“Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate [is] the Chickasaw composer of Lowak Shoppala’, a multimedia theatrical work that celebrates Chickasaw culture,” reports Daniel Hautzinger in Tuesday’s (11/23) WTTW TV (Chicago). “It is also the basis of an opera due to be premiered at Mount Holyoke College in March of next year as well as an upcoming piece commissioned by the wide-ranging vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth … Talowa’ Loksi’, [which] draws not just on Chickasaw lore but also music: each of its six sections is based upon a traditional Chickasaw song. ‘I have a mission in my music,’ Tate explains…. ‘I focus very specifically on Chickasaw and other North American Indian music as source material for my compositions.’ … Tate is also currently working on an opera sung entirely in Cherokee…. Tate has taught Navajo and Hopi children at the Grand Canyon Music Festival and … is … Artistic Director for the Chickasaw Chamber Music Festival.… Tate [has] commissions from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra … the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, among others.… ‘I like to create music that I hope connects on both a tribal level and a universal level,’ ” he says.”
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