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2024 Convention Performers

Offering Private Lessons at
the Convention

www.maryyoungblood.com
Mary Youngblood
Featured Evening Performer
Mary Youngblood, half Seminole and half Aleut, is the first woman to professionally record the Native American flute, and the first Native American person to win two Grammy Awards for “Best Native American Music Album,” which makes Mary one of the premier Native American musicians in the country. She garnered the 2002 Grammy Award for her recording, Beneath the Raven Moon, and the 2006 Grammy Award for Dance with the Wind. She has a lifetime of musicianship behind her, beginning with piano lessons at age six and guitar at ten. Mary is also an accomplished classically-trained flutist. In addition, Mary is an Emmy nominee for the musical score to Spirit of Sacajawea.

When Mary performs, it takes only a moment to acknowledge the profound spirituality of the Native American flute and its historical courtship and wooing attributes. Her haunting music is much more than a song; it is both liquid poetry and a prayer.



 
Offering Private Lessons at the Convention


www.shawnheadmusic.com
Shawn Renzoh Head
Featured Evening Performer

With an active career as a shakuhachi soloist (Japanese bamboo flute), chamber musician, recording artist, and composer, Shawn Renzoh Head is at the forefront of Japanese traditional music and its expansion into the western world. His dedication and sincerity for the shakuhachi has been transcending borders through the commissioning of new works and performances in a multitude of mediums. A musician of meticulousness with an appetite for the new, and panache, Shawn Renzoh Head is committed to the shakuhachi as a vehicle of transcendental capabilities.



 

Hovia Edwards
Featured Evening Performer
Offering Private Lessons at
the Convention

www.melissakeeling.com
Dr. Melissa Keeling
Featured Evening Performer
Acclaimed for performing repertoire ranging from orchestral literature to electronic music, flutist, composer, and educator Dr. Melissa Keeling is based in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Her music has been described as "revelatory" (The Flutist Quarterly), "the most creative flute writing of 2018 next to Bjork ... a delight... stunning and moving” (The Flute View).  Dr. Keeling is a Trevor James International Flute Artist and an Endorsed Artist by K7K Sound. She has published two books: The Electric Flute: A Beginner’s Guide to Playing Flute with Effects (2002) and The Glissando Flute: Handbook for Composers and Performers (2020), which is the first method book for the Glissando Headjoint ever published.

 
Jan Michael Looking Wolf

with

Robin Gentlewolf
and
Joanne Lazzaro


Jan: Offering Private Lessons at the Convention
Rona Yellow Robe
Featured Evening Performer
Rona Yellow Robe is a 2014 and 2016 Native American Music Awards (NAMA) Flutist of the Year. She was born and raised in Havre, Montana, and is an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy, Montana. Rona is known for her powerful vocal ability, Native American flute style, and heart-filled presence. She picked up her first flute in 2002 and has been on a musical and spiritual journey ever since. It is by playing the Native American flute, which she refers to as her "other voice,” that she has become comfortable sharing with all audiences many aspects of her life that are personal and meaningful to her.


 
Offering Private Lessons at the Convention


www.ronayellowrobe.net
Peter Phippen
Summerland Ensemble
Featured Evening Perfomer
Over the past three decades and 25 albums, Peter Phippen’s experiential, natural folk style revealed a penchant for creative and artistic sonic improvisation. He has researched the history and performance technique of traditional flutes from around the world and throughout time. Phippen was the first non-Native American flutist signed to Canyon Records, which released his classic 2003 album, Night Song. Phippen is a Grammy Award nominee, International Acoustic Music Award nominee, multiple Native American Music Awards nominee, and a 2021 Native American-Style Flute Awards Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Phippen is a Projekt Records recording artist specializing in traditional flutes from around the world.





 
Eliyahu Sills
Featured Evening Performer

Classroom Presentation: TBA

www.eliyahusills.com

 
Michael Graham Allen
Coyote Oldman

 
Featured Evening Performer

Classroom Presentation: TBA


www.coyoteoldman.com
 
Dr. Andra Bohnet
Featured Evening Performer

Classroom Presentation: Everything Essential to
be Successful on Irish Flute and Whistle

www.andrabohnet.com
Bryan Akipa
Featured Evening Performer

Classroom Presentation: TBA

www.bryanakipa.com
Suzanne Teng and Gilbert Levy
Featured Evening Performers

www.mysticjourney.net

 
Ash Dargan
Didgeridoo
Featured Evening Performer

Listen
Marlon Magdalena
Afternoon Concert Series

Classroom Presentation: Indigenous Musical Instruments
of the American Southwest

www.marlonmagdalena.com
Russ Jones
Afternoon Concert Series
Jamie and Joe Empert
Afternoon Concert Series

Classroom Presentation: Learning to Read Nakai TABlature

www.jamieempertmusic.com
Sandi Horton
Afternoon Concert Series

Classroom Presentation: Collaborating With Other Artists

www.nativeflute4.wordpress.com
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