From the Promoter

We are pleased to team up with Arraymusic once again together alongside Native Women In The Arts to present the Raven Chacon mini-festival featuring the world premiere of For Zitkála-Šá, dedicated to the first American Indian librettist.

Originally from the Navajo Nation, Raven Chacon, born in 1977, is a composer of chamber music, a performer of experimental noise music, and an installation artist. He performs regularly as a solo artist as well as with numerous ensembles in the Southwest and beyond. He is also a member of the Indigenous art collective Postcommodity. Chacon’s work explores sounds of acoustic handmade instruments overdriven through electric systems and the direct and indirect audio feedback responses from their interactions.

On Friday night, the Array ensemble takes on a selection of Chacon’s chamber works including a newly commissioned work.

Native Women In The Arts co-presents Saturday night’s For Zitkála-Šá, dedicated to the Dakota violin teacher, activist, and librettist for The Sun Dance Opera, (1913), the first American Indian opera. Each composition is custom written for an Indigenous woman currently working in contemporary music performance or composition: Suzanne Kite, Laura Ortman and Cheryl L’Hirondelle. The evening also features Raven collaborating with the caustic improvisation of c_RL (Allison Cameron, Nicole Rampersaud, and Germaine Liu).

On Sunday, Anishinaabe-irish (Nipissing First Nation) saxophonist Olivia Shortt (Stereoscope Duo, Dialectica) opens the show with an intensely wide-ranging approach to her instrument.