This season we have imagined big and have presented music that reflects our bold vision for our orchestra and the wide possibilities of orchestral music," says SoNA Music Director Paul Haas. "We have represented the past and present of our artform through time-honored works by William Grant Still, Bernstein, Shostakovich, Brahms, and more and we re showing the powerful future of our art form through works by contemporary visionaries like Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate."
Every time Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (Bienen â90) composes a piece about Chickasaw culture, he pictures himself standing in the forests of Mississippi where his ancestors lived before removal.
Trips to the area in the â90s inspired him to write âTracing Mississippi,â a concerto that incorporates traditional tribal songs and dance rhythms and was later recorded by the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Both his grandmother and his parents were able to hear the piece performed, which he called a dream come true.
â(It felt like I was saying), âHere, family â this is how I feel about being us,ââ Tate said. âI’m very grateful that I have had the opportunity to do that, to say, this is how I feel, as a Chickasaw man, symphonically.â