About the Composer
Praised and honored for “his ability to effectively infuse classical music with American Indian nationalism” (Washington Post), Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, born in Norman, Oklahoma, is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition.
In 2016, Tate was selected as one of five composer-orchestra pairs to participate in Music Alive, a national three-year residency program of the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA. As Composer-in-Residence with South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (SDSO), Tate will be participating in the third phase of SDSO’s Lakota Music Project.
His commissioned works have been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Canterbury Voices, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Colorado Ballet, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Philadelphia Classical Symphony and Santa Fe Desert Chorale. He is a three-time commission recipient from the American Composers Forum and he received a 2011 Emmy Award for his work on the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority documentary, The Science of Composing.
Tate earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance from Northwestern University and his Master’s Degree in Piano Performance and Composition from The Cleveland Institute of Music, from whom he received the 2006 Alumni Achievement Award. In 2008, he was appointed Creativity Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma.
Works available are Iholba’ (The Vision), for Solo Flute, Orchestra and Chorus and Tracing Mississippi, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, recorded by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, on the Grammy Award winning label Azica Records.
Tate’s recent commissions include his Muscogee Hymn Suite for Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, his Ponca Indian Cantata for Hildegard Center for the Arts and his Chickasaw oratorio, Misha’ Sipokni’ (The Old Ground), for Canterbury Voices and Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Tate has held Composer-in-Residence roles for Oklahoma City’s NewView Summer Academy, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Joyce Foundation/American Composers Forum and Grand Canyon Music Festival Native American Composer Apprentice Project. Tate was the founding composition instructor for the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy and taught composition to American Indian high school students in Minneapolis, MN and Native students in Toronto, Ontario.
Mr. Tate’s middle name, Impichchaachaaha’, means “his 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 of the ground on stilts to keep its contents safe from foraging animals.
Biography from http://jerodtate.com/about/
