Post by blackcrowheart on Aug 30, 2006 15:52:17 GMT -5
Symphony, Bill Miller to team on new project
www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/08/24/1827089.htm
<http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/08/24/1827089.htm> (La Crosse
Tribune (Wisconsin)(KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Aug. 24--Grammy
Award winner Bill Miller and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra are
working on what the Amer-ican Indian musician terms a joint "healing"
project that will debut in La Crosse in 2008.
<http://oascentral.tmcnet.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.tmcnet.com/\
key-voip/215526341/Middle/TMCnet/IMS-Expo_330x280-Adbox_4-13-06/ims-330x\
280-article-ad-box.gif/33653036386230613434656539653930?>
Miller, a Stockbridge Mohican who started his music career in La Crosse,
said Wednesday the project will include his own symphony, "The Last
Stand," and a program that will be done in La Crosse-area high schools.
"I want kids to look at the American Indian culture quite differently,
and I want this project to bring about hope, peace and healing," Miller
said.
Miller said the project has been three years in the works. He said he
finished a 25-minute symphony with orchestrator Kristin Wilkinson of
Nashville that is based on the historical events of the Battle of Little
Bighorn, often referred to as Custer's Last Stand.
"It was a bittersweet victory for the Indians, and it was the only
battlefield named for the loser (Custer's Battlefield)," he said. "But
what followed was horrific for our people."
Miller played his Native American flute at a 1992 ceremony renaming the
site as the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
"I had never seen a musical piece dedicated to that battle," he said,
"and I thought, 'Why not a symphony, and have the premiere in La Crosse,
where we have established ties and a collaboration?' Everything in my
life, to my family and career, started here, so why not have this
project here?"
Miller appeared in a concert collaboration between the Ho-Chunk Nation
and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra in May 2005, not long after he won
the Grammy Award for best Native American music album.
"The Last Stand" symphony will use orchestra, vocalists, dancers and
multimedia images, Miller said. The piece expresses the hardships,
challenges and mutual respect of both sides in the battle, the tragic
outcome and the start of healing for all people, he said.
"There was no reconciliation and healing after the battle, which hurt
our people for generations," Miller said. "This project will be the
beginning. Racism is still alive, but we're one human race, and it's
time for peace and hope."
Miller said he hopes to take the symphonic piece across the country and
has dreams about an HBO production and a performance at the battlefield.
"Through art, I think we can achieve the healing we need and long for,"
he said.
He's in the middle of painting a 46-by-64-foot canvass of a warrior in
eagle feather dress with his arms wide open -- and soldiers on one side
and Indians on the other side in retelling the story of the battle.
Miller said high school artists and writers will add to the canvas and
create their own artwork "that will speak about their own 'last stand.'"
"This is a project that will touch the community, and it will help in
the healing process," said Connie Knutson, the La Crosse Symphony
Orchestra executive director. "The school project will help educate
another generation."
More Miller
Bill Miller's "The Last Stand" symphony will have its world premiere
with the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra in late April or early May 2008.
Miller will join Vince Gill in a live PBS concert Sept. 11 marking the
100th anniversary of Oklahoma statehood. He'll also open for the band
Lynyrd Skynyrd on Sept. 3 in Copper Mountain, Colo.
www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/08/24/1827089.htm
<http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/08/24/1827089.htm> (La Crosse
Tribune (Wisconsin)(KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Aug. 24--Grammy
Award winner Bill Miller and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra are
working on what the Amer-ican Indian musician terms a joint "healing"
project that will debut in La Crosse in 2008.
<http://oascentral.tmcnet.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.tmcnet.com/\
key-voip/215526341/Middle/TMCnet/IMS-Expo_330x280-Adbox_4-13-06/ims-330x\
280-article-ad-box.gif/33653036386230613434656539653930?>
Miller, a Stockbridge Mohican who started his music career in La Crosse,
said Wednesday the project will include his own symphony, "The Last
Stand," and a program that will be done in La Crosse-area high schools.
"I want kids to look at the American Indian culture quite differently,
and I want this project to bring about hope, peace and healing," Miller
said.
Miller said the project has been three years in the works. He said he
finished a 25-minute symphony with orchestrator Kristin Wilkinson of
Nashville that is based on the historical events of the Battle of Little
Bighorn, often referred to as Custer's Last Stand.
"It was a bittersweet victory for the Indians, and it was the only
battlefield named for the loser (Custer's Battlefield)," he said. "But
what followed was horrific for our people."
Miller played his Native American flute at a 1992 ceremony renaming the
site as the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
"I had never seen a musical piece dedicated to that battle," he said,
"and I thought, 'Why not a symphony, and have the premiere in La Crosse,
where we have established ties and a collaboration?' Everything in my
life, to my family and career, started here, so why not have this
project here?"
Miller appeared in a concert collaboration between the Ho-Chunk Nation
and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra in May 2005, not long after he won
the Grammy Award for best Native American music album.
"The Last Stand" symphony will use orchestra, vocalists, dancers and
multimedia images, Miller said. The piece expresses the hardships,
challenges and mutual respect of both sides in the battle, the tragic
outcome and the start of healing for all people, he said.
"There was no reconciliation and healing after the battle, which hurt
our people for generations," Miller said. "This project will be the
beginning. Racism is still alive, but we're one human race, and it's
time for peace and hope."
Miller said he hopes to take the symphonic piece across the country and
has dreams about an HBO production and a performance at the battlefield.
"Through art, I think we can achieve the healing we need and long for,"
he said.
He's in the middle of painting a 46-by-64-foot canvass of a warrior in
eagle feather dress with his arms wide open -- and soldiers on one side
and Indians on the other side in retelling the story of the battle.
Miller said high school artists and writers will add to the canvas and
create their own artwork "that will speak about their own 'last stand.'"
"This is a project that will touch the community, and it will help in
the healing process," said Connie Knutson, the La Crosse Symphony
Orchestra executive director. "The school project will help educate
another generation."
More Miller
Bill Miller's "The Last Stand" symphony will have its world premiere
with the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra in late April or early May 2008.
Miller will join Vince Gill in a live PBS concert Sept. 11 marking the
100th anniversary of Oklahoma statehood. He'll also open for the band
Lynyrd Skynyrd on Sept. 3 in Copper Mountain, Colo.