Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies & Indigenous Roots
Based in Argentina, the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies (OIINT) recovers and brings to life hundreds of forgotten Indigenous musical instruments. Based in Minnesota, Indigenous Roots provides accessible space and programming for holistic wellbeing through Indigenous arts, culture, and tradition. For Recomposing America, ACF is partnering with Indigenous Roots to host a Minnesota performance by OIINT.
About the Performance
“Hidden Sounds of the Americas” is an audiovisual journey through the sound geography from Alaska to Patagonia featuring traditional music and contemporary compositions. Through a multimedia display, the Orchestra unites ancestral sounds with electronic technologies as well as Native dances and masks of the Americas. The concert will feature replicas of unknown pre-Columbian instruments recovered by the Orchestra from archaeological museums and Indigenous communities in the Amazonas, the Andes, and Mesoamerica.
About the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies
Described by the international press as a “shamanic orchestra of the technological age” and “a living museum of sound,” the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies recovers and brings to artistic life hundreds of forgotten Indigenous musical instruments. The Orchestra is based on the concept of the “complete artist,” combining the multidisciplinary skills of researcher, luthier, performer, composer, technologist, and sculptor of native masks. It has presented its work recovering Indigenous sources on all five continents, creating the world’s most important collection of native American instruments still in use, which has been featured in numerous exhibitions during its tours.
About Indigenous Roots
Indigenous Roots Cultural Center (IRoots) is a coalition of artists, culture bearers, business owners, cultural groups and organizations dedicated to building, supporting and cultivating opportunities for and with Brown, Black, Native, and Indigenous Peoples through cultural arts and activism. The organization provides accessible space and programming to promote and practice holistic well being through Indigenous arts, culture, and tradition. In May of 2017, the Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center opened as an incubator space for artists, cultural groups and organizations dedicated to building, supporting and cultivating opportunities for Native, Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples.
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists and culture bearers thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s arts and culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists and culture bearers has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines.
Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit mcknight.org/artistfellowships.