SDSO To Celebrate D.C. Residency Of Lakota Music Project With Local Send-Off Performance

South Dakota Symphony Orchestra to celebrate Washington, D.C. Residency of the Lakota Music Project with local send-off performance October 15, 2019

The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (SDSO) and Music Director Delta David Gier will present its renowned Lakota Music Project in Washington D.C. October 16 - 21, 2019. Ahead of the residency, the SDSO will perform its program in Sioux Falls, SD, in a special send-off performance on Tuesday, October 15 at 7:30pm in the Visual Arts Center of the Washington Pavilion. The performance is free and open to the public. The SDSO will also perform for the students of Whittier Middle School in a private performance scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday, October 15.

The October 15 performances features the Dakota String Quartet, Dakota Wind Quintet and the Lakota Music Project performing pieces written by composers Jeffrey Paul, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Theodore Wiprud, Bryan Akipa, and short works written by Native American students of the SDSO music composition academies.

The Washington D.C. residency October 16 - 21 features two Native American Music Award winning artists: singer Emmanuel Black Bear (Oglala Lakota) and cedar flutist Bryan Akipa (Sisseton-Wahpeton), who are joined by SDSO musicians, professor emeritus of American Indian Studies at Black Hills State University Ronnie Theisz, and Lakota elder Chris Eagle Hawk. With Gier, they will all represent the South Dakota Symphony and the Lakota Music Project as musical ambassadors for the state of South Dakota.

This is the first time SDSO musicians and the Lakota Music Project have performed outside of South Dakota. The residency includes a series of concerts featuring the Dakota String Quartet, Dakota Wind Quintet, and the two combined as the Lakota Music Project.

· Wednesday, October 16, 7:30pm at the Washington National Cathedral - SDSO Music Director Gier, Emmanuel Black Bear, and Bryan Akipa are featured speakers on PostClassical Ensemble's post-concert discussion which will probe the utilization of Native American music by classical composers, then and now. Akipa and Black Bear will also perform.

· Saturday, October 19, 7:30pm at the Center for Contemporary and Political Art - Gier, Black Bear, and Akipa will be joined by ethnomusicologist Ronnie Theisz for a discussion forum as part of the PostClassical Ensemble Native American Festival.

· Saturday, October 19, 2:00pm at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian - Members of SDSO and the Lakota Music Project will present a performance featuring Lakota singer Emmanuel Black Bear singing with hand drum and NEA National Treasure Bryan Akipa, Dakota cedar flutist.

· Monday, October 21, 7:30pm at the National Cathedral, Bethlehem Chapel - Members of SDSO, the Dakota String Quartet, Dakota Wind Quintet and the Lakota Music Project perform in the final performance of the Post-Classical Ensemble's Native American Festival.

"2019 is the ten-year anniversary of the first tour of the Lakota Music Project," says SDSO Music Director Delta David Gier. "We have seen the relationship between our SDSO musicians and our Lakota and Dakota partners deepen during our years of working together. We have grown beyond understanding to a genuine love and respect for each other. The power of sharing this with audiences, across different cultures, is palpable and enduring. We are showing a way forward, and not only between Native and non-Native; we are demonstrating cross-cultural relations for everyone. It is a privilege for all of us to be a part of this project."