[nativestudies-l] All-Native American Orchestra (The Coast Orchestra) premieres Nov 9 & 14 in Washington, D.C. and NYC
Alyssa Mt. Pleasant
alyssa.mt.pleasant at yale.edu
Mon Oct 27 13:24:56 EDT 2008
> **********************************************************************************************************************************************************
>
> Contact Information:
> Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache)
> 281 Flatbush Ave. #2D
> Brooklyn, New York 11217 USA
> (347)416-2168
> lauraortman at gmail.com <mailto:lauraortman at gmail.com>
>
>
> For Immediate Release (as of 10/26/08):
>
> THE COAST ORCHESTRA, AN ALL-NATIVE AMERICAN CLASSICAL ENSEMBLE
> DEBUTS FOR TWO EAST COAST PERFORMANCES TO THE 1914 SILENT FILM IN
> THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS BY FAMED PHOTOGRAPHER EDWARD S. CURTIS.
>
> SCREENING DATES AND TIMES ARE:
> SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9th at the NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, Washington,
> D.C. at 6:30pm
> FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14th at the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY,
> New York, NY at
> 7:00pm
>
> The Coast Orchestra is an all?Native American Orchestra of
> classically trained musicians founded by White Mountain Apache
> violinist Laura Ortman in 2008. The Coast Orchestra was invited by
> Rutgers University in May 2008 to perform the original score for a
> newly restored print of the Edward S. Curtis directed film In the
> Land of the Head Hunters (1914). Their premiere performance will
> be in Washington, D.C., on November 9, 2008, at the National
> Gallery of Art, in collaboration with the Smithsonian National
> Museum of the American Indian. Then, on November 14, 2008, Rutgers
> will bring the performance to the American Museum of Natural
> History in New York City, where the film will be screened on
> opening night of the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival.
>
> The mission of The Coast Orchestra is to promote classically
> trained Native American musicians and to perform music about
> Native Americans. In this case, the Coast Orchestra is performing
> music by the non-Native composer of Curtis's film, John J. Braham.
> Although arguably created with good intentions, the score is based
> on fantastical ideas and Hollywoodesque themes about Native
> people. The Coast Orchestra wants to reinterpret this romanticized
> and stereotypical score from a contemporary context, and
> specifically from a Native perspective. We also believe that the
> time is long overdue for a classically-trained Native orchestra to
> present live music.
>
> The Coast Orchestra members come from Alaska, Arizona, New York
> and Washington D.C., and represent thirteen nations. Members hail
> from music schools including Juilliard, Eastman and Oberlin.
> Members have performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The New
> Museum of Contemporary Art, Alice Tully Hall, the Tribeca Film
> Festival, the National Museum of the American Indian and the
> Pordenone Silent Film Festival, among other world-class venues and
> festivals. (See Biographies below for more background information
> on individual musicians).
>
>
> FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE COAST ORCHESTRA please visit
> www.myspace.com/thecoastorchestra
> <http://www.myspace.com/thecoastorchestra> and check out
> interviews and articles on WNYC/NPR's Studio 360 and in Native
> Peoples Magazine
>
>
> The Coast Orchestra members are:
>
> Timothy Long Choctaw /
> Creek
> Steven Alvarez Mescalero Apache / Yaqui / Athabascan
> Tim Archambault Kichesipirini
>
>
> Dawn Avery
> Mohawk
> Elaine Benavides Mescalero Apache / Yaqui /
> Comanche
> Don Harry Delaware / Anadarko of Oklahoma
> Lisa Long Muskogee / Creek-Choctaw
> Laura Ortman White Mountain
> Apache
> George Quincy
> Choctaw
> Vince Redhouse
> Navajo
> Heidi Senungetuk
> Inupiat
>
>
> Timothy Long (Choctaw/Creek) is our conductor and also a pianist
> who is enjoying a flourishing career in the US and abroad.
