The First Nations Composer Institute is dedicated to the creation and promotion of American Indian music and musical traditions in all of its forms. By increasing awareness of and exposure to the wide diversity of musical traditions and genres within the American Indian, Alaskan Native and Hawaiian Native communities, FNCI serves to widen the audience for composers and performers. Within this scope of service FNCI is also committed to the education of our youth and in the diversity of opportunities for their work.
Statement of Intent
We support the creative spirit of American Indian peoples, both in the continued development of all the art forms and in the preservation of the traditional and contemporary artistic legacy.
We commit to governance based on the principles of American Indian self-determination.
We accept our cultural responsibility to the seventh generation.
We honor the wisdom and teaching of our elders.
We acknowledge our relations and the interconnectedness of life.
We respect the sacred and social aspects of Native American culture.
April 2, 2012 SAINT PAUL, MN. Five grants of $5,000 each have been awarded to American Indian musicians in the ninth round of grant making of the First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI), a program of the American Composers Forum. The awards are made under the Common Ground program, generously funded with the support of the Ford Foundation.
The FNCI program is dedicated to serving the needs of American Indian, Alaska Native and Hawaiian Native makers of new music throughout Indian Country. The FNCI is committed to supporting activities that build the careers of Indigenous creative musicians, including commissions, residencies, performance and production, travel/study and outreach.
The Ninth Round of 2012 grant recipients are:Kenny Perkins: (St. Regis Mohawk/NY) to travel, research, and create original music for an intercultural, multidisciplinary performance: Mystical Abyss. This production is inspired by Iroquois and Japanese traditional creation legends. Mystical Abyss will dramatize the need for connection and understanding across cultures through a dynamic theatrical encounter of storytelling, dance and music with the centuries old traditional Japanese Noh Theater. The production will premiere as part of the San Francisco Arts Festival in September 2012 and later tour the both Japan and the U.S. Kenny Perkins has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Drums Along the Hudson, and at a Cross Cultural Exchange Program with Sammi People in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Finland.
Bear Claw Music Productions: (Choctaw/OR) for DVD production including shooting and editing two concerts of new music. Keith Knight a recipient of a Fellowship from the South Carolina Arts Commission for music performance. Keith Knight will showcase and market this DVD at juried conferences. www.bearclawmusic.comSwilKanim: (Lummi/WA) to produce a CD of original, new music and contemporary stories told to live audiences in a traditional Lummi Nation storytelling structure in partnership with HonorWorks. Swil Kanim is a classically trained violinist, Native storyteller, actor, and keynote speaker. www.swilkanim.netNative American Public Telecommunications: (Inter-tribal/NE) to continue the creation of Native Sounds, a series of reports that feature new music interviews from contemporary American Indian/Alaskan Native composers and musicians that will reach the general public and global market. Each feature includes photographs, music, a written story, and a downloadable podcast that are offered to Public Radio Exchange stations and itunes. NAPT shares Native stories with the world and advances Native media that represents the values, experiences, histories and cultures of Tribal Nations, communities, and people. www.nativetelecom.orgNative American Music Showcase: (Inter-tribal/ CA) to develop and produce a showcase of new contemporary Native American music, including sound and technical requirements at the Autry National Center. Ian Skorodin (Choctaw) will assist in developing and producing the showcase of eight Native American Hip Hop, Rock, Pop, and Jazz musicians. www.laskinsfest.comPanelists for the ninth round were:Joy Harjo (Mvskoke Creek) is a multitalented and internationally known poet, performer, writer, and musician. She has received a Rasmusen: US Artists Fellowship. Her poetry has garnered many awards including a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas; and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Joy is a long time supporter and advocate for FNCI. She has received the Eagle Spirit Achievement Award for overall contributions in the arts, from the American Indian Film Festival and the NAMMY Award for “Best Female Artist of the Year” for Winding Through the Milky Way. Her latest CD is Red Dreams: A Trail Beyond Tears. www.joyharjo.comGeorge Quincy (Choctaw) has two degrees from The Julliard School and later taught there. He became Musical Advisor to Martha Graham and went on to compose, orchestrate and conduct music for Theater, Dance, Film, Opera and Television. His music has been performed in a variety of prestigious venues including museums, universities, Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall. His music encompasses the emotional and cultural fusion of classical music and Choctaw sounds in a personal artistic journey. He has received awards from ASCAP in 15 straight years from 1997 to 2011 and many more awards from Meet The Composer. His CD’s include Choctaw Nights, Pocahontas at the Court of James I, and Christmas. His latest CD is The Journey of the Red Feather. www.georgequincy.comClare Hoffman is the Co-founder and Artistic Director of the Grand Canyon Music Festival. She has toured the US, Europe, and Asia performing in a variety of settings from Lincoln Center to an ancient amphitheatre on the Greek island of Rhodes. She is a dedicated advocate for the arts and has worked with students from diverse backgrounds throughout the US, from inner-city schools, Native American communities, and farming communities. The Grand Canyon Music Festival has been presenting critically acclaimed musicians and outreach education programs to schools on the Hopi and Navajo Nations for 29 years and won the Governor’s Arts Award. The Native American Composer Apprentice Project was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities with a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award 2012. She studied at the Mannes College of Music and at L’École d’Été in France. She is currently on the faculty of Concordia College Conservatory in Westchester, New York. www.grandcanyonmusicfest.org
Funding for the First Nations Composer Initiative’s Common Ground Grant Program is supported through the Ford Foundation’s Indigenous Knowledge, Expressive Culture grant program of the American Composers Forum.
