October 19, 2019 – 2:00 PM Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian SOUTH DAKOTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS the LAKOTA MUSIC PROJECT
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Lakota Music Project October 19, 2019 – 2:00 PM Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian SOUTH DAKOTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS THE LAKOTA MUSIC PROJECT South Dakota Symphony Orchestra Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota singer and hand drum Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute Dakota String Quartet | Dakota Wind Quintet Delta David Gier, Music Director Ronnie Theisz, Professor Emeritus of English & American Indian Studies Theodore Wiprud, composer-in-residence Jeffrey Paul Wind on Clear Lake (b.1977) Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute Dakota String Quartet, Dakota Wind Quintet Jeffrey Paul Desert Wind (b.1977) Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota singer and hand drum Dakota Wind Quintet Jerod Tate Guide Me (b.1968) Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota singer Dakota String Quartet Jeffrey Paul, oboe Bryan Akipa Meadowlark (b.1957) Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute Dakota Wind Quintet Alexander Trujillo The Little Boat (b.2003) Dakota String Quartet Teagan Bellonger Stolen Sisters (b.2003) Dakota Wind Quintet arr. Theodore Wiprud Amazing Grace (b.1958) Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota singer and hand drum Dakota String Quartet, Dakota Wind Quintet SOUTH DAKOTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS THE LAKOTA MUSIC PROJECT South Dakota Symphony Orchestra Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota singer and hand drum Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute Dakota String Quartet | Dakota Wind Quintet Delta David Gier, Music Director Ronnie Theisz, Professor Emeritus of English & American Indian Studies Theodore Wiprud, composer-in-residence Jeffrey Paul Wind on Clear Lake (b.1977) Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute Dakota String Quartet, Dakota Wind Quintet Jeffrey Paul Desert Wind (b.1977) Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota singer and hand drum ABOUT THE LAKOTA MUSIC PROJECT Dakota Wind Quintet The Lakota Music Project is the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra’s flagship Bridging Cultures program. For over 10 years, the Lakota Music Jerod Tate Guide Me Project has addressed racial tension by sharing music together. The goal (b.1968) Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota singer of the Lakota Music Project is to create an environment of openness and Dakota String Quartet belonging to advance cultural understanding. Jeffrey Paul, oboe Lakota Music Project concert programs have featured combinations of South Dakota Symphony musicians, the Creekside Singers (a Lakota Bryan Akipa Meadowlark drumming group) and Dakota flutist Bryan Akipa, each performing music (b.1957) Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute of their heritages as well as unique repertoire commissioned for the Dakota Wind Quintet musicians to play together. To date, five works and one arrangement for Native American artists and South Dakota Symphony musicians have Alexander Trujillo The Little Boat been commissioned for the Lakota Music Project. (b.2003) Dakota String Quartet The Lakota Music Project performance you are hearing today is for a chamber music ensemble featuring nine musicians from the Teagan Bellonger Stolen Sisters South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and two Native American Music (b.2003) Dakota Wind Quintet Award winning artists: singer Emanuel Black Bear (Oglala Lakota) and flutist Bryan Akipa (Sisseton Wahpeton). This performance includes a description of the history and impact of the Lakota Music Project told arr. Theodore Wiprud Amazing Grace by Emmanuel Black Bear, Bryan Akipa, professor emeritus of American (b.1958) Bryan Akipa, Dakota flute Indian Studies Ronnie Theisz, and Music Director Delta David Gier. Emmanuel Black Bear, Lakota singer and hand drum Dakota String Quartet, Dakota Wind Quintet EMMANUEL BLACK BEAR Emmanuel Black Bear was born and raised in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, or as he refers to it, “the land of the proud Lakota nation.” Black Bear started singing at an early age, but set out on his journey of learning the Lakota historical and traditional songs as a teenager. He traveled throughout his homeland singing for a variety of events and ceremonies through the guidance of a mentor. Emmanuel Black Bear has performed on many other reservations throughout the U.S. In 2008 Emmanuel Black Bear began working with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra on the Lakota Music Project. He states, “This project and the SDSO has been, and continues to be, a rewarding, fulfilling, and proud experience for me.” In 2013 Emmanuel Black Bear released the solo album Memories, which earned him a Native American Music Award (Nammy). In 2017 he and his brother released a second album Black Bear Brothers: Songs from Cheyenne Creek, which earned a “Nammy” for “Best Debut Duo of the Year.” BRYAN AKIPA Bryan Akipa, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, Army veteran, elementary teacher, and visual and performing artist, is an award-winning traditional Native American flute player. In 2016 Mr. Akipa