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Welcome! This page is dedicated to my composition students. They are all American Indians and I am extremely proud of them. Classical composition is relatively new to Indian Territory and there are only a handful of professional American Indian classical composers. I am excited to bring forth works by young American Indians who are exploring this genre.

As part of my career, I am dedicated to exposing young American Indians to classical composition - an arena starving for their participation.

I am currently Composer-in-Residence for the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy, and was Composer-in-Residence for the Grand Canyon Music Festival's Native American Composer Apprentice Project in 2004 and 2005. I was also Composer-in-Residence for The Joyce Foundation/American Composers Forum, teaching composition to American Indian high school students in Minneapolis.

The Chickasaw Nation is the only tribe in the United States that sponsors it's own fine arts academy. Chickasaw and American Indian students, ages 8-19, major in Art, Dance, Literature, Music Composition, Theatre and Video Production, culminating in a grand public performance at the end of the academy.

To date, I have coached over 70 new compositions by American Indian students, and have posted them here for your enlightenment. These are live performances of their works.

The composition "Moon's Lullaby," by Rochelle Chester, was chosen to be performed at Carnegie Hall for the radio show "From the Top," and aired nationally on PBS in April 2007:

www.pbs.org/wgbh/fromthetop/me etperformers.html

For more information and pictures of student performances, please visit:

http://www.jerodtate.com/2007. html