THE AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM ANNOUNCES
THE RE-LAUNCH OF ITS AMERICAN INDIAN WEBSITE
February 26, 2008, St. Paul Minnesota. The American Composers Forum (ACF) and the First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI) are pleased to announce the re- launch of its “virtual” chapter for American Indian composers and musicians, featuring a new blog called FNCI FORUM. This web site, www.fnci.org serves as a critical network for dialogue and interchange in the field of American Indian/First Nations/Alaska Native/Indigenous music.
Special features of the site include information and resources to help connect American Indian artists.
• Register as an American Indian musical artist and build your own artist profile page for free!
• Browse a comprehensive roster of over 100 American Indian/Indigenous musical artists from a wide array of musical genres, replete with artist biographies, photos, web links, and MP3 download of artist’s music.
• Interactive blogging through the new FNCI FORUMS, and the ability to post events, performances
• Calls for commissions
• Articles, reviews, writings and research in the field.
The core membership of the FNCI has committed itself to mentoring our youth and other emerging musical Artists and the website will incorporate on-line mentoring in the coming year. Mentors will be recruited from the core Advisory Group and from the wider musical community and matched with students or other emerging artists. Both American Indians and non-Indians will benefit from FNCI by encouraging the composition of music by American Indian artists and providing linkages to a broad array of compositional opportunities and performing venues. The goal of FNCI is to provide mechanisms and support through which the many voices of American Indian musical artists can be heard. With the help of a distinguished Advisory Group convened in December of 2007, to discuss and adopt a three year strategic plan, we are continuing to build an infrastructure that provides a supportive environment, meet the needs they have
identified and provide a mechanism for ongoing discussion, information distribution, education, recognition, mentorship and maintaining long term program sustainability.
FNCI ADVISORY MEMBERS
Dr. Louis Ballard (Posthumously) (Quapaw/Cherokee) - Classical & Traditional Composer
Howard Bass - Cultural Arts Manager, National Museum of the American Indian
Raven Chacon (Dine’) - Emerging Classical, Avant-garde Composer
Jim Clairmont (Lakota) - Spiritual Leader, Traditionalist, Educator of the Pow-Wow Tradition
Barbara Croall (Odawah) - Classical & Traditional Composer
Brent Michael Davids (Mohican) - Classical Composer
Joy Harjo (Muskogee) - Musician, Poet, Author
Charlotte Heth (Cherokee) - Ethnomusicologist, Scholar of American Indian Music
Elizabeth Jaakola (Ojibwe) - Mezzo Soprano, Instructor at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
Jennifer Elizabeth Kreisberg (Tuscarora) - Traditional & Contemporary Singer/Composer
Barbara McAlister (Cherokee) Dramatic Mezzo Soprano
R. Carlos Nakai (Dine’/Ute) - Traditional and Contemporary Musician and Composer
George Quincy (Choctaw) - Classical Composer
Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache) - Director of Native American Initiatives: The Sundance Film Institute
Joanne Shenandoah (Oneida) - Traditional and Contemporary Performer and Vocalist
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (Chickasaw) - Classical Composer
Ed Wapp (Comanche/Sac & Fox) - Traditional and Contemporary Musician, Ethnomusicologist
Founded in 1973, the American Composers Forum (the Forum) has grown from an innovative regional initiative into one of the nation’s premier composer service organizations. The Forum supports over 1,700 members in all 50 states through granting, commissioning and performance programs. The Forum provides composers at varying stages of their careers with valuable resources for professional and artistic development. It works to foster a demand for new music by linking communities with composers and performers, while developing the next generation of composers, musicians, and music patrons. The Forum’s First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI) has established an infrastructure for support of traditional and contemporary music by American Indian composers and musicians. It is also a re-granting program, having announced its third round of grant activity in February of this year, with preparations being made to announce a fourth round of grants awards for musical projects throughout North America.
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Georgia Wettlin Larsen