Burning Bright

PHOTO BY TANJA-TIZIANA

From Canada’s boreal forest to the Hawaiian Islands, the African savannah to the Australian outback, Indigenous people across the world have been using fire since time immemorial to cleanse the earth.

In the early 20th century, however, the Canadian government banned the practice of ceremonial or controlled burns, wherein small areas of forest are purposely set aflame. Instead, Ottawa opted for a policy of total fire suppression, which inadvertently changed the ecology of forests, creating dense brush with a buildup of undergrowth, and brought some fire dependent tree species to the verge of extinction.

Composer and cellist Cris Derksen, whose Controlled Burn was inspired by the tradition of Indigenous fire keeping, recounts a conversation she had with Métis research scientist Dr. Amy Cardinal Christianson, who served as an Indigenous Fire Specialist in the National Fire Management Division of Parks Canada.

“She told me about how on the West Coast on a hot summer day they would light a big smoke fire to go across the inlet. It would cool down the water and make it easier for the fish to swim. Once it’s easier for the fish to swim, they are easier to catch. So, it’s all about sustainability. It’s all about cycles and ecosystem.”

Derksen contends that the federal government, which outlawed burning seven years after Confederation through the Bush Fire Act, was myopic in its transactional approach to nature.

“They were like, ‘you cannot burn this tree — this tree is money. They didn’t understand the benefits of keeping the land safe. They understood the economics of the land.”

Controlled Burn, which sees its premiere here with Derksen and the Calgary Phil on 15 March at the Jack Singer Concert Hall, addresses the sense of loss that came with the banning of Indigenous cultural practices. She speaks of a time, pre-contact with European settlers, in which burns were a safe community event populated by “running children” and “aunties laughing.”

By the 1970s, policy makers slowly started coming around to realize the inherent wisdom of controlled burns, and today it’s standard practice in forest management. The right to conduct ceremonial burns has also been largely restored. But, with drier winters and hotter summers leading to ever more devastating conflagrations, our relationship to fire has fundamentally changed, a shift reflected in Derksen’s work.

“Now, obviously, forest fires are not safe,” she says of the flames that have caused such destruction in locations as far flung as Los Angeles and Jasper. “The sound of these fires are military — the sound of helicopters and water bombers.”

As such, Controlled Burn begins with a “spark” in the form of col legno — the distinct sound made when the stick of the bow hits the strings on the cellos and basses. What follows are “military accents” and “explosions” but also gentler tones evocative of “seagulls and nature.”

Derksen’s practice is simultaneously rooted in multiple worlds: she draws upon the classical tradition while exploring electronic music through the use of pedals and loops, with the two spheres underscored by her roots in Northern Alberta (now based in Toronto, Derksen comes from a line of chiefs from North Tallcree Reserve on her father’s side and a line of strong Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s). It was this blend of sounds and influences that prompted renowned conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin to reach out to Derksen about creating the work that would become Controlled Burn.

“I got an e-mail from Yannick, and it was like, ‘hey, do you want to write a piece?’ I almost lost my mind. He’s pretty famous,” laughs Derksen about Nézet- Séguin, who is the Artistic Director of Montréal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, which commissioned Controlled Burn, as well as Music Director of both the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Philadelphia Orchestra. “He said, ‘I want you to bring yourself into it, meaning he wanted me to play it. He was excited about the electronic component with the orchestra.”

Controlled Burn premiered in Montréal in the fall of 2023 before heading to New York for Derksen’s 2024 Carnegie Hall debut, and then to the Kimmel Centre in Philadelphia, just the latest stops on an increasingly stellar career trajectory. A previous JUNO Award nominee, Derksen has released three albums, collaborated with several high-profile artists, and toured across the globe. Additionally, Derksen serves as the Calgary Phil’s Artistic Advisor and leads the Banff Centre’s bi-annual Indigenous Musical Gathering, which held its fourth iteration this past August.

The small spark which triggers a melodious yet explosive cavalcade of sounds in Controlled Burn seems a fitting metaphor for Derksen’s creative journey so far. Growing up in Edmonton, she says she initially settled on learning cello because her first choice, the bass, didn’t fit in her mother’s car. Ultimately, she found her ‘voice’ in the instrument while developing a philosophy of keeping the language she uses in communicating that voice accessible to everyone.

“Being Indigenous, none of my cousins even knew what a cello was. So, I’ve always been about making music relatable. Taking the cello outside of the concert hall and bringing it down to street level was something that I really cared a lot about when I was just starting out,” she says. “To get out the classism that comes with classical music. As I grow and I find myself in that sphere, I feel like I’m now bringing the street into the classical world as well. So, I’m kind of bringing all my worlds together.”