Composer Dawn Avery’s short operas, Trials and Tears and Sacajawea: Women of Many Names, set NYC premiere

Native Voices Karenna—Lay Our Vibration Down, presented by Cooper Union’s Gardiner Foundation Great Hall Forum, will premiere two short operas on Thursday, Nov. 5. 

By Hannah Loub, Digital Editor

The operas, Trials and Tears and Sacajawea: Women of Many Names, are both by Grammy-nominated cellist-composer Dawn Avery, of Mohawk descent. 

Trials and Tears, a collaboration between Avery and multidisciplinary artist Ty Defoe, Oneida and Ojibwe, is in response to Benny Andrews’ 2005 painting, “Trail of Tears.” It depicts the dark chapters of American history: forcing Indigenous people to resettle and the trials that resulted in the incarceration of minorities.

Sacajawea: Women of Many Names aims to remove Sacajawea from Western depictions about her life, instead portraying her from the perspective of her Shoshone ancestral traditions. It is a collaboration between Avery and librettist Blake Hill-Saya, of Waccamaw Sioux descent, with input from Francesca Mason Boring, Shoshone advisor and elder. 

Danielle Olana Jagelski, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe, serves as musical director. Performers include baritone Jarrod Lee; lyric tenor Bo Shimmon, Pueblo of Acoma; and mezzo-soprano Kate Morton, Cherokee. 

Avery, who has worked with artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, and R. Carlos Nakai, is a composer and professor at Montgomery College in Maryland. She received her doctorate in ethnomusicology and focuses on the Indigenization of composition and performance.

The premiere will be held at The Great Hall at Cooper Union, Foundation Building, 7 E. Seventh St., New York, NY from 7-8:30 ET. While free to attend, please register here.