“In a remarkable collaboration, the Cherokee Chamber Singers will perform seven shows with the North Carolina Symphony in October,” writes Scott McKie B.P. in Friday’s (9/28) Cherokee One Feather, the Eastern Band Cherokee official site (Cherokee, N.C.). “The show is entitled ‘Si Otsedoha’ which translates from the Cherokee language as ‘We’re Still Here.’ … ‘We’re trying to tell people that we’re still here because a lot of people still view us as not being real—that Native Americans are made-up or that we’re extinct by now,’ said Cece Lambert, a member of the Chamber Singers. … Michael Yannette, Cherokee High School and Middle School director of choir and musical theater, said the idea [originally] was that the students would sing traditional Cherokee songs with orchestral accompaniment. That idea changed and resulted in the 25-minute piece written by Bill Brittelle that will be performed.” The piece includes a poem by 2018 Cherokee High School graduate Kyra Sneed. “The poem begins, ‘When money becomes religion, they’ll strip down our mountains…. They’ve done it before, when their freedom meant more than ours.’ ” The North Carolina Symphony and the Cherokee Chamber Singers will perform Si Otsedoha in several North Carolina cities.
Posted October 2, 2018
