Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (photo by Shevaun Williams)
While we often think of classical music as the historical product of western European culture, there are in fact classical composers and musicians today who are transforming the genre to include influences from other cultures and traditions. For example,
Meet Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate
- A native of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma — 2022 Chickasaw Hall of Fame inductee
- A 2000 graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music — 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient
- A composer and conductor, who most recently returned to Ohio in September 2023 to conduct his composition “Clans” with the Akron Symphony Orchestra
- He was selected by The Washington Post as one of 22 for ’22: Composers and Performers to Watch This Year, raving that “Tate is rare as an American Indian composer of classical music. Rarer still is his ability to effectively infuse classical music with American Indian nationalism.”
- Grew up among a lot of art, as his father was a classically trained pianist and baritone, and his mother was a choreographer and dancer
- Tate’s middle name, Impichchaachaaha', means “their high corncrib” and is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name. A corncrib is a small hut used for the storage of corn and other vegetables. In traditional Chickasaw culture, the corncrib was built high off the ground on stilts to keep its contents safe from foraging animals.
- Initially struggled to see the connections between his identities as a classical musician and a Chickasaw man, but was invited by his mother to compose a score for her ballet based on American Indian stories - and suddenly everything began to align
- Some of his work incorporates orchestral music, storytelling, mythology, children’s choruses, and dancers dressed in traditional Chickasaw regalia.
- Inspired — in part — by the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, who was one of the founders of ethnomusicology (the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it)
- As part of his practice, Tate listens to and gathers music from members of his nation and then transcribes the sounds and melodies into his compositions.
- Also a dedicated teacher, Tate works with American Indian students as the founder of the Chickasaw Chamber Music Festival and the founding instructor of the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy.
- Appointed Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. Department of State in 2021
- In 2024-2025, will be a composer-in-residence with CityMusic Cleveland to premiere a new work for solo soprano and chamber orchestra titled “Kokumthena (Our Grandmother)”
- Records regularly with Azica Records, a Grammy Award-winning label based here in Cleveland
- For more information, check out his website.
