CONCERTS

78TH SEASON OF

national gallery of art | november 24, 2019
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PROGRAM

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Cherokee Chamber Singers

Winston-Salem Symphony Musicians

Jodi Burns, guest soprano

November 24, 2019 | 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

William Brittelle (b. 1976)

Si Otsedoha (We’re Still Here) (2018)

“Overture”

“Phoenix Rising”

Soloists: Joshua Driver, Ella Montelongo, Silas Driver

“When Money Becomes Religion” (poem by Kyra Sneed)

Orator: Ella Montelongo

“Walls of Glass”

Soloist: Kimberly Hendrix

Si Otsedoha (We’re Still Here)

Soloists: Acecia Lambert, Staci Spicer, Logan Lequire

Traditional

Arr. Bruce Stevenson 

“Amazing Grace”

Intermission

Antonín Dvořak (1841 – 1904)

String Quartet in F Major, op. 96 (American Quartet) (1893)

Allegro ma non troppo

Lento

Molto vivace

Finale: vivace ma non troppo

Traditional Native American

Arr. Roger Emerson

“Shoshone Love Song” (“The Heart’s Friend”) 

Lebo M (b. 1964)

From The Lion King (1997)

“Grasslands Chant” 

“The Lioness Hunt”

Soloist: Dominyk Arch
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THE MUSICIANS

Cherokee Chamber Singers

The Cherokee Chamber Singers are the premier vocal ensemble of the Eastern Band 

of Cherokee from Cherokee High School in Cherokee, North Carolina. Under the 

direction of Michael Yannette, the Cherokee Chamber Singers have enlightened 

audiences by telling the remarkable story of the Eastern Band of Cherokee through 

powerful vocals that express the tribe’s unique and vibrant history. They have proudly 

represented the Cherokee community through traditional choral, classical, musical 

theater, and pop/rock genres. 

This talented group of young men and women have performed at various venues 

including Carnegie Hall, the Smithsonian Institution, and Disney World. Most recently, the 

ensemble toured with the North Carolina Symphony to share the Cherokee’s rich history 

and culture through the work of William Brittelle. The piece entitled Si Otsedoha (We’re 

Still Here) was created from the thoughts and feelings of the Cherokee Chamber Singers 

themselves and through collaboration with other students from Cherokee High School. 

Sopranos

Acecia Lambert

Kimberly Hendrix

Autumn Greene

Amiya George

Abigail Taylor

Altos

Ella Montelongo

Staci Spicer

Ally Reed

Maiya Davis

Emma Taylor

Takota Sexton 

Tenors

Logan Lequire

Silas Driver

Dominyk Arch

Eli McCoy

Basses

Lucian Davis 

Keegan Curtice

Julius Bolden

Joshua Driver

Julian Para Rubio

Jodi Burns

Guest soprano Jodi Burns has been described as singing with a “plush voice and 

rich expressivity”(New York Times). In addition to numerous operatic roles, she has 

collaborated with the Piedmont Wind Symphony in a concert that featured her own 

compositions, along with her band Judy Barnes. She duetted with Ben Folds at his 

2015 “Home for the Holidays” concert. In summer of 2018, she appeared in a concert 

series with composer and pianist Ken Frazelle, collaborating on a program of music 

from his song sets Appalachian Songbooks I and II and Songs from the Rearview 

Mirror. Burns holds a master of music degree from the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute 

at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied with 

Dr. Marilyn Taylor and Jamie Allbritten.

Michael Yannette 

Performance artist and music director Michael Yannette is a concert pianist, actor, 

singer, playwright, and music educator. He has provided musical direction for professional shows and school musicals alike. As an actor and musician, he wrote, produced, 

and starred in the title role of An Evening with George Gershwin and is currently 

finishing work on his second theatrical work, Fantasia on Mysterium, about the life 

of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. 

As an educator, Yannette is currently director of choirs, musical theatre, and piano 

at Cherokee Central Schools. Yannette has been named Teacher of the Year 

at Cherokee Central Schools and also at his previous school, Grandview Preparatory 

School, in Boca Raton, Florida.

William Brittelle

William Brittelle is a North Carolina-born, Brooklyn-based composer of genre-fluid, 

electro-acoustic music. His work is increasingly multidisciplinary and often focuses 

on the intersection of music, technology, environmentalism, and secular spirituality. 