> Engagements for 2009 and beyond include debuts at Shreveport Opera
> and Orlando Opera, return engagements at Wolf Trap Opera, Opera
> Colorado and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Companion Star
> Ensemble in Sweden. During the 2007-08 season his operatic
> conducting engagements included Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at
> the University of Colorado at Boulder, Don Pasquale at Opera
> Colorado, Madame Butterfly at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and
> Ariadne auf Naxos at Wolf Trap Opera. Past seasons reflect the
> diversity of Mr. Long's vast repertoire. These performances have
> included Mark-Anthony Turnage's powerful adaptation of the Oedipus
> story, Greek, at Stony Brook Opera, Don Giovanni at the Théâtre
> Municipal de Castres in France, Le Nozze di Figaro at Boston Lyric
> Opera, Conrad Susa's Transformations for the Maryland Opera
> Studio, Peter Maxwell Davies' Miss Donnithorne's Maggot with the
> Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players; and The Music Teacher,
> an off-broadway play/opera by Wallace Shawn and Allen Shawn for
> The New Group. During his long association with Opera Theatre of
> Saint Louis, Mr. Long has conducted performances of Rigoletto,
> Romeo and Juliet, The Barber of Seville, Hansel and Gretel, The
> Mikado, and Madame Butterfly. For three years, Mr. Long served as
> assistant conductor to Robert Spano at the Brooklyn Philharmonic
> where he served as a cover conductor and conducted the orchestra
> for their 9/11 Memorial Concert in October of 2001. He was also
> an associate conductor at New York City Opera for two years. He is
> a member of the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town of the Creek Nation of
> Oklahoma.
>
> Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache), violinist and founder of the
> Coast Orchestra, is a musician of several New York bands including
> the Dust Dive, Stars Like Fleas and Silver Summit. She has toured
> extensively in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. A former musician of
> the Native American duo National Braid, they went on to compose an
> original score for violin, electric guitar and samplers to the
> 1929 silent film "Redskin" by Victor Scherzinger. They performed
> their soundtrack as a live accompaniment to the film at the
> Tribeca Film Festival in New York, Pordenone Silent Film Festival
> in Italy, Febio Fest in Prague and at the Native Cinema Showcase
> in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They were also invited to perform
> "Redskin" at the Louvre in Paris. Laura also plays the electric
> guitar, piano, musical saw, samplers and organ and composes music
> for film. She graduated from the University of Kansas with a
> Bachelor of Fine Arts where she studied painting, sculpture and
> performance art.
>
> Steven Alvarez (Mescalero Apache/Yaqui/Athabascan), the Coast
> Orchestra's percussionist and tympanist, graduated from San Jose
> State University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Music and
> History and a minor in Philosophy. He works professionally as a
> percussionist, vocalist, stage actor, film and stage producer and
> music educator. He is producing a film on the Alaskan Native and
> Inuit games and performs a theater piece that couples live
> storytelling and singing with film. As a percussionist, he worked
> with the Monterey Symphony and the Santa Cruz Symphony Orchestras
> and was a guest artist for the Anchorage Festival of Music (AFM)
> in 1997 and then served as AFM's Executive Director for three
> seasons. As a guest artist for the Monterey Jazz Festival, he
> performed with jazz artist Bobby Hutcherson and has shared the
> stage with Lloyd Bridges, Doc Sevrinson and Jethro Tull. Steven's
> 15 years of musical teaching experience ranges from elementary
> through high school. He also served as an adjunct instructor at
> the University of Alaska. Steven is a founding director of Theater
> Artists United (TAU), an Anchorage based theater company. He
> performs with the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Anchorage
> Opera and Anchorage Concert Chorus. Steven has performed as a solo
> artists at the Kennedy Center and at the NMAI's Classical Native
> Series in Washington D.C.and serves as the Director of Cultural
> Education & Strategic Initiatives for the Alaska Native Heritage
> Center.
>
> Tim Archambault (Kichesipirini) our Native flute player, studied
> music theory at Brown University and holds a bachelor's degree in
> Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. His recent
> premiere recording of David Yeagley's (Comanche) Wessi vah-peh
> with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra was released by
> Opus One in December 2007. His repertoire consists of early
> 20th-century American Indian flute music and new compositions by
> American Indian composers. Tim was the first flute player in
> history to perform the old "warble" technique within the context
> of new classical compositions by David Yeagley at the
> Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian Classcial Native
> Series in November 2006. In 2007 Tim composed a solo cello piece
> for Dawn Avery's (Mohawk) "North American Cello Project" which
> helped win a Common Ground Grant from the First Nations Composers
> Initiative. His current projects include a solo album of David
> Yeagley's compositions entitled "Suite Tragique" dedicated to the
> Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation, a collaborative piece
> utilizing traditional Anishinaabeg notation with Navajo composer
> Raven Chacon and an orchestral work recorded with Lyrichord
> records entitled "The Choctaw Diaries" by Choctaw composer George
> Quincy.
