I spent the better part of the summer trying to connect with composer Connor Chee through my fingers.
I decided to try to learn to play the Diné (Navajo) composer's 2025 piano work "Echoes of Stone and Sky." (You can download the sheet music here.) I love its sense of place, rooted in Arizona’s canyon landscape. I love creating the sound effects of running water and ancient rock walls. While I was practicing, I sometimes felt like a condor with wings outstretched, touching the extreme edges of the keyboard. That's the way Chee crafts his expansive music. He embraces the whole instrument. The writing is athletic, poetic, and mixes the pulses of Navajo culture with the technical demands of any appealing classical piano work. (Chee studied at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.)
It's challenging. After three months of almost daily practice, I have to say that the piece is still a work in progress for me.
Fortunately for fans of Chee's music, the excellent pianist Roberta Rust has released a new recording of works by Indigenous American composers Chee and Louis W. Ballard (Quapaw/Cherokee).
It's called "Female Rain."
On the new album, you'll hear Ballard's ballet 'The Four Moons,' showcasing four Oklahoma tribes: Shawnee, Choctaw, Osage, and Cherokee.
Louis W. Ballard, who passed in 2007, lived on the border of two disparate cultures, and his compositions reflect Native traditions in the language of classical music. His music is intricate and rewarding.
Chee's is fresh and uplifting. His music includes traditional Navajo chants, melodies, and rhythms woven into contemporary piano works he calls "Vocables."
I invite you to listen and explore these wonderful landscapes yourself in Roberta Rust's album Female Rain, Indigenous American Piano Music, as our CD Spotlight on WXXI Classical. You can also find the whole album streaming online.
