Lakota Music Project
Phase I: 2005-2010
The first Lakota Music Project program explored how Lakota and Western orchestral music express four experiences shared by people everywhere: love, war, grief, and celebration.
During the first half of the concert, the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and the Creekside Singers each shared music from their own cultural traditions. In the second half, the two ensembles came together to perform works created especially for orchestra and Lakota drum group:
-
Desert Wind by Jeffrey Paul, principal oboist of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra
-
Black Hills Olowan by composer Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape)
To share the program with Native and non-Native communities, the Lakota Music Project toured South Dakota in May 2009. Performances were held on the Pine Ridge, Santee Sioux, and Rosebud reservations, as well as in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.
The program was later presented at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Pierre in January 2010 and at Crazy Horse Memorial on Native American Day in October 2010. South Dakota has celebrated Native American Day in place of Columbus Day since 1989.