WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (November 11, 2019) –The Winston-Salem Symphony is partnering with the Cherokee Chamber Singers, the premier performing ensemble from Cherokee High School in Cherokee, North Carolina, for two performances of William Brittelle’s piece Si Otsedoha (We’re Still Here). Members of the Winston-Salem Symphony and acclaimed North Carolina soprano Jodi Burns will join the Cherokee Chamber Singers, who are under the direction of Michael Yannette, for a performance in the West Building, West Garden Court of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC on November 24 at 3:30 p.m. The performance at the National Gallery of Art is free and open to the public of and is presented in honor of Native American Heritage Month.
They will also perform in Greensboro at the North Carolina School Board Association annual conference, which will take place November 18–20 at the Koury Convention Center. This performance is not open to the public.
Si Otsedoha (We’re Still Here) was multi-year, multi-faceted collaboration between the North Carolina Symphony, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and composer William Brittelle. It began in the fall of 2017 when Cherokee student leaders assembled a forum for open discussion about what it means to be Cherokee in the past, present, and future and how they view their cultural heritage. From that forum, the Cherokee students created the text for the piece and William Brittelle composed music to accompany their words. The Cherokee Chamber Singers premiered the work throughout North Carolina in October 2018.
William Brittelle is a North Carolina-born, Brooklyn-based composer of genre-fluid electro-acoustic music. He is also a producer and curator and is co-founder/co-artistic director of New Amsterdam Records with composers Sarah Kirkland Snider and Judd Greenstein and the curatorial collective Infinite Palette with producer Kate Nordstrum and composer Daniel Wohl. Brittelle was raised in rural North Carolina, and often cites his upbringing in a small southern town with a conservative Christian environment as in opposition to his Brooklyn-based, agnostic Buddhist adulthood, a dissonance reflected in his musical output. He attended Vanderbilt University as a composition major. After being enrolled in a Doctor of Musical Arts program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York for two years, Brittelle dropped out and re-enrolled privately with his primary teacher, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici, for two subsequent years as a non-matriculating student. Brittelle’s compositions have been presented at venues across the world, including the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the Kennedy Center, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Da Camera in Houston, Seattle’s Town Hall, the Ecstatic Music Festival in New York, the Kahserne in Switzerland, the Gothenburg Symphony Chamber Series in Sweden, the Freemantle Arts Center in Perth, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. His music has been commissioned by the Seattle Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Walker Art Center, the Liquid Music Series, the Alabama Symphony, Mass MoCA, and the Basel Sinfonietta among others. Brittelle has also been the recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment of the Arts, American Music Center, American Composers Forum, the Jerome Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NYSCA, and ASCAP. He formerly served on the faculty of The New School in New York City, developing and teaching courses in Post-Genre Music and the Ethos of Punk.
Jodi Burns has sung with the Winston-Salem Symphony numerous times. She has performed her own compositions along with her band Judy Barnes with The Piedmont Wind Symphony. She duetted with Ben Folds at his 2015 “Home for the Holidays” Concert. In summer of 2018, Burns appeared in a concert series with Winston-Salem composer Ken Frazelle, collaborating on a program of music from his song sets Appalachian Songbooks I and II and Songs from the Rearview Mirror. Opera credits include Ann Trulove (The Rake’s Progress) and Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) with The Princeton Festival, Adina (The Elixir of Love), Micaela (Carmen), Josephine (H.M.S. Pinafore), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro), the Dew Fairy (Hansel and Gretel), and Ida (Die Fledermaus) with Piedmont Opera, and Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) with Opera Theatre of the Rockies. At the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute, she gave commanding performances as Maria (Maria Stuarda), Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), Rose (Street Scene), and Flaminia (Haydn’s Il Mondo della Luna). Burns toured with The North Carolina Symphony and has performed with them many times. She was a semi-finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and sang on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. She was a fellow at The A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) where she received a Master of Music. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from The Ohio State University. For more information visit jodiburnssoprano.com.
About the Winston-Salem Symphony
The Winston-Salem Symphony, one of the Southeast’s most highly regarded regional orchestras, begins its 73rd season in October 2019. The 2019–20 season will be Timothy Redmond’s inaugural season as Music Director and will include Classics Series concerts featuring renowned guest artists such as Béla Fleck, Rachel Barton Pine, and more. In addition, the season will include a Pops series featuring the Indigo Girls on stage with the Symphony as well as the music of John Williams and a tribute to Tom Petty. A Carolina Christmas returns with special guest artists with North Carolina roots including Laurelyn Dossett. The annual performance of Handel’s Messiah returns along with the Concert for Community featuring Winston-Salem Symphony and Youth Symphony musicians, four youth orchestra ensembles, and a multitude of educational and community engagement programs, including the P.L.A.Y. (Piedmont Learning Academy for Youth) Music program providing, primarily to under-served youth, instrumental music instruction and more. The Symphony is supported by Season Presenting Sponsors BB&T and Bell, Davis & Pitt, P.A.; Redmond’s Inaugural Season Sponsor Mrs. Charles M. Howell; Symphony Unbound Sponsors Chris and Mike Morykwas; as well as generous funding from the Arts Council of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, the North Carolina Arts Council, and other dedicated sponsors. For more information, visit wssymphony.org.
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