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For the first time in Washington, D.C., the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra's Lakota Music Project at the National Museum of the American Indian

Performing for the first time outside South Dakota, the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra's (SDSO) Lakota Music Project will appear in concert at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. The concert will feature two Native American Music Award winning artists-singer Emmanuel Black Bear (Oglala Sioux Tribe) and cedar flutist Bryan Akipa (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate)-as well as musicians from the symphony orchestra. Free and open to the public, the performance will be held in the museum's Rasmuson Theater.

The Lakota Music Project is the flagship community-engagement program of the SDSO. In performing Native and non-Native music, the project seeks to create an environment of openness that treats both cultures with dignity and respect.

The performance will include commissioned works by Akipa and Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate (Chickasaw Nation), participants in the SDSO's Music Composition Academies. The performers will be joined by SDSO Music Director Delta David Gier; Professor Emeritus of American Indian Studies Ronnie Theisz at Black Hills State University; and Lakota elder Chris Eagle Hawk.

Native American Music Award-winner Emmanuel Black Bear said, "Being a part of the Lakota Music Project and the Creekside singers brings a lot of honor to our families. Utilizing our traditional songs with orchestra is not something they would normally see. Where we come from [the reservation], people consider us a Third World, lots of hopelessness. With the Lakota Music Project, we can share our way of life, our traditional ways which bring us to together and offer hope through the music. Racial issues exist because of ignorance and not knowing. By showing our way of life, they will understand who we are as a people. We sing a lot of old songs, and so does the orchestra. You know, no matter what race you are... it's the music."

 

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