Holland Festival: Call for the Company - Raven Chacon, The Monochrome Project

Indigenous composer

Raven Chacon is the first Native American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2022 for his work Voiceless Mass . Rhythm, acoustics and concept are central to Chacon's compositions. For example, Report was written for a firearms ensemble and consists of gunshots. Call for the Company in the Morning refers to the hunt and is a composition for eight trumpeters under the baton of Marco Blaauw. In this radical work, the trumpeters play most of the time on one pitch, in reference to British hunting signal manuals to communicate with other hunters participating in this inhumane 'sport'. In the piece, this tone is interspersed with solos that give a voice to the hunted animals.

The series of compositions For Zitkála-Šá is dedicated to Zitkála-Šá, a compelling figure from Native American history. Zitkála-Šá, a Yankton Dakota writer, editor, translator, musician, lecturer and political activist, is known as one of the most influential Native American activists of the 20th century. As an orator, she drew attention to the systematic oppression of the original population with her speeches. As a composer and musician, Zitkála-Šá taught violin. She later wrote the libretto and songs for The Sun Dance Opera (1913), the first American Indian opera.

The composition Whistle Quartet was expressly written to be played on dog whistles and refers to the way people become part of a group, learning from a leader or an 'elder'.

As part of the program there is an improvisation session by Chacon with three guest musicians invited by him. The evening has a special structure that makes optimal use of various locations inside and outside the Muziekgebouw.