Native American Inspirations: From Spillville to Pine Ridge
In this 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.
Program
- 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 (D.C. premiere)
- Jerod Tate: Shakamaxon for string orchestra (D.C. premiere)
- Jerod Tate: Resolution from Standing Bear (D.C. premiere)
Artists
- 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
Practical information
- Phone: (202) 537-6200
- Venue: The Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016
News / Reviews
A musical job unlike any other: A talk with Angel Gil-Ordóñez of the PostClassical Ensemble
— DC Metro Theater Arts, published on October 15, 2019
Latest performances
Beyond Category: The Concert Music of Duke Ellington
04/16/2024—04/16/2024
Amazing Grace: In Paradisum
01/10/2024—01/10/2024
Bouncing Off The Walls: Music and Architecture
11/16/2023—11/16/2023
A Celebration in Ankara
07/27/2023—07/27/2023
Frank Huang & Phillip Ying Play Mozart
07/14/2023—07/14/2023