Playing together for the first time in a New York City public park, the multi-awarded composers Laura Ortman and Raven Chacon will present a site-specific improvisational performance highlighting Nicholas Galanin’s sculpture In every language there is Land / En cada lengua hay una Tierra. In an evening of experimentation, Ortman and Chacon will incorporate field recordings from Brooklyn Bridge Park with acoustic, electric, and electronic instruments.
Registration is suggested but not required. We encourage the audience to bring a blanket to sit on the lawn. This program is curated by Gabriela López Dena, Associate Curator of Public Practice; please email [email protected] with questions and requests for accessibility.
*Rescheduled due to rain to Sunday, November 5, 2023
About the Artists
Raven Chacon (Navajo) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, performer, and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. Currently, he lives in Red Hook, New York and Albuquerque, NM. A recording artist over the span of 22 years, Chacon has appeared on over eighty releases on national and international labels. He has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Whitney Biennial, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, SITE Santa Fe, The Kennedy Center, and more. As an educator, Chacon is the senior composer mentor for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP).
Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) is a soloist musician, composer, and vibrant collaborator creating across multiple platforms, including recorded albums, live performances, and filmic and artistic soundtracks. She has collaborated with Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Raven Chacon, Nanobah Becker, Okkyung Lee, Martin Bisi, Jeffrey Gibson, Caroline Monnet, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Demian DinéYazhi, New Red Order, and In Defense of Memory. An inquisitive and exquisite violinist, Ortman is versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and amplified violin, often sings through a megaphone, and is a producer of capacious field recordings. She has performed at The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Guggenheim, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Artists Space, Venice Biennale, The Stone residency, The New Museum, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, The Toronto Biennial, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, among countless established and DIY venues in the US, Canada, and Europe.