>
> Dawn Avery (Mohawk) the Coast Orchestra's cellist, has performed
> with musical luminaries from Luciano Pavarotti to Sting and has
> spent years honing her musical talents, collaborating and
> performing with John Cage, Glen Velez, Joanne Shenandoah, David
> Darling, Ustad Sultan Kahn, Sussan Deyhim, Karsh Kale, Baba
> Olatunji, Reza Derakshani, John Cale, Jeff Ball, Ron Warren, and
> Mischa Maisky. Avery has performed at the Montreux, Copenhagen,
> Helsinki and Banlieu Bleu Jazz Festivals in Europe.
> She's played uptown at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, as well
> as in New York's thriving downtown music stages like the Knitting
> Factory, La Mama and Thread Waxing Space. Dawn specializes in the
> performance of Native American music with her own ensemble OKENTI,
> indigenous classical music with her cello, voice and percussion
> group named CELLOVISION! and is in a Persian Duo with Reza. As an
> educator, Dawn helps to nurture future generations of musicians as
> Professor of Music at Montgomery College. She has collected awards
> for her works from the American Dance Festival at Duke University,
> NYU, Meet the Composer, the Maryland Flute Association and the
> Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County in Maryland.
>
> Elaine Benavides (Mescalero Apache/Yaqui/Comanche) on oboe, offers
> a wide range of musical abilities of composition, producing,
> mastering and editing. Elaine is primarily a vocalist,
> instrumentalist (drums, flute, oboe, harp), urban street dancer,
> modern, belly dancer, a fire-performance artist, stilt walker,
> fencer and aerialist. After Juilliard she created soundtrack music
> for independent films and music labels, ranging from classical,
> marching, spiritual, indigenous, cultural, underground, urban,
> pop, educational and historical performances. After attending
> School of Visual Arts, and Fashion Institute of Technology, as a
> sculptor, graphic and visual artist, she created and directed
> off-Broadway shows creating and designing costumes, fashion
> styling, painting sets for music videos, using the craft to
> construct props and design for many magazines. She also works with
> legendary radio and TV celebrities, filmmakers, photographers and
> designers.
>
> Don Harry (Delaware/Anadarko of Oklahoma), on tuba, attended the
> University of Houston and Indiana University. Don is the Principal
> tuba of the Buffalo Philharmonic and a member of the Eastman
> Brass. Since 1997 he has served as an Associate Professor of Tuba,
> Eastman School of Music. He has also taught at Baldwin-Wallace
> Conservatory, Lanston University and Juilliard. As well as serving
> as principal tuba for the Oklahoma City Symphony, Don has taught
> and performed at the Eastern Music Festival and Winter Festival of
> Campos de Jordao, Brazil. He has also performed as an Extra
> Musician with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Toronto
> Symphony, Orchestra de Paris, Chautauqua Symphony, Aspen Festival
> Orchestra, the New York Pro Philharmonia, Keith Brion's New Sousa
> Band, and the Rochester Philharmonic. He has had solo performances
> with the Colorado Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, USMA Band at
> West Point, US Army Band, Mansfield University, SUNY Fredonia,
> SUNY Buffalo, Creative Associates, Sousa Live at Wolf Trap,
> Indiana University, UCLA, Ringgold Band and Keith Brion's new
> Sousa Band 7/04 and The Harvey Phillips Northwest Big Brass Bash.
> Don is also caretaker of the Edward A. Jablonsky Award for
> excellent progress in tuba study at the Eastman School of Music.
>
> Lisa Long (Muskogee/Choctaw-Creek) on flute, began flute studies
> at the age of 10 in Seminole, Oklahoma and continued her studies
> with Barbara Davis, a former student of Walfrid Kujala, at
> Oklahoma City University, where she was principal flutist for
> numerous orchestral, operatic, and musical theatre performances.
> Long regulary performs as a chamber musician and soloist.
>
> George Quincy (Choctaw) our pianist, has two degrees from The
> Juilliard school and later taught there, became Musical Advisor to
> Martha Graham and went on to compose, orchestrate and conduct
> music for Theater, Dance, Film, Opera, Television and Concert.
> His music has been performed in Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, Alice
> Tully Hall and many theaters in New York City. THE NEW YORK 5, a
> chamber music group specializing in Mr. Quincy's music, played two
> concerts at the American Indian Wing of the Smithsonian in
> Washington DC in October of 2006. POCAHONTAS AT THE COURT OF JAMES
> I, part 2, by George Quincy, was presented by the Queen's
> Chamber Band at Merkin Hall in New York City. He has received
> awards from ASCAP in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
> 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 and many from Meet the Composer. He is
> featured in the Juilliard Journal and is completing a recording
> for Native Flute and orchestra entitled CHOCTAW DIARIES.
