Award-winning composer\u00a0and cellist\u00a0Cris Derksen\u00a0has died at the age of\u00a045.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to social media posts from friends and colleagues on Saturday night,\u00a0the two-time Juno Award nominee from\u00a0Tallcree\u00a0First Nation\u00a0in northern Alberta died in a car crash\u00a0after attending the funeral of\u00a0their\u00a0father,\u00a0former community chief Bernie Meneen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy extraordinary, gifted, radiant, cherished niece Cris may have left us prematurely, but her profound legacy and enchanting music will perpetually uplift me,\u201d their aunt Theresa Johnson\u00a0shared \u00a0in\u00a0part on social media. \u201cThough my heart is heavy with sorrow, I will endeavor to continue honoring her life and legacy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
RELATED STORIES<\/p>\n
A beloved Manitoba collaborator and performer<\/p>\n
Derksen\u2019s collaborations spanned across the country and earned them acclaim\u00a0for works like. In 2024, Derksen\u00a0completed their first ballet project for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet alongside choreographer Cameron Fraser-Monroe,\u00a0T’\u0259l: The Wild Man of the Woods,\u00a0and also\u00a0had their “Overture to the\u00a0Spiderbeing” shared in the RWB\u2019s The Four Seasons & Other Works\u00a0at the end of this past month.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derksen has also frequently performed with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, most recently in a concert titled\u00a0Awasowin\u00a0in May of 2025. They also recently shared a new record called The Visit this past October.\u00a0The composer recently premiered a work called Still Here with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Visit by cris derksen<\/p>\n
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\u201cCris was wise, caring,\u00a0funny\u00a0and immensely gifted. I am thankful for the many beautiful memories and the music she shared,\u201d said pianist and composer Beverley McKiver. \u201cI am so sad for her family and friends. May we continue to carry on her legacy.”<\/p>\n
Derksen is survived by their wife,\u00a0Rebecca, who is in critical condition on Saturday night.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story will be updated as more details become available.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Award-winning composer\u00a0and cellist\u00a0Cris Derksen\u00a0has died at the age of\u00a045.\u00a0\u00a0 According to social media posts from friends and colleagues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-675028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}