PEI Symphony Orchestra: Reclaimed featuring guest Cris Derksen
The PEI Symphony Orchestra (PEISO) presents Reclaimed, the third concert of its 2025–26 Island Series, on March 15 at 2:30 pm in the Sobey Family Theatre at Confederation Centre of the Arts. The concert features acclaimed Indigenous cellist and composer Cris Derksen, whose genre-defying work bridges classical music, Indigenous traditions, and contemporary sound worlds.
Reclaimed explores themes of home, identity, and resilience—asking what happens when home is lost, and what it means to reclaim it. The program brings together works that confront displacement, cultural erasure, and renewal, framed within the broader context of place and community on Mi’kmaq territory.
Cris Derksen is internationally recognized for their bold, interdisciplinary practice, which combines cello, electronics, and Indigenous musical forms. Their work has been presented across Canada and internationally, and they are widely respected for their advocacy, storytelling, and community-centred artistic approach.
The concert program includes several of Derksen’s own works, including “Round Dance,” “Parkdale,” and “Controlled Burn,” performed with the PEISO. The orchestra is honoured to collaborate with the Mi’kmaq community from Lennox Island during “Round Dance,” bringing the work’s communal roots to life on the Centre’s stage.
Also featured on the program is “Hope” by Australian composer Nat Bartsch, a meditative work that creates space for reflection and collective listening. Margaret Bonds’ “Montgomery Variations” responds musically to the American civil rights movement, while Bedřich Smetana’s “Má Vlast (The Moldau)” reflects on national identity and the deep emotional ties to homeland.
As part of Derksen’s visit to the Island, the PEISO is also partnering with community organizations to support a short artist residency, including outreach activities with Mi’kmaq communities, solo performances in Charlottetown and Lennox Island, and a guest presentation during the Contemporary Music Festival, hosted by the UPEI Department of Music.
Reclaimed is part of the PEISO’s 2025–26 season, Nouveau, inspired by the Art Nouveau movement’s vision of beauty, purpose, and transformation through art. The season concludes on April 12 with Blue—a season finale infused with jazz, gospel, and 20th-century cosmopolitan flair, with PEI pianist Magdalena von Eccher as guest soloist.
Tickets are available through the Confederation Centre Box Office via confederationcentre.com or 902-566-1267. For more information about the 2025-26 season visit peisymphony.com.
