“A composing boot camp is allowing teens and adults from a South Dakota American Indian reservation who may never have written a piece of music before to hear their original compositions performed by professional musicians,” writes Jeff Baenen in a Wednesday (9/13) Associated Press report. “Eight students and adults from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe and nearby community teamed up with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra as part of the Lakota Music Project, aimed at building relationships between American Indians and white communities. Two ensembles will perform the works at free concerts Thursday and Friday in Sisseton and on the reservation…. The only requirement, [composer-in-residence Jerod] Tate said, is that students must know how to play an instrument…. The music composition academies … were made possible by the … St. Paul, Minnesota-based Bush Foundation” and Music Alive, a national three-year composer-orchestra residency program of the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA. “Garrett Lawrence, 18 … is among those who will hear their works debut this week…. Garrett’s two-minute piece, ‘The Unforgiveable River,’ … will be performed by a woodwind quintet.… He already has started writing another piece and is looking at studying music education at college.”
Posted September 15, 2017