His compositional style is characterized by a refusal to acknowledge traditional genre 

boundaries, a trait perhaps most evident in his recent commercial releases: the digital 

single “Dream Has No Sacrifice” and the album Loving the Chambered Nautilus.

Brittelle’s compositions have been presented at venues throughout the world, 

and his music has been commissioned by the Seattle, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Alabama, 

and Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestras, as well as by the North Carolina 

Symphony/Walker Art Center and the Basel Sinfonietta.

Brittelle has been the recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum, 

the Jerome Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the New York State 
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NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER Council on the Arts, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. 

Along with composers Judd Greenstein and Sarah Kirkland Snider, he cofounded and 

serves as coartistic director of New Amsterdam, a vital Brooklyn-based record label 

and presenting organization.

Winston-Salem Symphony

Presently in its seventy-third season, the Winston-Salem Symphony (WSS) is one 

of the State of North Carolina’s oldest and most respected professional performing 

arts organizations. This season inaugurates the symphony’s new music director, 

Timothy Redmond.

Hailing from Great Britain, Maestro Redmond brings over twenty years of exceptional experience on orchestral and operatic podiums across the globe. Under his 

artistic leadership, the WSS’s 2019 – 2020 season presents a Classics Series, a Pops 

Series, and Symphony Unbound, which is an avant-garde series that combines outstanding musicians from multiple genres in unexpected performance locations.

Education and community engagement are essential to the WSS mission, and 

it presents many school programs through its P.L.A.Y. initiative that provides underserved youth with free instrumental instruction. It also offers a regional Youth Orchestras Program with four levels of ensembles for talented young musicians and hosts the 

Peter Perret Youth Talent Search, an annual statewide student concerto competition.

Members of the WSS performing today include Rebecca Willie on first violin, 

Fabrice Dharamraj on second violin, Louise Campbell on viola, Ryan Graebert on 

cello, William Morris on double bass, Christopher Heckman on keyboard, and John 

Beck on percussion.

The creation of the work you hear today, Si Otsedoha (We’re Still Here), has been one 

of the most transformative musical experiences of my life. Three years ago, the North 

Carolina Symphony had the vision to develop a partnership with the Eastern Band of 

Cherokee Indians and to commission new work as part of that partnership. Through 

initial visits, we had the opportunity to spend time with the elders and other leaders in 

the community, learning about Cherokee history and culture, as well as becoming 

devastatingly aware of the atrocities committed against the Cherokee people.

My time in Cherokee set me on a truly unfathomable path of personal and 

spiritual growth. I began to challenge the way that I think of time, space, community, 

self, and others. I also started to reckon with my own cultural history in a way that 

was extremely uncomfortable at the time — a process that is still happening.

The whole project blossomed as we got to know the youth in the community and 

came to understand their boldness and their vision. Although I composed the music 

of Si Otsedoha, this work was truly shaped and driven by sixteen amazing students — 

the Cherokee Chamber Singers. The text, spirit, and overall direction of the project is 

theirs alone.

These are remarkable young adults with over 10,000 years of history behind them 

and an incredibly beautiful, complex, and resilient culture. They’re also youth of the 

modern age, with a truly unique perspective and deep insight into what’s happening 

in the world today. This is their platform to tell their story — and the story they’ve 

chosen to tell is not one of victimhood or persecution, but one of the transcendent 

strength of the Cherokee spirit. It’s been my great pleasure and privilege to support 

them in that pursuit.

The most transformative part of the process has been getting to know these 

young adults and seeing the courage they have displayed every step of the way. It has 

been truly inspirational for me — and as we bring this work across the United States, 

I hope our audiences will also feel the power in these singers’ words and messages. 

William Brittelle, composer
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NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

It is not often that enormous opportunities just drop in the laps of school music directors for their students. Most of the time we are used to making things happen for and 

with our students — rehearsals, competitions, travel opportunities, educational experiences, and the like. However, the opportunity to create Si Otsedoha (We’re Still Here)

with my students at Cherokee High School and with the remarkable composer William 

Brittelle was one such opportunity. It has been the project with the most far-reaching 

musical, cultural, and educational impact in my thirty-three years of teaching.

