Composers and Performers
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Ambrosia String Quartet (Caeli Smith and Erica Tursi, violins; Madeline Smith, viola; Sara Gabalawi, cello) is coached by Jean Louise Shook through the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. The quartet was formed in September 2007 by four longtime friends, and has since performed at many venues, including Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and at the Settlement Music School’s 100th Anniversary Gala and Concert, where the quartet shared the stage with Settlement alumnus, Chubby Checker. All four members of Ambrosia hold Advanced Study Scholarships through Settlement Music School. Concert: Young Classical Natives |
Steven Alvarez (Mescalero Apache/Yaqui/Upper Tanana Athabascan) graduated from San Jose State University with a B.A. in music (voice and percussion) and history, and a minor in philosophy. An artist with hands in many mediums, he is currently producing three film projects and an innovative performance theater piece, coupling live storytelling and singing with film that has been presented recently at the NMAI. He is the director of Cultural Education and Strategic Initiatives for the Alaska Native Heritage Center, where he is responsible for developing educational and public programming. A percussionist with the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Anchorage Opera, and the Anchorage Concert Chorus, he also performs with two traditional/contemporary Native bands, Medicine Dream and Pamyua. In addition, he recently played the roll of Che in a touring production of Evita. Concerts: Native Performers’ Showcase; Dawn Avery’s North American Indian Cello Project; Veterans Day Concert |
 Steven Alvarez, marimba, with Timothy Long, piano, and Heidi Senungetuk, violin: Sonata No. 4 by Anthony Cirone |
 George Quincy with Tim Archambault: Choctaw Diaries |
Timothy Archambault (Kichesipirini), American Indian flutist, studied music theory at Brown University and holds a B.A. in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. His recording of Wessi vah-peh (with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra) is scheduled to be released by Opus One in late 2008. His repertoire consists of early twentieth century American Indian flute music and new compositions by American Indian composers. Tim was the first flute player in history to perform the old “warble” technique within the context of new classical compositions by David Yeagley in the first Classical Native concerts. A hereditary senator of the Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation, he is intent on reestablishing the tribe’s musical heritage through community-based instructional websites in conjunction with North American ethnomusicologists. His current projects include a solo album entitle Suite Tragique, featuring compositions by David Yeagley dedicated to the Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation, and a collaborative performance entitled “Cycles” with composer Raven Chacon. He can be heard on the recently released recording on the Lyrichord label that includes The Choctaw Diaries, with chamber orchestra, and excerpts from Pocahontas in the Court of James I, both by George Quincy. |
Emanuele Arciuli has earned an outstanding international reputation as a champion of both Classicism and twentieth century music, particularly contemporary American piano works and the music of Arnold Schoenberg and his followers. His collaborations with composers including John Adams, George Crumb, Joel Hoffman, Aaron J. Kernis, Michael Nyman, and Frederic Rzewski have won him acclaim throughout the piano world. While he performs regularly for many prestigious concert societies and orchestras in Italy and throughout Europe, Arciuli has a number of recordings including the complete piano works of Berg and Webern, the original version of the second book of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage, the piano concerto of Bruno Maderna, and an anthology of American piano music entitled Americans. In recent years, Emanuele Arciuli has become fascinated with piano works by American Indian composers, several of whom have written music for him. Earlier this year he premiered a piano concerto by Louis Ballard (completed by Brent Michael Davids) with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Emanuele Arciuli lives in Bari, Italy, where he teaches at the Music Conservatory of Bari. |
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Dawn Avery, cello and voice, “Tripartita” |
