Native Americans Inspirations: From Spillville to Pine Ridge

Drew Peterson, pianist

Josephine Baker

Dr. Adolphus Hailstork, composer

Stanley J. Thurston, guest curator

Evelyn Simpson Curenton, piano

Angeli Ferrette, soprano

Wayne Jennings, tenor

Justin Harrison, bass

CAAPA Choir

Robin De Jesús, actor

David Strathairn, actor

Kevork Mourad, artist

Derek Goldman, playwright/director

José Sacín, bass baritone (Don Quihote)

Israel Lozano, tenor (Master Peter)

Jennifer Zetlan, soprano (Trujaman)

Ricardo Marlow, Flamenco guitar

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Native Americans Inspirations: From Spillville to Pine Ridge

An unprecedented 125-year overview of music inspired by the Native American experience.

Our topic is the controversial relationship between Native America and American identity — then and now.

Our participants include:

— The Lakota Music Project of the South Dakota Symphony, in its first trip east.

— Eminent Native American performers from South Dakota’s Pine Ridge and Sisseton reservations: flutist Bryan Akipa and singer Emmanuel Black Bear, also Oglala Lakota elder Chris Eagle Hawk.

We also exhume the “Indianists” movement in music — an attempt to use Native American music and lore to fashion a musical signature for all Americans. Its practitioners included the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorák, who in Spillville, Iowa, spent a month with Native American musicians; and Arthur Farwell, who as the leading Indianist undertook astounding explorations of Native American culture in parallel Bartok’s excavations of folk culture in Hungary.

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Program

Concert

Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 pm

National Cathedral (The Great Nave)

Musicians from the Lakota Music Project (South Dakota)
Cathedra conducted by Michael McCarthy
Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute
Emmanuel Black Bear, singer
William Sharp, baritone
Netanel Draiblate, violin
Emanuele Arciuli, piano
PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez

Introductory remarks by Representative Deb Haaland (New Mexico)
Native American music and dance
Antonin Dvorák: Larghetto from Violin Sonatina
Ferruccio Busoni: Indian Notebook No. 2 for solo piano
Arthur Farwell: 16-part a cappella choral pieces, songs, piano works
Curt Cacioppo: North American Indigenous Songs for chorus (DC premiere)
Jerod Tate: Shakamaxon for string orchestra (DC premiere)
Jerod Tate: “Resolution” from Standing Bear (DC premiere)

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PINE RIDGE: THEN AND NOW

Saturday Oct. 19 at 7:30 pm
The Center for Contemporary Political Art | 916 G Street NW

Free admission

Featuring eminent Native American performers Bryan Akipa and Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota elder Chris EagleHawk, and other participants in the Lakota Music Project.

Join us for concert/conversation exploring Native America yesterday and today, with guests from the South Dakota Symphony, and from the Pine Ridge and Sisseton reservations.

Larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, Pine Ridge was the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 – the last major engagement between US forces and Native Americans. It memorializes the past and encapsulates the complexity of Native America today.

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What people are saying

So many thanks for that most inspiring, capacious evening. With PCE’s usual ability to surprise and delight… that symphony was astonishing…

Kate

Your leadership and dramatic shaping of the Symphony last night was truly masterful - and so inspiring. I know I’ll never forget this experience. Thank you, Maestro!

Chris

I loved the intimacy of the ensemble and the aching beauty of the melody repeating and recurring and turning up where I did not expect it . And I found the quality of the sound thrilling.

That was my take on the concert --that and the tears that it brought to my eyes, simply to be there, to be present at the creation of something so beautiful..

Michaele

What a perfect PCE evening, wonderful concert and lovely gathering

Liz

Angel, You are so musical! I've played the 4th twice, it was the first Mahler I heard as a kid, and I'm invariably disappointed that conductors don't let it breathe. U nailed it.

David

Congratulations again to you and your superb ensemble on a wonderful and provocative performance in the Terrace Theater last evening. As always, we learned something from this concert and it was fun, too.

Alec

Everything about it was sheer delight, including the lively and interesting talk at the end…

Catherine

Native Americans Inspirations: From Spillville to Pine Ridge