music and inspire Indigenous youth to think about the importance of language. He identifies as two-spirit and is a recipient of the 2025 National Arts Centre Award from the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. His groundbreaking work bridges classical Western music with Indigenous traditions, creating powerful artistic statements about cultural preservation and Indigenous identity.