Dawn Avery (Mohawk) has worked with a diverse group of well-known artists, from Luciano Pavarotti to Sting, and has collaborated and performed with John Cage, Glen Velez, Joanne Shenandoah, and Mischa Maisky, among others. She has performed at the Montreux, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Banlieu Bleu Jazz Festivals in Europe. Venues in the U.S. include the Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall, as well as New York’s Knitting Factory, La Mama, Thread Waxing Space, and many more. Specializing in the performance of Native American music with her own ensemble Okenti, and indigenous classical music with her cello, voice, and percussion duo, CelloVision!, Dawn Avery’s compositions include orchestral, chamber, and contemporary compositions. As a performer, Ms. Avery was nominated for a GRAMMY on Grover Washington’s Breath of Heaven. Now working on her doctorate in ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland College Park, Ms. Avery is a professor of music at Montgomery College, where she directs the MC World Ensemble and produces the MC World Arts Festival. Her North American Indian Cello Project received funding from the First Nations Composers Initiative, enabling her to commission new works by several Native composers, including Raven Chacon, Timothy Archambault, and Ron Warren. Funding for the creation of pieces being presented by Three Sides came, in part, from an Expressive Arts grant from the NMAI. Dawn Avery was recently elected to be on the board of the American Composers Forum, where she will serve on the education and curriculum committees and the committee for the First Nations Composers Initiative. |
Elaine Benavides (Mescalero Apache/Yaqui/Comanche) offers a wide range of musical abilities in composition, producing, mastering, and editing. Elaine is a vocalist, instrumentalist (drums, flute, oboe, harp), urban street dancer, modern belly dancer, a fire-performance artist, stilt walker, fencer, and aerialist. After graduating from the Juilliard School of Music, she created soundtrack music for independent films and music labels, ranging from classical, marching, spiritual, indigenous, cultural, underground, urban, pop, educational and historical performances. After attending the School of Visual Arts and Fashion Institute of Technology as a sculptor, graphic and visual artist, she created and directed off-Broadway shows and has been a costume designer, fashion stylist, set artist for music videos, and used her craft to construct props and design for several magazines. She also works with legendary radio and TV celebrities, filmmakers, photographers, and designers. |
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Score from In the Land of the Headhunters |
The Coast Orchestra is an all-Native American Orchestra of classically trained musicians founded by White Mountain Apache violinist Laura Ortman in 2008. The mission of The Coast Orchestra is to provide a venue for classically trained Native American musicians to perform music relevant to Native people, even if much of it was composed by non-Natives. In this case, the Coast Orchestra is performing music by the non-Native composer of Curtis’s film, John J. Braham (1848–1919). Although arguably created with good intentions, the score is based on fantastical ideas and Hollywood-esque themes about Native people. The Coast Orchestra wants to reinterpret this romanticized and stereotypical score from a contemporary context, and specifically from a Native perspective. We also believe that the time is long overdue for a classically-trained Native orchestra to present live music. Concert: Silent Film/Live Music |
Katelyn Brittany Duty (Chickasaw) began singing and performing at the McSwain Theatre in Ada, Oklahoma, at age 11. She has appeared as guest soloist at many events, including the Preachers vs. Teachers Fund Raiser in 2007 and Foster Care Banquet in 2006. She sings in the Chickasaw Children’s Choir, has acted in many musicals such as The Decoyed Scholar at Cox Convention Center and Hina Falaa for Chickasaw Nation Arts in 2005, and likes to create original compositions. Kate is a senior at Ada High School and hopes to become an orthopedic surgeon. Concert: Young Classical Natives |
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 | Paris Fairbanks (Ojibwe) was born in 1989 and grew up in Minneapolis. While Ms. Fairbanks resides in Minneapolis, her familial origins are in Net Lake, Minnesota. An avid lover of music, she attends as many concerts as she can. Her favorite genre is heavy metal; some of her favorite bands play epic trilogies and have classical themes and influences. For Ms. Fairbanks, music provides a positive experience. She looks forward to writing new pieces and exploring where she can take them. Concert: Young Classical Natives |
