Composer’s Studio – 6/21/20 – Brent Michael Davids Rerun

In this powerful episode, Tarik and Amy discuss music and American history with Brent Michael Davids, composer and co-director of the Lenape Center in Manhattan. An American Indian citizen of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation, his heritage is a major influence on his work. Brent experiments with traditional Native American singing and instruments, always pushing boundaries. In his music, we hear an Apache violin played with bows strung with unsual materials like silk and leather, and a flute made of quartz crystal, which was fabricated at a scientific glass blowing workshop.  To cap it all off, we are treated to a moving preview of his work in progress, Requiem for America, featuring traditional and Native American choirs.