Deantha Edmunds is Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in December, 2023 for her activity as a performer, writer, composer, and mentor, work which seeks to empower Indigenous people and share their stories. She is currently based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her work has international reverberation as well as community integrity. She brings a level of professional excellence to Canada’s Indigenous art scene that is unique and important.
Deantha has released three albums. The most recent, Connections, won the 2022 Music NL awards for Classical Album of the Year, and Indigenous Artist of the Year. Connections was also nominated for a 2023 East Coast Music Award. Her EP My Beautiful Home (2019) and full-length CD Pillorikput Inuit: Inuktitut Arias for All Seasons (2016) also garnered ECMA nominations.
Her contribution to the internationally-acclaimed Messiah/Complex with Against the Grain Theatre and Toronto Symphony Orchestra helped garner the production a 2022 JUNO nomination, and the project also won the first ever Opera America Digital Excellence Award in 2022.
Deantha performs as a soloist with professional ensembles across Canada and abroad. In the fall of 2023, she was a featured soloist with the Netherlands Chamber Choir in the world premiere of Flights of the Angakok by Austrian-American composer Lera Auerbach in Amsterdam.
Other notable appearances include singing at the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2021, performing for His Holiness, Pope Francis in Iqaluit at the official apology to Inuit residential school survivors in 2022, and singing the Nunatsiavut anthem for King Charles III at the St. John’s welcome ceremony of the 2022 Canadian Royal Tour which focused on Reconciliation.
As one of Canada’s official delegates at the Opera Europa conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in October, 2023, Deantha had the opportunity to introduce her opera Irngutaq, the first opera written and composed by an Inuk.
Creating original music, collaborating with other musicians, contributing to Indigenous productions, and mentoring young artists, Deantha shares her voice and vision with her whole heart, and is drawing accolades from across Canada and the world.
