Six grants ranging from $1,350 to $5,000 have been awarded to American Indian/Indigenous musical artists in the fifth round of grant making of the First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI), a program of the American Composers Forum.
The winners are: Dawn Avery (Mohawk descendent) for a North American Indian Cello CD project; Brent Michael Davids (Mohican) to compose a 15 minute concert work for Chanticleer, a 30 year old a cappella male vocal ensemble; Michael Begay (Dine) to attend the Grand Canyon Music Festival; Anita Poleahla (Hopi) for production of a new CD entitled Puwvitstawi: Hopi Lullabies and Game Songs; Trevor Reed (Hopi) to return a valuable set of 130 recordings of traditional Hopi music to the tribe and with the community, and to work towards reaching a long term career goal of writing artistically and culturally meaningful instrumental music through onsite dialog with tribal elders and traditional performers; and Jennifer Stevens (Oneida/Lakota) for “The Lesson”, a documentary on Jennifer Stevens, an aspiring Lyric Soprano’s experience training in classical singing.