Randall Craig Fleischer composer and conductor of Echoes, is the musical director and conductor of the Youngstown Symphony, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and Anchorage Symphony, and appears regularly as a guest conductor with orchestras throughout the U.S. and abroad. As a composer he has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Kenny Rogers, and Blondie. He also worked with Native flutist R. Carlos Nakai (Navajo/Ute) and the Jones Benally Family (Navajo) to create one of his most recent works, Triumph, which debuted in Flagstaff, Arizona, in March 2006, and was also performed in Anchorage in January 2007 with Mr. Nakai and the Benally Family as guest artists. Since earning a B.M.E. from Oberlin Conservatory and an M.M. at Indiana University, Fleischer has served as assistant conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, chorus master for Indiana University’s Opera Theater, and associate conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich. Fleischer advocates education though his “Cool Concerts for Kids” program, and received Newsweek’s “Parent Choice Award” for his CD-ROM, Peter and the Wolf. In December 2008, Mr. Fleischer will make his debut appearance with the Boston Pops Orchestra. |
Randall Craig Fleischer: Echoes |
Emmanuel Gray, guitar: Recuerdos de Alhambra |
Emmanuel Gray (Navajo) grew up on the Navajo Reservation in Monument Valley, Utah, and studies music education at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He is a second-year student and has taken many master classes with various teachers including Martha Masters, Scott Tennet, and Brian Wagner. A classical guitarist for five years, Gray was a guest artist on the PBS program, From the Top, presented live from Ft. Pierce, Florida. He performed with the Monument Valley High School Guitar Ensemble at the Loyola Marymount University guitar festival in Los Angeles, where he also soloed in the Youth Showcase Concert. Concert: Young Classical Natives |
Don Harry (Delaware Nation) attended the University of Houston and Indiana University. Don is the principal tuba of the Buffalo Philharmonic and a member of the Eastman Brass. Since 1997 he has served as an associate professor of tuba at the Eastman School of Music. He has also taught at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, Lanston University and the Juilliard School of Music. In addition to serving as principal tuba for the Oklahoma City Symphony, Don has taught and performed at the Eastern Music Festival and Winter Festival of Campos de Jordao, Brazil. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Orchestra de Paris, Chautauqua Symphony, Aspen Festival Orchestra, the New York Pro Philharmonia, Keith Brion's New Sousa Band, and the Rochester Philharmonic. He has had solo performances with the Colorado Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, USMA Band at West Point, U.S. Army Band, Mansfield University, SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Buffalo, Creative Associates, Sousa Live at Wolf Trap, Indiana University, UCLA, Ringgold Band and Keith Brion's new Sousa Band 7/04, and The Harvey Phillips Northwest Big Brass Bash. Don is also caretaker of the Edward A. Jablonsky Award for excellent progress in tuba study at the Eastman School of Music. Concert: Silent Film/Live Music |
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Ryan Hoosava (Hopi) grew up on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. His composition, entitled “Purify,” is a reflection of his heavy metal influences. Mr. Hoosava is inspired by a certain quality that he refers to as “epic,” and means to portray that feeling in his compositions. Concert: Young Classical Natives |
Swil Kanim (Lummi) is a classically trained violinist who grew up in Washington State. For many years he has traveled up and down the West Coast, playing violin and telling stories at schools, community events, and festivals. He plays his own compositions, which incorporate classical influences but are infused with his own life and musical influences. He has been featured on KIRO TV NEWS, National Public Radio’s Earth on the Air, Northwest Public Radio, NW Cable News Network and the Canadian Chum Network’s New Canoe. In addition to working in 24 episodes of CBS's Northern Exposure, his music and acting ability were highlighted in Sherman Alexie’s critically acclaimed The Business of Fancy Dancing. The Indigo Girls asked him to be their opening act in Seattle to kick off the Honor the Earth Concert tour of North America. For five years he performed with the Seattle-based Growth and Prevention Theater Company (GAP Theater), which presented plays about racism and varying forms of bigotry for institutions across the Northwest. Swil Kanim has been a featured performer at the American Indian Film Awards in San Francisco since 2003. The recipient of many awards and honors, Swil Kanim performed at the West Coast American Indian Music Awards last April, where he was presented with both the classical and traditional instrument awards. That same month he was invited to perform for the Dalai Lama at Key Arena in Seattle for The Seeds of Compassion event. |