>
> Vince Redhouse (Navajo) is the Coast Orchestra's saxophonist, was
> born and raised in Monterey, California and began playing
> woodwinds at the age of 7. Vince had his first two albums
> nominated for Grammy's. Most of the recognition that he has gained
> is from what he's done on the Traditional Native flute, although
> the tenor saxophone was always his first voice and sound.
>
> Heidi Senungetuk (Inupiat) playing Violin I for the Coast
> Orchestra, earned a Bachelor of Music degree in performance at the
> Oberlin Conservatory of Music. A fellowship student at the
> University of Michigan School of Music, Heidi received her Master
> of Music degree in violin performance with highest honors. During
> her studies she performed at summer festivals as a scholarship
> student, including the Aspen Music Festival, the National
> Repertory Orchestra, and the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. She has
> been a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra of New
> Orleans, the Tulsa Philharmonic, and the Honolulu Symphony
> Orchestra. She was also a faculty member at the Punahou School in
> Hawaii. She also spent six summers performing chamber music in the
> Rocky Mountains with the Breckenridge Music Institute. Heidi
> appeared in recital at the Rasmuson Theater of the National Museum
> of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. as part of the premiere
> Classic Native concert series in 2006. In Inukjuak, Canada, she
> performed a series of George Rochberg's "Caprice Variations" at
> the Inuit Artist World Show Case. As a member of the Bunnell
> Street Gallery in Homer, Heidi has performed for audiences on both
> sides of Kachemak Bay to raise funds for arts in education. In
> 2007 Heidi was a guest artist with the Hiland Correctional Center
> Women's Orchestra, the only orchestra of it's kind in the United
> States.
>
>
> ABOUT IN
> THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS (1914) quoted from
> www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu <http://www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu>
>
> "In 1914, famed photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) produced
> a melodramatic, silent film entitled In the Land of the Head
> Hunters. This was the first feature-length film to exclusively
> star Native North Americans (eight years before Robert Flaherty's
> Nanook of the North). An epic story of love and war set before
> European contact, it featured non-professional actors from
> Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) communities in British Columbia?a people
> already famous then for their spectacular visual culture and
> performances. The film had gala openings in New York and Seattle
> in December 1914, where it was accompanied by a live orchestral
> score composed by John J. Braham (1848-1919), best known for his
> work with Gilbert and Sullivan. Curtis supplied Braham with c.1910
> wax-cylinder recordings of Kwakwaka'wakw songs; despite
> advertising claims, however, little if any of this source material
> made it into the score. Critics wrote in rapturous terms about the
> power and beauty of the film, the Seattle Sun calling it a "great
> production?like a string of carved beads, too rare to be
> duplicated." And yet, Head Hunters was a financial failure,
> quickly overlooked and barely preserved. In 1947, a single copy
> arrived at the Field Museum after being picked out of a Chicago
> dumpster; these damaged and incomplete reels were re-edited by
> Bill Holm and George Quimby and released in 1974 as In the Land of
> the War Canoes, featuring a new soundtrack recorded by
> Kwakwaka'wakw consultants at the time. At some point, a few
> deteriorating clips from another copy found their way to the UCLA
> Film & Television Archive, and the all-but-forgotten score was
> filed under another name at the Getty Research Library.
>
> When it was first screened in 1914, In the Land of the Head
> Hunters entered into a field crowded with "Indian pictures." From
> the beginning, Native Americans were not merely represented by the
> motion picture industry, but played a central role in its
> emergence. One of the first studio short films was the Edison
> Company's twenty-second Sioux Ghost Dance (1894). Filmed at
> Edison's studio in West Orange, New Jersey, it featured Oglala and
> Brulé Sioux who were touring in Brooklyn at the time with Buffalo
> Bill's Wild West Show. This short was followed by hundreds of
> others featuring Native American actors, many of whom had been
> involved with Buffalo Bill while others were brought in specially
> for the occasion.
>
> What Head Hunters brought to this mix was a desire to elevate the
> Indian movie to a new level of artistry, as well as a desire to
> portray Native American life outside the stereotypes established
> for it by the prior two decades of filmic representation?not to
> mention the even longer history of Native American representation
> since the 1830s in dime novels and Wild West shows. The mere fact
> that Curtis chose a picturesque but not stereotypical First
> Nations group?lacking the ready-made Indian icons of feathered
> headdresses, horses, tomahawks, and tipis?suggests his desire to
> avoid those clichés, even as he indulged in others (head hunting,
> sorcery, vision quests). Perhaps this denial of audience
> familiarity also in part explains its box-office failure.
