Seattle Pro Musica Presents the World Premiere of Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate's THE GLIMMER, March 25

Internationally acclaimed composer and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate announces the world premiere of his new work, The Glimmer. The new work, commissioned by Seattle Pro Musica and presented on Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 7:30pm at Seattle First Baptist Church, sets the poem The Glimmer by Washington state poet laureate and citizen of the Lummi Nation, Rena Priest. The Glimmer is the last in Seattle Pro Musica's New American Composers series, in which they commissioned five exciting young composers to write new works in honor of the series' 50th anniversary.

Sharing about the cultural influences of his new work, Tate said, "The Glimmer is a poem that speaks to relationships - personal and universal. It conjures feelings of the present and the past. It feels Native and this work is my musical response. Composing Rena's poetry made me feel like my natural self. I believe there is an ethos that exists in Indian Country. It can seem monolithic at times and diverse at other times, but I feel it. I also believe I belong to a universe of Native people who are introspective and romantic about our culture and people. Most of my commissioned works focus on tribal culture directly from the land of the commissioner. It is my way of helping the performers and public become closer to their tribal neighbors. The Glimmer deeply echoes the ethos of Lummi and local Salish culture. Out of respect, there is not a direct quote of specific melodies; however, it is greatly influenced by the regional paddle songs. This poem also speaks a language evocative of the sea and it is my hope that the listener and performers resonate with the gestures in this work."

The Glimmer by Rena Priest
From darkness the idea of self blood water and soul
My body a brief victory over death by making breath
Thoughts and actions and a series of moments expressed
A cup filled with bliss and the movement of breath
Pulling itself into emptiness
Like water between stones
Disappearing how quickly it goes
I leave with my breath
I return with my breath
And i understand the tides
They are spun in currents by the exchange of breath
For kisses branded on flesh
We claim each with each
Join names to our tongues
Weld out memories to breath
In our chest each moment dies for the next
Sending shut the spaces between each allotted breath
Smelting our lives
First into glitter
Then into ash
In this breathtaking glimmer above death
Where we make breath

Discovering poetry at a young age, Rena Priest is the sixth Washington State Poet Laureate and the first Indigenous poet to be the state's Poet Laureate. Her literary debut, Patriarchy Blues, was honored with the 2018 American Book Award, and her most recent work is Sublime Subliminal and work can be found in Poetry Northwest, Pontoon Poetry, Verse Daily, Poem-a-Day at Poets.org, and elsewhere. Based in Bellingham, Washington, she has taught Comparative Cultural Studies and Contemporary American Issues at Western Washington University and Native American Literature at Northwest Indian College. Priest also holds a BA in English from Western Washington University and an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. As part of her appointment term, Priest aims to celebrate poetry in Washington's tribal communities, and use poetry to increase appreciation of the natural world and the threats facing it.

Program Information
Seattle Pro Musica Presents The Glimmer
Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 7:30pm
Seattle First Baptist Church | Seattle, WA
Link: https://www.seattlepromusica.org/the-glimmer
Tickets: In person: $28-$38 ($21 senior/young adults; free for students with ID). Also available via livestream for free here.

Program:
Jerod Tate - The Glimmer (2023) [World Premiere]
Jerod Tate - Visions of a Child (2012)
Jerod Tate - We Are The Storm (2019)
Laura Jēkabsone - Father Thunder (Pērkontēvs) (2018)
Barlow Bradford - Give me the splendid, silent sun (2010)
Lili Boulanger - Soir sur la plaine (1918)
Traditional Scottish - The Parting Glass (18th century)

Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate is a classical composer, citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, and is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition. The Washington Post raves that "Tate is rare as an American Indian composer of classical music. Rarer still is his ability to effectively infuse classical music with American Indian nationalism."

Tate is a 2022 Chickasaw Hall of Fame inductee, a 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from The Cleveland Institute of Music and was appointed 2021 Cultural Ambassador for the U. S. Department of State. He is Guest Composer, conductor, and pianist for San Francisco Symphony's Currents Program, Thunder Song: American Indian Musical Cultures, and was recently Guest Composer for Metropolitan Museum of Art's Balcony Bar Program, Home with ETHEL and Friends, featuring his commissioned work Pisachi (Reveal) for String Quartet.

His commissioned works have been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Ballet, Canterbury Voices, Dale Warland Singers, Santa Fe Desert Chorale and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Recent commissions include Shell Shaker: A Chickasaw Opera for Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra, Ghost of the White Deer Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra for Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Hózhó (Navajo Strong) and Ithánali (I Know) for White Snake Opera Company. His music was recently featured on the HBO series Westworld.

Tate has held Composer-in-Residence positions for Music Alive, a national residency program of the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA, the Joyce Foundation/American Composers Forum, Oklahoma City's NewView Summer Academy, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and Grand Canyon Music Festival Native American Composer Apprentice Project. Tate was the founding composition instructor for the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy and has taught composition to American Indian high school students in Minneapolis, the Hopi, Navajo, and Lummi reservations and Native students in Toronto.

Tate is a three-time commissioned recipient from the American Composers Forum, a Chamber Music America's Classical Commissioning Program recipient, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award recipient, a governor-appointed Creativity Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma and an Emmy Award-winner for his work on the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority documentary, The Science of Composing.

In addition to his work based upon his Chickasaw culture, Tate has worked with the music and language of multiple tribes, such as: Choctaw, Navajo, Cherokee, Ojibway, Creek, Pechanga, Comanche, Lakota, Hopi, Tlingit, Lenape, Tongva, Shawnee, Caddo, Ute, Aleut, Shoshone, Cree, Paiute, and Salish/Kootenai.

Among available recorded works are Iholba' (The Vision) for Solo Flute, Orchestra and Chorus and Tracing Mississippi, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, recorded by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, on the Grammy Award-winning label Azica Records. In 2021, Azica released Tate's Lowak Shoppala' (Fire and Light) recorded by Nashville String Machine with the Chickasaw Nation Children's Chorus and Dance Troupe; vocal soloists Stephen Clark, Chelsea Owen, Meghan Vera Starling; and narrators Lynne Moroney, Wes Studi, Richard Ray Whitman. Of the album, Sequenza21 wrote, "Tate has clearly taken the Western musical tradition and found a compelling voice that integrates his native culture." His Metropolitan Museum of Art commission, Pisachi (Reveal), is featured on ETHEL String Quartet's album Documerica. In summer 2022, Azica Records will release Tate's first ever composition, Winter Moons, and also his Moonstrike, recorded by Apollo Chamber Players.

Tate earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Northwestern University, where he studied with Dr. Donald Isaak, and his Master of Music in Piano Performance and Composition from The Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Elizabeth Pastor and Dr. Donald Erb. He has performed as First Keyboard on the Broadway national tours of LES MISERABLES and Miss Saigon and been a guest pianist and accompanist for the Colorado Ballet, Hartford Ballet, and numerous ballet and dance companies.

Tate's middle name, Impichchaachaaha', means "his high corncrib" and is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name. A corncrib is a small hut used for the storage of corn and other vegetables. In traditional Chickasaw culture, the corncrib was built high off the ground on stilts to keep its contents safe from foraging animals. Learn more at www.jerodtate.com.

Photo Credit: Shevaun Williams

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