06 June 2011

DMT featured in League of American Orchestra's "Symphony NOW"

Powwow in Mankato
By Jennifer Melick

For many Americans, the first association with the year 1862 is the Civil War. But for Native Americans, there is also a vivid association with the Dakota War of 1862, a conflict between the Dakota people and the United States that ended in the mass execution of 38 Dakota members on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota. It’s an event that still registers large in local memory. This year, the Mankato Symphony Orchestra launched the Dakota Music Tour in Minnesota, a musical response to the events of 1862. The four-concert tour opened on May 22 in Mankato and continued with performances on reservations in Morton and Granite Falls. It concludes on June 4 in Winona at the Eighth Annual Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming in Unity Park, a remarkable annual event supported by the Winona community that brings together Dakota members from a wide diaspora for a day of music and other festivities.

READ MORE HERE http://www.americanorchestras.org/symphonynow/2011/06/powwow-in-mankato/

01 June 2011

Dakota Music Tour featured in the Winona Post!







Meld of Native, classical music at Unity Park Saturday
By Cynthya Porter (06/01/2011)
The mellifluous timbre of a flute will drift through the air at Unity Park Saturday, lifted up by the sound of violins and an unusual accompaniment: Native American drums and singers telling the story of indigenous people. The concert is a stop on the Dakota Music Tour, a one-of-a-kind event that weaves traditional orchestral music together with traditional Indian music. Performing on the Dakota Music Tour is the Mankato Symphony Orchestra along with Maza Kute, a renowned Dakota drum group from Santee, Nebraska...
The Dakota Music Tour is ... an example of how people from all lineages can integrate their many diverse parts into their lives, something more and more necessary as society becomes homogenized with many races... “It was designed as a way for Dakota people to have a voice,” Davids said. “Minnesota was founded on genocide. No one wants to go back and look at it, but they are ignoring the Dakota people if they won’t.” The music brings people to the event, but the healing comes from the dialog that happens, Davids said, kind of like the Mary Poppins saying, he said. “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,” he said. “The concert is the sugar.”