New Brunswick artists get 31 ECMA nominations

The East Coast Music Awards has a New Brunswick favourite.

Five of the 31 New Brunswick ECMA nominations went to Tobique First Nation's Jeremy Dutcher, making him the third most nominated artist this year.

Dutcher, who already won the coveted Polaris prize last year, is nominated for classical composition of the year, contemporary roots recording of the year, Indigenous artist of the year, rising star recording of the year and solo recording of the year.

Nominations were announced Monday in Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia has the most nominations with 106, followed by Newfoundland and Labrador with 33, P.E.I. with32. Cape Breton, which is treated as its own region by the
ECMAs, received 17.

The award ceremony will be part of the East Coast Music Week in Charlottetown fromMay 1 to 5.

Nova Scotia's Classified has the most nominations, with seven, and the second most nominated is Ben Caplan with six.

Francophone and Indigenous nominations

Every nominee for the francophone recording of the year is from New Brunswick, including Chlo Breault and Joannie Benot.

Moncton's Les Htesses d'Hilaire is a standout with three nominations, including rock recording of the year and group recording of the year.

Three of the five nominations for Indigenous artist of the year went to New Brunswick musicians. Rapper Brandon Arnold was nominated for that category, plus rap/hip-hop recording of the year.

There were no New Brunswick names under album of the year.

The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra was nominated for classical recording of the year for the song Sea to Sea, which it commissioned from Grammy-award winning composer Howard Shore for Canada's 150thanniversary.Soprano Measha Brueggergosman lent her vocals to the song.

The orchestra, which has musicians as young as 12 and up to 22, won an ECMA in 2008, said orchestra CEO Ken MacLeod.

"The average age in the provincial youth orchestra this year is probably the lowest it's been in our history and the level is perhaps the highest," MacLeod said.

The ECMAs will be releasing artist lineup and conference details in the coming weeks.