Biography
Narrator and Host
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate is a classical composer, citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, and is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition.
Mr. Tate’s recent commissions include his bassoon concerto, Ghost of the White Deer for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Chickasaw oratorio, Misha’ Sipokni’ (The Old Ground), for Canterbury Voices and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic; and Ponca Indian Cantata for Hildegard Center for the Arts. His music was also recently featured on the HBO series Westworld.
His commissioned works have been performed by the National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Buffalo Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Canterbury Voices, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Colorado Ballet, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, and Santa Fe Desert Chorale.
Mr. Tate has held composer-in-residence positions with Music Alive; the Joyce Foundation/American Composers Forum; Oklahoma City’s NewView Summer Academy; Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation; and Grand Canyon Music Festival Native American Composer Apprentice Project. He was the founding composition instructor for the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy, and he has taught composition to American Indian high school students in Minneapolis, Toronto, and Hopi, Navajo, and Lummi reservations.
In addition to his work based upon his Chickasaw culture, Mr. Tate has worked with the music and language of multiple tribes such as Choctaw, Navajo, Cherokee, Ojibway, Creek, Pechanga, Comanche, Lakota, Hopi, Tlingit, Lenape, Tongva, Shawnee, Caddo, Ute, Aleut, Shoshone, Cree, Paiute, and Salish/Kootenai.
His recordings include Iholba’ (The Vision) for solo flute, orchestra, and chorus, and Tracing Mississippi, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, recorded by the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, on the Azica Records label.
Mr. 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. His 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 the ground on stilts to keep its contents safe from foraging animals.
Mr. Tate’s recent commissions include his bassoon concerto, Ghost of the White Deer for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Chickasaw oratorio, Misha’ Sipokni’ (The Old Ground), for Canterbury Voices and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic; and Ponca Indian Cantata for Hildegard Center for the Arts. His music was also recently featured on the HBO series Westworld.
His commissioned works have been performed by the National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Buffalo Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Canterbury Voices, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Colorado Ballet, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, and Santa Fe Desert Chorale.
Mr. Tate has held composer-in-residence positions with Music Alive; the Joyce Foundation/American Composers Forum; Oklahoma City’s NewView Summer Academy; Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation; and Grand Canyon Music Festival Native American Composer Apprentice Project. He was the founding composition instructor for the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy, and he has taught composition to American Indian high school students in Minneapolis, Toronto, and Hopi, Navajo, and Lummi reservations.
In addition to his work based upon his Chickasaw culture, Mr. Tate has worked with the music and language of multiple tribes such as Choctaw, Navajo, Cherokee, Ojibway, Creek, Pechanga, Comanche, Lakota, Hopi, Tlingit, Lenape, Tongva, Shawnee, Caddo, Ute, Aleut, Shoshone, Cree, Paiute, and Salish/Kootenai.
His recordings include Iholba’ (The Vision) for solo flute, orchestra, and chorus, and Tracing Mississippi, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, recorded by the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, on the Azica Records label.
Mr. 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. His 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 the ground on stilts to keep its contents safe from foraging animals.
