On Wednesday, April 12, composer, performer and recording artist Dawn Avery will visit the University of Michigan to premier Sacred World – Onenh’sa, a new work commissioned by Dr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, the visiting carillon professor. A trailblazer of Mohawk heritage who has spent her career negotiating indigenous and western classical musical traditions, Avery has lent her perspective and experience to emerging performance practice and music pedagogy. In addition to her academic work as a full professor at Montgomery College in Rockville, Md., she is a sought-after composer with multiple commissions planned for performances across the country.
I had the pleasure of interviewing her and hearing some of her insight on her music, which is excerpted below.
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Cedric Preston McCoy: What motivates you in composing or performing? Or even in your everyday life? What things inspire you?
Avery: My spiritual life. Before I compose, I always meditate. So, I’ll know a day that’s going to be for composition because I’ll just feel it. As a performer, I love the relationship between me and the audience, and I like to break the traditional boundary as much as possible. Many of my performances are ceremonial or ritualistic, so audiences are able to participate and connect with the performance. For me, everything comes back to relationships: whether it be to the audience, to other people, to spirituality or the Earth.
CPM: What have you enjoyed about working with Prof. Ruiter-Feenstra and the Michigan carillon program?
Avery: This is so new to me, to have access to this sound! I’m fascinated by the harmonics of the carillon and how the bells ring and vibrate. Pamela is awesome to work with as well — the amount of information she has given me in order to write for carillon has been wonderful.
CPM: In what ways might the carillon lend itself to performing indigenous musics? In what ways can carillonists use the instrument to further the study and performance of indigenous musics?
Avery: Great question! Indigenous music makers and composers perform on and write for all instruments. Like all musicians, we like sounds and styles of all kinds. I am especially interested in the sound of the carillon’s harmonics and the difference between a low, somewhat earthy resonance versus a more ethereal ringing.
Personally, I am interested in what I like to call Indigenous soundscapes — for me these include the sounds of the longhouse and pow-wows: different types of rattles, drums, dances, voice and songs. I also like to use Indigenous language, usually Kaniènkéha, where the musicians recite words as part of the composition. Relationship is important to our worldview and how our language is designed so it is important to me to emphasize relationship with the land, audience and performers by creating a kind of concert ceremony that may include having audience members come onstage and play rattles or performers play instruments while embedded in the audience. These are some of my small contributions to Indigenizing performance and composition.
CPM: Can you speak to the inspirations and motivations behind Sacred World – Onenh’sa? What music traditions (or, whose voices) are you tapping into with this piece?
Avery: Compositional references (in Sacred World – Onenh’sa) to Indigeneity include the sound of rattles through repeated seconds, original sounds of social songs and the honoring of the ancestors through harmonic vibration. This profound resonance is a perfect medium for all that is sacred and Global Rings is a perfect opportunity to explore sonic realms of our Sacred World. I am grateful to the University of Michigan and especially Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra for her vision in putting together this commission and a residency. It is especially wonderful to find a like-minded community and to be able to share who I am with who you are … I have been very fortunate in my personal spiritual and musical journey to have studied with great masters around the world. The content in these short pieces reflects those experiences. A primary focus of my meditative, musical and teaching practice is in holding the unity of all that is sacred as One.
In my work, I incorporate Indigenous sounds, including language and instruments with orchestral instruments that employ contemporary techniques. I also explore the Indigenization of space by creating multi-media ritual spaces where performance is a kind of ceremony. By disrupting the classical music performance expectation, I play with the power relationship between musicians on stage and the audience separate from the performers — embedding musicians in the audience or bringing the audience on stage to round dance and play rattles around a string ensemble, for example. Both ritual space and audience participation are a means of creating a relational experience.
CPM: What can audiences expect to hear and experience with Sacred World – Onenh’sa?
Avery: To me, the piece feels like a journey. It is made up of short vignettes, and each vignette represents a different world culture of spirituality — in other words, that culture’s sacred sound …
I hope that (listeners) not only feel the generosity of sacredness around the world and the unity that comes with it, but maybe recognize a melody from the work or even just have the feeling in them of being unified in these sacred sounds.
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Avery’s new piece, Sacred World – Onenh’sa, can be heard at Lurie Tower at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 12. It will be debuted by Ruiter-Feenstra, for whom the work was written, as well as Carson Landry, Master in Music student in carillon performance. Avery’s work will debut alongside Global Rings Improvisation, a joint project between Ruiter-Feenstra and the winter 2023 carillon studio.
MiC Assistant Editor Cedric Preston McCoy can be reached at cedmccoy@umich.edu.