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Lisa Long (Muskogee-Creek/Choctaw) began flute studies at age 10 in Seminole, Oklahoma, and continued her studies at Oklahoma City University with Barbara Davis, a former student of Walfrid Kujala. While at OCU she was principal flutist for numerous orchestral, operatic, and musical theater performances. Lisa regularly performed as a chamber musician and soloist throughout the Oklahoma City area. She is currently on a leave of absence from the National Education Association, where her work focused on the achievement of a $40,000 starting salary for all teachers. |
Timothy Long (Muskogee-Creek/Choctaw) is the music director of Stony Brook Opera and assistant to the music director of Opera Theatre of St. Louis. He studied piano and violin at Oklahoma City University and completed his graduate work in piano performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music. Long served as assistant conductor for three years at the Brooklyn Philharmonic and as associate conductor at the New York City Opera for two years. This year, Long will conduct Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Don Pasquale at Opera Colorado, and Madame Butterfly at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, as well as Lee Hoiby’s The Scarf, Dominick Argento’s The Boor, and Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop at Stony Brook. He conducted the Wolf Trap Opera Company produciion of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos this past August. Concerts: Violin and Piano Recital; Silent Film/Live Music |
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Tara-Louise Montour, violin, with Timothy Long, piano, “Farewell to the Warriors,” by Regent Levasseur |
Tara-Louise Montour (Mohawk) is considered North America’s foremost classical Aboriginal violinist. With financial assistance from the Canada Council and the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Ms. Montour has commissioned serveral works based on North American Native themes for violin and orchestra. One of these commissions, “Farewell to the Warriors” by Regent Levasseur, was recorded with the Thunder Bay Symphony featuring Ms. Montour as soloist. She is founding violinist of the Clivia Trio which won the 2008 Sunburst Artist Ensemble of the Year Award. She has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, McGill Chamber Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic and Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. A member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Montour appeared on both previous Classical Native programs. She has been on the faculty of the Luzerne Music Center where she has performed with the Luzerne Chamber Players, N.Y., since 2004. Recipient of the 2003 Foundation du Maire de Montreal Award, Ms/ Montour has also been featured on Radio-Canada, CBC-TV, Tele-Quebec, APTN, Global and Bravo-TV. She received a Licentiate of Music from McGill University and a Master of Music from Northern Illinois University. |
Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache), violinist and founder of the Coast Orchestra, is a musician of several New York bands including the Dust Dive, Stars Like Fleas and Silver Summit. She has toured extensively in Europe, the U.S., and Canada. A former musician of the Native American duo National Braid, Ms. Ortman went on to compose an original score for violin, electric guitar, and samplers to the 1929 silent film Redskin by Victor Scherzinger. They performed their soundtrack as a live accompaniment to the film at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy, Febio Fest in Prague and at the Native Cinema Showcase in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They were also invited to perform Redskin at the Louvre in Paris. Ms. Ortman also plays the electric guitar, piano, musical saw, samplers and organ and composes music for film. She graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, where she studied painting, sculpture, and performance art. |
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 | Wyas Parker (Chickasaw) has been playing the piano for fifteen years. He is a junior at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he is studying music and mass communications. His interest in composition comes from a simple love of music. “One day it occurred to me that I could write my own music,” Wyas recalls, “so I sat down at the piano and started from scratch.” Parker’s compositions are emotionally inspired: “These notes are my thoughts and feelings as real as I can present them.” Concert: Young Classical Natives |
Courtney Parchcorn (Chickasaw/Kiowa/Cherokee/Creek) is an 18-year-old senior at Byng High School in Byng, Oklahoma. She loves art and indigenous culture, expressing herself through musical composition, clarinet playing, and beadwork. She participated in the Tulsa Library’s 2007 Festival of Words. Her original compositions, Loving Memories (2007), Emo Childhood (2006), and Mix of Minds (2005), have been performed by the University of Oklahoma Symphony Quartet and by Jerod Tate. In 2008 she was awarded “Artist of the Year” at the JOM Appreciation Banquet in Sulphur, Oklahoma. Concert: Young Classical Native |
