Finding a Voice: Fostering Indigenous Composers – Radio Version
Nov. 11
This week’s program takes the Arizona PBS documentary Finding a Voice: Fostering Indigenous Composers, telling the story of the Native American Composer Apprentice Project, including full length compositions by both students of the program and their instructors.
Over the past 20 years, the Grand Canyon Music Festival’s outreach efforts have grown into the fully-fledged Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP) providing levels of access to music education that are scarce in rural areas.
In the fall of 2023, the team at Central Sound at Arizona PBS followed NACAP’s resident quartet throughout the Navajo Nation to schools involved in the project, capturing the process as well as interviewing students, performers and composers.
The goal of NACAP is to provide opportunities for young Native American students to find their musical voices, and in this program, we highlight the two current NACAP composers, one of whom won the Pulitzer Prize in Music and the other is an alumnus of the project.
To watch the documentary, visit Finding a Voice: Fostering Indigenous Composers.
Featured in this episode:
Xavier Ben – Copper – Catalyst Quartet
Mark O’Connor – Sadness/Darlin’ Waltz – Joe Deninzon, electric violin, mandolin; Clare Hoffman, flute; Robert Bonfiglio, harmonica; Stephen Benson, guitar
Astor Piazzolla – Angel Suite – Catalyst Quartet
- IV. La Resurreccion del Angel
Brayden Kinsel – All the Life – Catalyst Quartet
Haileigh-Autumn Roberts – A Fall to Spring – Catalyst Quartet
Jerrod Tate – Woodland Songs – Dover Quartet
- I. Squirrel
Hallie “Ari” Thompson – Chaotic Obsessions – Catalyst Quartet
Raven Chacon – Voiceless Mass – True Concord; Eric Holtan, conductor
Ethan Haceesa – Suave – Catalyst Quartet
Michael Begay – Four Coyotes – Grant Houston, violin; Bengisu Gokce, violin; Jay Julio, viola; Nicholas Johnson, cello
Matthias Nabahe – Todich’ii’nii – Catalyst Quartet
Kylie Kinsel – Morning Coffee – Catalyst Quartet
Rodney Yazzie – Posessed by Obscurity – ETHEL
Timira Scott – Seasonal Change – Catalyst Quartet
Mikell Yazzie – Untitled – Catalyst Quartet
Kirri Schaefer – Time Broke: It’s All About March – Catalyst Quartet
Ian Honnie – Scheria – Catalyst Quartet
Jireh Garcia – Gha’ha – Catalyst Quartet
Alexandre Banally-Begay – When Love is Kind – Catalyst Quartet
Harley Chee – Fallen Point – Catalyst Quartet
Christina Shupla – Always – Catalyst Quartet
Maria Macaraig – Where I Can’t Follow – Catalyst Quartet
Elijah Ben – Snowfall – Catalyst Quartet



















