Indigenous cellist and composer Cris Derksen dead after car crash, returning from father’s funeral

Juno-nominated Indigenous cellist and composer Cris Derksen has died. AIM Booking Agency, which represents Derksen, says in a social media post she died in a car accident but no further information about the crash was included. A biography of Derksen on the National Arts Centre website says she hailed from northern Alberta and that her music weaved “her classical background and Indigenous ancestry with new school electronics to create genre-defying music.” Derksen told the Penticton Herald in an interview earlier this month that she was living in Ontario. Kathleen Allan, artistic director of t…