was named a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellow, and in 2017 he was the recipient of the Living Indian Treasure Award at the Governor’s Arts Awards. His CDs have been, nominated for several Nammys (Native American Music Awards). He was a featured player on My Relatives Say by Mary Louis Defender which won the 2000 NAMA for Best Spoken Word recording. In addition to being a premier Native American flute player, Mr. Akipa is internationally known for his craftsmanship of traditional flutes. He is also a champion traditional dancer and tours with the Lakota Sioux Dance Theatre. His performances and artwork informs others about his history and heritage. THE DAKOTA STRING QUARTET & DAKOTA WIND QUINTET Musicians of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra’s Dakota String Quartet and Dakota Wind Quintet come together for today’s performance. The majority of both ensembles’ time is spent in Sioux Falls and throughout South Dakota performing at concert halls, colleges, community centers and public schools. They also serve as principal string and woodwind players of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, enriching and enhancing the quality of orchestra music in the region. Doosook Kim Magdalena Modzelewska Yi-Chun Lin violin violin viola Robert Erhard William Cedeño Torres Jeffrey Paul cello flute oboe John Tomkins Christopher Hill Daniel Kitchens bassoon clarinet horn DELTA DAVID GIER Delta David Gier has been called a dynamic voice on the American music scene. Orchestras he has conducted in the United States include the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra. Since 2004, Mr. Gier has been Music Director of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra. Under his direction, the orchestra has been lauded for its programming, including a series based on the Pulitzer Prize that the called “an unprecedented programming innovation” by the Wall Street Journal and has included residencies with composers John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Steven Stucky, Zhou Long, John Luther Adams, and Paul Moravec, among others. During this time, the SDSO has also expanded its offerings with a cycle of Mahler symphonies and semi- staged operas. The Lakota Music Project (LMP) was developed under Mr. Gier’s direction to address racial tensions in the region the SDSO serves. The LMP has now developed into Bridging Cultures, a broader program including projects with communities such as Arab (with oud artist Simon Shaheen, composer MalekJandali), Persian (with composer Behzad Ranjbaran), Chinese (with composers Chen Yi and Zhou Long), South Asian (with composer Reena Esmail), and Sudanese/Somali refugees (with the Bernard Woma Ensemble). For 15 seasons, Delta David Gier served as an Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He studied at the University of Michigan under Gustav Meier, as well as at the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals. He was a Fulbright scholar in Eastern Europe from 1988 to 1990. RONNIE THEISZ Ronnie Theisz, Professor Emeritus of English and American Indian Studies at Black Hills State University, is a Lakota Music Scholar and is considered one of the foremost experts on Lakota oration and song. He was awarded the South Dakota Humanities Council Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and the South Dakota Board of Regents Electronic Learning award in 2004. Some of his notable publications include “Cultural Differences in the Classroom as Manifested in Cognition and Non- verbal Communication” in Report of the First Annual Conference: The Human Brain: Cognition in Education and “The Bad Speakers and the Long Braids: The Depiction of Foreign Enemies in Lakota Song Texts” in Indians and Europe, edited by Christian Feest. THEODORE WIPRUD Theodore Wiprud is a composer, educator, and arts leader. He has served as Vice President, Education, at the New York Philharmonic from 2004-2018, and as host of the iconic Young People’s Concerts. His compositions include Sinfonietta (2016), premiered by the South Dakota Symphony; a Violin Concerto (Katrina), composed for Ittai Shapira, and released with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on Champs Hill Records; a one-act opera, My Last Duchess, with libretto by Tom Dulack based on poetry by Robert Browning; a song cycle, For Allegra, on a variety of American poets; and a number of pieces based on gugak, Korean traditional music, and including gugak instruments like p’iri, gayageum, and haegeum. Wiprud graduated cum laude in biochemistry at Harvard and earned a master’s in theory and composition at Boston University, where he worked with David Del Tredici. He also studied with Robin Holloway at Cambridge University and with Jacob Druckman and Bernard Rands at Aspen. ABOUT THE SOUTH DAKOTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (SDSO) is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a vibrant and growing community serving a 125-mile region that touches five states. Known for innovative programming and statewide outreach, the SDSO has a strong heritage upon which to build an even stronger future. SDSO was the 2016 winner of the Bush Prize for Community Innovation, which is given by the St. Paul, Minnesota-based Bush Foundation and recognizes organizations for their innovative work in community engagement. The SDSO is the region’s premiere performing arts organization with the Washington Pavilion as its home.