>
> Technically, Curtis's film is remarkable not only for the quality
> and originality of its production, but also for the hyperbole of
> the advertising for it, which was clearly aimed at distinguishing
> it from other films in the market. Everything about the film?from
> the identity of its actors to the source for its musical
> score?were vigorously claimed to be "authentic." It was a six-reel
> film, which was fairly long for the time, and it was shot entirely
> on location in British Columbia. It featured innovative moving
> camera shots. Its sequencing demonstrated Curtis's basic
> understanding of principles of narrative continuity. The original
> advertising for the film stressed the significance of what was
> called "the Hochstetter process," supposedly a natural color
> process that had been used in the making of the film. Although
> technical analysis indicates that it had, in fact, been tinted and
> toned in the standard way in the studio, the coloring of the
> Kwakwaka'wakw costumes and homes, as well as of the pacific coast
> landscape, is quite complex for the time."
>
>
> End quote from the Coast Orchestra founder,
> Laura Ortman:
>
> "I was very excited when I found out about the Curtis film's
> restoration, about its tour through the U.S., and how Rutgers was
> looking for classical ensembles to perform the original score
> alongside the film. Because of the great experience I had
> performing a live soundtrack to Victor Scherzinger's silent film
> Redskin (1929), I realized gathering a large group of classically
> trained Native American musicians would make an even more powerful
> performance and musical accompaniment to the film. It seemed like
> a perfect opportunity to gather a group of Native people to be
> involved in this film?a film which is all about Native people.
> Plus it gives classically trained Native musicians a unique
> opportunity to unite. I am hopeful that this historic gathering of
> such talented Native people inspires more classically trained
> Native musicians to join the Coast Orchestra. I hope that we may
> grow and become a community that supports creative endeavors like
> this one, performing work by Native composers, and touring places
> where no one has ever heard of or seen a Native American
> orchestra. Already, to have gathered as many people as we
> have?with all their amazing talents that they've worked so hard on
> their entire lives?is an accomplishment we'll have the rest of our
> lives to be proud of. It's very rewarding to see that all of those
> violin lessons are breaking out of the practice room and into
> something much bigger!" --Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache,
> Brooklyn, New York)
>
> Ticketing information:
>
> FOR Washington, D.C. on November 9th at the National Gallery of Art:
> The 6:30 p.m. screening is in the East Building Auditorium (4th
> Street) at the National Gallery of Art. The National Gallery of
> Art, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets at
> Constitution Avenue NW, is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00
> a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
> www.nga.gov <http://www.nga.gov>
>
> FOR New York City on November 14th at the American Museum of
> Natural History:
>
> The 7:00 p.m. screening is held at the American Museum of Natural
> History. Entrance for screenings is on 77th Street between Central
> Park West and Columbus Avenue. www.amnh.org/programs/mead/
> <http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/>
>
> Subway: Take the B or C train to 81st Street ? Museum of Natural
> History (B is weekdays only), or the 1 train to 79th Street.
>
> Bus: Take the M79, M7, M11, M86, M10, M104.
>
> Tickets are not refundable.
>
> Programs are subject to change. Please check our website for the
> most current schedule and updated information.
>
> Films are shown in a number of different program formats, ranging
> from a single full-length movie to multiple short films. Ticket
> prices are per program. Tickets may be purchased in advance for
> any program on the Festival schedule. Each program is identified
> by a program code. Please refer to the program code when ordering
> tickets.
> Order Tickets
>
>
> *BY PHONE*
>
>
>
> Call 212-769-5200
> Monday-Friday, 9 am - 5 pm; Saturday, 9am - 4 pm
> Have your credit card, membership category, and program codes
> ready when you call. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and
> Discover are accepted. A service charge applies.
>
>
> *ORDER TICKETS ONLINE*
>
>
>
> Click here <http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2008/november-14> to
> see the schedule and order tickets. A service charge applies.
>
>
> *ORDER TICKETS AT THE MUSEUM*
>
>
>
> Mid-October ? November 14: Tickets may be purchased during Museum
> hours at the Advance Group Sales desk in the Theodore Roosevelt
> Rotunda (Central Park West at 79th Street entrance), and at the
> Rose Center for Earth and Space (81st Street entrance). No service
> charge.
>
> November 14-16: During the festival, tickets may be purchased at
> the 77th Street entrance only, between Central Park West and
> Columbus Avenue, one hour prior to show. No service charge.
>
> General Public: $10
>
> Members/Students/Seniors: $9
>
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