A number of talented Toronto artists will perform at this month’s Luminato festival in a special concert highlighting Indigenous music, including two past Polaris Prize winners — Jeremy Dutcher (2018) and Lido Pimienta (2017).
Biziindan gets its world premiere this month on June 14 at Koerner Hall. Biziindan means “listen or listen to” in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe peoples).
“The concert highlights the power of our voices and languages and the power of culture,” says Pimienta, who is currently putting the final touches on a new album, Miss Colombia, slated for release this winter.
“It’s a shift that continues to happen, and we are right in the middle of it helping to pump the pulse.”
Along with Dutcher and Pimienta, Biziindan features highly regarded cultural leader Marie Gaudet, 2010 Juno Award–winning band Digging Roots and legendary artist Pura Fe.
Pimienta is happy to be back working with Dutcher, who won a Juno Award this past spring for his incredible album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, which features the rearrangement of early 1900s wax cylinder field recordings from his New Brunswick community.
“Jeremy and I met many years ago, and I saw him playing piano, and doing his arrangements of the music of his people,” says Pimienta.
“He is such a special person. So it is good to be performing with people that you have so much in common with, that mutual understanding of the power of music.”
Biziindan culminates in a tribute performance to the legacy of Mi’kmaq and Scottish artist Willie Dunn, a pioneer of protest ballads and advocate for Indigenous rights.
For info go to luminatofestival.com.