Five years ago, we were contacted about a grant that was given to the North 

Carolina Symphony from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation for a new work that 

was to be composed, at least in part, in Cherokee language for both the symphony and 

the vocal students at Cherokee High School (before the Cherokee Chamber Singers 

were officially formed). The vocal program at that time was in its infancy, so the idea of 

having the students perform a newly composed work throughout the State of North 

Carolina with a major symphony was a daunting undertaking to consider. 

A few years later, however, the students had gained sufficient training, and 

composer William (Bill) Brittelle, best known for combining the elements of traditional 

orchestral scoring with popular elements such as synthesizer and pop and rock vocal 

styles, was chosen for the project. Bill traveled from New York to Cherokee, North 

Carolina, and spent quite a bit of time absorbing himself in the local Native American 

culture. He got to know the students of the Cherokee Chamber Singers, and he 

studied traditional Cherokee musical styles. His first musical sketches, for instance, 

were a combination of the vocal music of traditional Cherokee dances accompanied 

by the brief theme and variations style of string quartet compositions. 

It was decided by all of the project stakeholders that the work should be 

student-driven. A committee formed of three Chamber Singers members — Ella 

Montelongo, Cece Lambert, and Eason Esquivel — and they decided the themes and 

content of the piece. As a group, they clearly wanted their voices and the voices of 

their community to be heard in a truthful, very real way. They wanted an absolutely 

unflinching look into what it means to be Cherokee on every level — historically, 

culturally, and socially in the past, present, and future. 

The committee created a questionnaire that was answered by all of the students 

in Cherokee High School and Middle School. Questions were asked, such as “What are 

the stereotypes you have faced as a Cherokee person? What would you like people 

to know about the Cherokee Community? What are you most proud of as a member 

of the Cherokee Community?” Approximately fifty of these questionnaires were sent 

to Bill, and a few months later Si Otsedoha (We’re Still Here) was born. The libretto 

came from direct quotations from the students’ questionnaires, often translated into 

Cherokee language. 

The movement entitled “When Money Becomes Religion” was a full poem written 

by Chamber Singers’ member Kyra Sneed, now a graduate. Kyra, a shy and humble 

member of the group, produced this powerful poem that belies her quiet nature and 

gives fresh meaning to the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword.”

Through the creation of this complete work, the students have learned not only 

more about their tribe’s history, but have also deepened their pride in their cultural 

heritage. They have, indeed, enthusiastically embraced their role as cultural ambassadors, performers, and co-creators of the composition.

In today’s performance of the entire composition, we are especially proud to 

have members of the outstanding Winston-Salem Symphony join us in a reduced 

orchestration of the work, revised by William Brittelle. It has been an immense 

pleasure working with these tremendous musicians and with the management of 

the WSS. We are eternally grateful to them for being a part of today’s performance 

at the National Gallery of Art.

Michael Yannette, Music Director, Cherokee Central Schools
NGA.GOV/MUSIC

Upcoming Events of the SeventyEighth Season of The William Nelson 

Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, concerts 

are held in the West Building, West 

Garden Court.

Alicia Svigals, klezmer fiddler

Uli Geissendoerfer, piano

With special guest William Schimmel, 

accordion

Beregovski Suite: Reimagining a 

Long-Lost Klezmer Archive

Reimagining the long-lost melodies 

from the early 20th-century fieldwork 

of Moshe Beregovski.

This concert is part of a series of 

performances by female violinists, 

showcasing the brilliance and stylistic 

versatility of the instrument.

December 1, 3:30

Capitol Hill Chorale

Frederick Binkholder, Artistic Director

Caroling in the Rotunda

December 7, 1:30 and 2:30

West Building Rotunda

JACK Quartet

Modern Medieval

Music by Thomas Morley, Solage, 

Rodericus, Chaya Czernowin, Marcos 

Balter, and John Zorn.

December 8, 3:30

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art 

and all of its programs is free of charge, 

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording 

equipment during the performance 

is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic 

devices are turned off.

—

Concerts are made possible in part 

through the generosity of donors to the 

National Gallery of Art through The Circle. 

Reserved seating is available in recognition 

of their support. Please contact the 

development office at (202) 842-6450 or 

circle@nga.gov for more information.

—

The department of music produced 

these program notes. Copyright © 2019 

Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington

cover Roy Lichtenstein, A Cherokee 

Brave (detail), 1952, National Gallery 

of Art, Washington, Gift of Roy and 

Dorothy Lichtenstein © Estate of Roy 

Lichtenstein, 1996.56.16