ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: 

Sandra Sutter is an award-winning Cree Métis recording artist, songwriter, musician, poet and filmmaker who writes, records and performs in multiple genres encompassing roots music, including Native Americana, folk, country, pop, jazz, blues and rock. Performances are customized for the audience and range from intimate singer-songwriter shows to full band performances, to shows with the Calgary Civic Symphony. Raised in a loving non-Indigenous family, Sandra affirmed and embraced her ancestral and cultural roots later in life. Like many displaced Indigenous people, honouring her proud cultural roots is important to a woman whose birth heritage was lost through time and circumstance. Sandra’s culture influences her every step through life, and she has grown into an active and passionate advocate for Indigenous traditions and rights. Her life journey in both the non-Indigenous and Indigenous worlds has given her a unique perspective and opportunity to bring people together through her songs of reconciliation.  

Sutter made her debut as a Film Producer with her short film about women’s empowerment, “A Woman’s Voice”, in 2022. “A Woman’s Voice” is currently touring film festivals and has garnered 40 nominations and 27 awards thus far. Sutter also released her new single, “Midnight Serenade”, which is featured in the short film. 

In 2021, Sutter collaborated with Vince Fontaine for the release of “Storyteller” on the Indian City Code Red album, as well as the release of the collaborative Cluster Stars Song Book. Sandra’s 2020 Christmas Release, Aurora 12 Songs for the Season, expanded on the theme of her truth and reconciliation-focused release from 2017, Cluster Stars, sharing stories about the culture, history, challenges, strength, beauty and resilience of Indigenous Peoples. Aurora 12 is a mix of eight original songs along with four traditional Christmas songs, presented in a way that only the award-winning singer-songwriter can deliver.  

Sutter has garnered 21 industry nominations in the last three years, taking home awards for two 2022 SSIMA’s (Best Folk and Best Spiritual), a 2021 SSIMA (Best Métis Artist/Group of the Year), a 2018 NAMA (Best Americana) and 2019 IMA (Best Producer/Engineer). Sutter also received an Esquao Award (Arts) from the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women, an Aboriginal Role Model of Alberta (Arts) Award and a WXN Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada Award. One of the songs from Cluster Stars, “Song of Heaven”, is featured in a short film by Tito Gomez and Barb Briggs called “The Healing” in which Sandra made her acting debut. “Indian in the Child”, another Cluster Stars piece, is featured in a theatre production, New Blood, the Dance Show. One of Sutter’s reconciliation-focused poems, “She Is”, is published in Sheri-D Wilson’s 2020 legacy Poetry book, YYC Pop.  

Sutter is the Aboriginal Partnerships Manager for PTW Energy and sits on several Indigenous serving boards and committees across Canada. She lives and breathes the concepts that she thinks, speaks and sings about every day. 

sandrasutter.com 
Instagram: @sandrasuttermusic

Photo Credit: Ramsey Kunkel