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[Blue Butterfly ]

(b Madison, WI, June 4, 1959). American composer and flutist of Mohican descent (enrolled member of Stockbridge Band of Mohican Nation). He earned degrees in music composition from Northern Illinois University (BM 1981) and Arizona State University (MM 1990) and a separate degree in American Indian Religious Studies from Arizona State University (MA 1992). Davids merges his classical training in Western music with Native American elements that have been nurtured by many visits to Stockbridge Munsee Reservation, where his father was raised; in many of his pieces, native percussion can be heard alongside European instruments to create a colorful musical tapestry. Davids is also a concert flutist, famous for performing on his signature handmade quartz crystal flutes, as well as standard flute and native wooden flutes. He has written commissioned works for the National Symphony Orchestra’s 60th anniversary, Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, Chanticleer, Zeitgeist, the Kronos Quartet, the Miró String Quartet, and the Joffrey Ballet. He has received awards from In-Vision, Meet the Composer, Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and Jerome Foundation, among others. In ...

(Ruth )

(b Los Angeles, CA, May 14, 1961). American violinist and violin teacher. She received her first violin lessons from her mother in 1963 and began formal study with Eunice Wennermark at six and Manuel Compinsky at age seven. As a child she played for jascha Heifetz and at the ages of 16 and 17 she studied with josef Gingold . At the age of seven she performed as soloist in Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor under the direction of Compinsky. She made her professional debut in 1973, performing Mendelssohn’s Concerto with the New York PO under André Kostelanetz. In 1975 she made her European debut with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, where she attended master classes given by nathan Milstein in the years 1974–6. She won second prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1978, the youngest woman ever to do so. Jenson is an honorary citizen of Costa Rica and was appointed Distinguished Professor of Music at Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has performed extensively with major orchestras in the United States and undertaken tours of Europe, Australia, Japan, the Soviet Union, and Latin America. One of the finest violinists of her generation, she has made recordings of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and of two Brahms sonatas. In ...

(b Tama, IA, May 13, 1933; d Ames, IA, Aug 16, 2006). Native American (Meskwaki) singer, drummer, and flute player. Kapayou was born on the Meskwaki Indian Settlement in Tama, Iowa, where his mother Lucille, a flute player, taught him sacred and secular repertoires of Meskwaki music. While serving in the Army and working in construction, Kapayou retained his commitment to these traditions. He received a National Heritage Fellowship from the NEA in ...