The First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI) is an organization dedicated to the promotion of new music by Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 composers. It is based in Saint Paul

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and affiliated with the American Composers Forum

American Composers Forum

The American Composers Forum is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the promotion and assistance of American composers and their music. It was founded in 1973 as the Minnesota Composers Forum and is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States...

. Its Program Director is Georgia Wettlin-Larsen and its Advisors include Louis W. Ballard

Louis W. Ballard

Louis W. Ballard was a Native American composer, educator, author, artist, and journalist.-Life:Ballard, who was of Cherokee, Quapaw, French and Scottish heritage, was born in the Native American community of Devil's Promenade, located near Quapaw, in northeast Oklahoma...

 (deceased), Sharon Burch

Sharon Burch

Sharon Burch sings in both English and Navajo.She is an advisor for First Nations Composer Initiative-Life:Sharon Burch, born of a Navajo mother and a German father, was raised in the traditional Navajo culture in New Mexico and spoke only Navajo until she began school...

, Raven Chacon

Raven Chacon

Raven Chacon is an American composer and artist. He is known as a composer of chamber music as well as a solo performer of experimental noise music...

, Brent Michael Davids

Brent Michael Davids

Brent Michael Davids is an American composer and flautist. He is a member of the Stockbridge Mohican nation of American Indians. He has composed for Zeitgeist, the Kronos Quartet, Joffrey Ballet, the National Symphony Orchestra, and Chanticleer.He holds a B.M...

, Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo is a Native American poet, musician, and author of ancestry. Known primarily as a poet, Harjo has also taught at the college level, played alto saxophone with a band called Poetic Justice, edited literary journals, and written screenplays. She is a member of the Muscogee Nation and...

, Jennifer E. Kreisberg, R. Carlos Nakai

R. Carlos Nakai

Raymond Carlos “R.” Nakai is a Native American flautist of Navajo/Ute heritage.-Biography:Born Ray Carlos Nakai, in Flagstaff, Arizona, he released his first album, Changes, in 1983...

, Joanne Shenandoah

Joanne Shenandoah

Joanne Shenandoah is an Iroquois singer, composer and acoustic guitarist. She is a member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation, of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Her music is a combination of traditional songs and melodies with a blend of traditional and contemporary...

, and Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate

Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate

Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate is a Chickasaw classical composer and pianist. He is one of a handful of American Indian classical composers, and his compositions are based on American Indian history and culture....

.

The organization sponsors the Composer Apprentice National Outreach Endeavor (CANOE), which teaches Native American young people to compose their own concert music.

Listening

• "American Indian Composers Go Classical", by Felix Contreras, from All Things Considered, January 1, 2009