Deantha Edmunds is Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer, and an award-winning performer. An urban Inuk, creator, and mentor, Deantha aims to empower Indigenous people and share their stories. She is currently based in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.
Deantha was longlisted for the prestigious 2023 Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award from the Inuit Art Foundation. Her work has international reverberation as well as community integrity. From solo and internationally broadcast performances for His Holiness, Pope Francis in Iqaluit to touring one-woman shows about the lives and legacy of the Beothuk in Newfoundland, and from contributing to large choral gatherings to teaching one-on-one music lessons, Deantha is committed to bringing her music and skill to developing deeper understandings about reciprocal collaboration amongst Indigenous peoples, their musics and settlers. She brings a level of professional excellence to Canada’s Indigenous art scene that is unique and important.
Deantha has released three albums of music. The most recent from 2022 is her Music NL award-winning solo album Connections. Her contribution to Messiah/Complex with Against the Grain Theatre and Toronto Symphony Orchestra helped garner the production a 2022 JUNO nomination. Deantha was one of the recipients of the 2020 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in the Opera Division in Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit, produced by Soundstreams/Signal Theatre/Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš.
Actively working on creating original operatic work, contributing to other Indigenous productions, and mentoring young Indigenous artists, Deantha sings her heart out and turns heads across Canada and the world.