Summermusik’s We Are One series showcases Native American and Asian Indian artistic responses to the world’s most vital natural resource.
We Are One: Water runs March 21-25 with music, dance, film and presentations by area environmental and cultural groups, including two family-friendly events. Most performances are free. Featured performers include SCPA and CCM alumnus Connor Chee, Lakota hoop dancer Starr Chief Eagle and award-winning filmmaker and dancer Padma Chebrolu.
“This series’ mission is amplifying under-consulted voices in our community,” says Summermusik Executive Director Evan Gidley. “Although there are no federally recognized tribes in this area, many folks have Native American ancestry.”
Gidley reached out to the Urban Native Collective, a Cincinnati organization working to cultivate knowledge about Native American history in local and regional communities as a resource for programming.
“We wanted to create programming that was authentic and had meaning,” Gidley says. “Water emerged as a theme that had resonance for the UNC members and there were ties to the Asian Indian community who participated in last year’s Summermusik Festival.”
The series opener, “Passage of the River” on March 21, combines Chebrolu’s films with a live interactive dance performance of traditional Asian Indian music and commentary at the Evendale Cultural Arts Center, with a pre-concert performance by students from Cincinnati Music Village.
Chebrolu created a series of short documentaries of her dancing by the Ohio River in Augusta, Kentucky. Gidley says the films create a powerful story of water and its connection to spirituality in Asian Indian culture and that Native American cultures also share deep spiritual and emotional ties with water.
“We’ll show short excerpts of the film, Padma will do dance demonstrations with live musicians, and we’ll end with her teaching simple dance moves to the audience,” Gidley says.
Chee returns for a series of programs, beginning with a public masterclass on March 22 at First Unitarian Church in Avondale, and performs his own compositions and works by Native American composers in two other concerts.
“Connor beautifully integrates his culture into Western classical forms,” says Daniel Parsley, Summermusik’s associate conductor. “His transcriptions of Navajo melodies are amazing, blending two heritages and styles into something unique.”
Born in Page, Arizona, Chee moved to Cincinnati with his family to attend SCPA.
“I grew up in a small town in northern Arizona and my parents had to make a two-hour drive each way to Flagstaff for piano lessons,” he recalls. “My mom’s from Cincinnati and she knew about SCPA. She encouraged me to apply, and I was accepted when I was in fourth grade.”
At the age of 12, Chee played Carnegie Hall after winning a gold medal in the World Piano Competition’s Junior Division. He went on to study at the Eastman School of Music and returned to CCM for a master’s degree.
Chee says he didn’t think about synthesizing his cultural heritage with Western classical music until he spent time with his grandfather on the Tonalea Chapter of the Navajo Nation.
“He knew traditional chants, ceremonies and history, and I wanted to find a way to preserve some of those songs that are getting lost,” he explains. “Spending time with him led me to this personal preservation project, taking some of the melodies he would sing and setting them for piano.
“My path veered toward creating original works that attempt to incorporate parts of the culture and traditional philosophies. It took me in a completely different direction.”
Chee and a Summermusik string quartet will commemorate World Water Day on the evening of March 22 with a concert at the Fitton Center for the Arts in Hamilton. Logan York of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma will also be at the event to lead a pre-concert discussion on the history of Native American culture in the Greater Cincinnati area.
The program includes works by Mohawk composer Dawn Avery and Chickasaw member Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Chee knows both composers and looks forward to playing Avery’s “The Waters, The Women” for the first time.
On March 23, Chee joins the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Lakota hoop dancer Starr Chief Eagle for a free family concert at Christ Church Cathedral downtown. Tate’s Spirit Chief Names the Animal People combines storytelling and Starr Chief Eagle’s dancing to tell the story of how the salmon, the bear and the eagle were assigned their own realms, narrated by Cate Donahue from the Urban Native Collective.
The concluding concert at the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Fath Auditorium on March 25 confronts the challenges of water conservation from cultural and environmental perspectives. Reena Esmail’s Malhaar: A Requiem caps off an evening of choral and string quartet works and a panel discussion with staff from the Cincinnati Nature Center, Mill Creek Alliance and WAVE Foundation.
Esmail is an Indian American composer known for her vocal and choral works intertwining traditional Hindustani instruments and vocal techniques with Western classical forms.
“It’s a fascinating, really cool work,” says Gidley. “Hindustani vocalist Vidita Kanniks and tabla player Jim Feist will play throughout, along with a 16-voice chorus of professional singers”
Parsley adds that Esmail addresses water’s duality as a life force and a life threat. “Using the form of the requiem, she puts the two together as a tribute to water.”
The Saturday evening concert at the Fitton Center for the Arts is a ticketed event. All other programs are free and require advance registration.
Gidley and Parsley hope to see new participants in the audiences and affirm a commitment to We Are One’s vision.
“We are a wonderful arts organization, but what does that mean if the only things we do are in a concert hall? How do we engage more people and redefine what classical music is?” Parsley says. “Jerod Tate and Reena Esmail are in that conversation. We’re engaging under-consulted communities and artists so we can address a holistic vision of what this can be.”
“I love it when groups of people are in a room together who would not otherwise be there,” Gidley adds. “It’s rewarding not just having people show up but also having interaction and a learning experience as well.”
Summermusik presents We Are One: Water from March 21-25. For more information, visit summermusik.org.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s March 5 print edition.
This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.
