Found Again: The American Indian Project
Words&Music presents innovative programs of classical and contemporary music. The group’s mission encompasses diverse programming, the commissioning of new music, and educational outreach programs. In 2015, Words&Music commissioned award-winning Native American composer Jerod Tate to write an original, multi-movement work for vocal quartet, piano, and optional small chorus.
Found Again features settings of four poems by Joy Harjo. Ms. Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation, has been recognized for her poetry with numerous awards, most recently the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award. She is a founding board member of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. A native of Oklahoma, she now resides in New Mexico.
The work premiered on April 8, 2016, in Loudoun County, Virginia, at a student workshop and performance in partnership with the Park View High School Music Department. Words&Music presented a second public performance of the work on April 9, 2016, at the Creative Cauldron in Falls Church, Virginia.
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition. After a performance of his Iholba’ (The Vision) for solo flute, orchestra and chorus, a work commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the Kennedy Center, Mr. Tate was lauded by The Washington Post: “Tate’s connection to nature and the human experience was quite apparent in this piece…rarer still is his ability to effectively infuse classical music with American Indian nationalism.”
Mr. Tate’s compositions have been performed by leading orchestras throughout the United States. He is artistic director for the Chickasaw Chamber Music Festival and composer-in-residence for the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy.