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 George Quincy with Timothy Archambault: Choctaw Diaries |
George Quincy (Choctaw) was born and raised in Oklahoma. He earned two degrees at the Juilliard School, where he has also taught. Musical advisor to renowned dancer/choreographer Martha Graham, Quincy has composed, orchestrated, and conducted music for theater, dance, film, opera, television, and the concert hall. His music has been performed extensively across the U.S. and in Europe in such venues as the Intrepid Museum, Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall. He has won several ASCAP and Meet the Composer awards. The world première of his piece, Pocahontas in the Court of James I, Part 1, was performed by Elaine Comparone’s ensemble, The Queen’s Chamber Band, at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City in 2006, and Part 2 was premièred there by the same group in spring 2007. A recording featuring excerpts from Pocahontas, along with Choctaw Diaries (with Timothy Archambault as the soloist) was released earlier this year by the Lyrichord label. Mr. Quincy has also served as musical director for the New Dance Group Arts Center and as musical director for The Times Square Kidz, a chorus of young Broadway professionals for whom Mr. Quincy and his wife, Thayer Burch, write songs. |
Vince Redhouse (Navajo) was born and raised in California, a member of a family of musicians that includes his brother, Larry, a jazz pianist, and sisters and singers Mary and Charlotte, and brothers Tony and Lenny, both percussionists. The family recorded a highly acclaimed album, Urban Indian, for the Canyon Records label in 1997. Vince specializes in the Native American flute and also performs on the tenor saxophone. He was lead tenor sax player with the Air Force Band of the Southwest. His first two solo recordings, Faith in the House and Sacred Season (Red Sea/SOAR label), were both nominated for GRAMMY awards in 2002, the year they were released. As a soloist, Vince primarily performs classical music, traditional hymns, and contemporary spiritual compositions. He has been featured on Good Morning America and on public and Native radio stations throughout the U.S. |
 Vince Redhouse, flute, with Matt Mitchell, guitar, “Gymnopedie” by Erik Satie |
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Heidi Aklaseaq Senungetuk (Inupiaq) earned a Bachelor of Music degree in performance at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. A fellowship student at the University of Michigan School of Music, Heidi received her Master of Music degree in violin performance with highest honors. During her studies she performed at summer festivals as a scholarship student, including the Aspen Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. She has been a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra of New Orleans, the Tulsa Philharmonic, and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. She was also a faculty member at the Punahou School in Hawai‘i. She also spent six summers performing chamber music in the Rocky Mountains with the Breckenridge Music Institute. Heidi appeared in recital at the Rasmuson Theater of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., as part of the premiere Classic Native concert series in 2006. In Inukjuak, Canada, she performed a series of George Rochberg's "Caprice Variations" at the Inuit Artist World Show Case. She has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals as a guest of the Anchorage Festival of Music Winter Recital Series as well as the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra Winter Recital Series in Homer. As a member of the Bunnell Street Gallery in Homer, Heidi has performed for audiences on both sides of Kachemak Bay to raise funds for arts in education. In 2007 Heidi was a guest artist with the Hiland Correctional Center Women's Orchestra, the only orchestra of its kind in the United States. She performs regularly with the Anchorage Symphony. |
Joel Waukazo (Ojibwe), born in 1990 in Minneapolis, has a diverse range of creative interests. He played the coronet and joined Phillips Community Television where he studied photography, television, and lighting while attending North East Middle School; he began studying piano at South High School. In 2007 Waukazo was selected for the Joyce Award composition residency by the American Composers Forum, which gave him the opportunity to study composition with Jerod Tate. Members of the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra performed his composition Song of the Ride at Macalister College. Next year Waukazo plans to attend at Winona State University, where he will major in composite engineering. Concert: Young Classical Natives |
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