FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – The Canadian Chamber Choir (CCC) and Cree-Dene composer and vocalist Sherryl Sewepagaham have been nominated for Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble) at the 2026 JUNO Awards for their album, Where Waters Meet. The nomination recognizes a deeply collaborative recording and multi-year journey that brought together performers and composers from diverse musical, cultural, and creative traditions.

“Where Waters Meet represents deep, respectful, and caring relationships amongst exceptionally talented Canadian artists and creators,” says Dr. Julia Davids, the CCC’s Artistic Director and the album’s lead producer. “It demonstrates the incredible power of bringing together artists with diverse perspectives and stories, and sharing in creation together. The expressive poetry of Yolanda Bonnell, the compositional brilliance of Sherryl Sewepagaham, Carmen Braden, and Hussein Janmohamed, and the evocative voices of Sherryl and the CCC singers have resulted in not only moving and satisfying music, but a powerful statement about what we can do when we create together. I am immensely grateful and forever changed by this project.”

The album borrows its title from Braden’s five-movement work, Where Waters Meet, commissioned by the Canadian Chamber Choir in 2017 and shaped through a series of in-person residencies that took place between 2016 and 2023. Janmohamed’s “Sun on Water” and six Cree-language works by Sewepagaham (“Morning Drum Song”, “Kitôhpintin”, “Kitaskinahk”, “Nitohtamok Askîy”, “Heart of the Water”, and “Nipîy”) are interwoven throughout. “Nipîy” was commissioned by the CCC in 2021.

“I stand in awe, my heart soaring, to hear my family’s Cree language lifted so prominently by the Canadian Chamber Choir in this collaborative album,” says Sewepagaham. “This JUNO nomination is a powerful testament: it affirms that positive change is not only possible but resonant, and that the Canadian choral field is growing more radiant and true by embracing the essential contributions of Indigenous composers.”

The album’s significance also resonates strongly with the CCC’s professional choristers and volunteer Board of Directors, whose members are drawn from communities large and small across Canada.

“This album is profoundly meaningful to me as an artist and as a Canadian,” says Dr. Danielle Sirek, who has been a soprano in the Canadian Chamber Choir since 2016 and has served in various other capacities, from board director to Indigenous Collaborations Lead. “Where Waters Meet represents years of deep listening and music making together in relationship, learning with and alongside Sherryl and many other artists, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers. It has reshaped the way I think about my role as a performer and continues to shape how I sing, collaborate, and create.”

Dr. Joel Tranquilla, who served as the Choir’s Associate Conductor from 2014 to 2025 and co-produced the album with Davids and Sewepagaham, frames the recording as a turning point in the Canadian Chamber Choir’s evolution.

“This album is in many ways the culmination of a decade-long journey for the CCC,” he says. “Learning from Sherryl and making music alongside her has changed me for the better as a choral artist. I am immensely grateful and humbled to have been a part of the Where Waters Meet story.”

Where Waters Meet was recorded on July 15, 2023, at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts’ Jennifer Velva Bernstein Performance Hall at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and was released independently on September 6, 2024. In addition to Davids, Sewepagaham, and Tranquilla, the album’s production team included Dr. Mark Ramsay (Production Assistant), Mike Cassells (Engineer), and Andy Rice (General Manager and Art Director). The album’s cover artwork is “Sacred Water” by Chipewyan Dene painter John Rombough, commissioned by the CCC in 2019.

This recent JUNO nomination is the second for the Canadian Chamber Choir, following similar recognition in 2016 for their third album, Sacred Reflections of Canada. Sewepagaham was also previously nominated for a JUNO Award in 2006 as a member of the Edmonton-based trio Asani.

Additional background on the Where Waters Meet project is available here. The project draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Mitacs, and was made possible through the support of Western University Research, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the SOCAN Foundation. The album is available for physical or digital purchase here.