Page 11 - Phil 8-28-22 concert program book_Neat

Prayer and Celebration features an expressive solo by the English Horn, and
a “skip dance song” as a final celebration performed by the full orchestra. A
powerful mix of both the orchestral tradition and Indigenous life, Powwow
Symphony introduces orchestra music to Native audiences in a familiar way,
and brings an understanding of the powwow to audiences already familiar with
orchestra music.

Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) is an internationally celebrated
composer, and a music warrior for native equity and parity, especially in concert
music where there is little indigenous influence. Davids is co-director of the Lenape
Center in Manhattan, and is enrolled in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community.
Davids places Native voices front and center. He co-founded the renowned Native
American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), with the Grand Canyon Music
Festival, championing indigenous youth to compose their own music. He uses
indigenous instruments, including handmade quartz flutes, and pens performable
notations that are themselves visual works of art.

His composer career spans nearly five decades, with myriad awards and
commissions. The Venice Biennale Musica 2022 featured the choral works of
Davids on a concert he co-curated, and premiered a specially commissioned
work for the Biennale, inviting the repertoire of other indigenous composers.
In 2015, the prestigious Indian Summer Festival awarded Davids its “Lifetime
Achievement Award” in music. Davids holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in
Music Composition from Northern Illinois University and Arizona State University
respectively, trained at Redford’s Sundance Institute, and apprenticed with
film composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare In Love). He has garnered the
Distinguished Alumni Awards from both of the universities he attended.

Creation Tonya Wind Singer

Writes the composer about her music:

Written in 2010 for the Cerritos College Orchestra in Norwalk, California and
revised in 2011 for The Boston Conservatory Orchestra, Creation is a work
inspired by various Indigenous American creation stories. The entirety of the
piece is tied together deeply from the opening melody, intended to represent
the beginning of time. The melody often comes through as a single line of

2022/23 SEASON PAGE 11