Vision Spirit Land: Honoring Native American Heritage and National Parks!

Glacier Symphony invites you to Vision Spirit Land, a powerful and breathtaking combination of classical orchestra performance, choreographed visual displays, poetry, and original composition in honor and celebration of Native American Heritage and the landscapes of Montana and beyond. Your concert experience will begin with ceremonial opening songs by Montana Blackfeet artist and 2023 Montana Teacher of the Year, Kevin KickingWoman, as a traditional welcome, blessing, and expression of gratitude for the concert and its audience. The symphony will perform Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus by Ralph Vaughan Williams as a photo-choreography visual display by Westwater Art’s entitled “Visions” projects the work and documentation by photographer Edward S. Curtis on overhead screens. 
 
Next up will be the premiere of The Hunting Moon by Glacier Symphony Artistic Director and Conductor, John Zoltek, which is a poem-cycle for speaker, flute soloist and orchestra. This new work is based on the poetry of Salish Kootenai poet and University of Montana professor, Dr. Heather Cahoon. The music incorporates spoken poetry from Cahoon’s work and includes Native American flute solos performed by world flutist, Suzanne Teng. The Hunting Moon contains 11 separate movements which incorporate nearly 15 poems and additional excerpts from Heather Cahoon’s published works. Heather Cahoon’s poems themselves are rich in natural imagery and speak to Native American spirituality, wildlife, reservation living, and Flathead Valley scenery. Zoltek has used these poems as an inspirational springboard to create a dynamic orchestral work. The poetic text will be projected above the orchestra so that the audience can follow along with the narration and make their own connections.
 
After intermission, the concert continues with two more photo-choreography projection pieces by Westwater Arts: “Reflections of the Spirit,” with Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber and “National Park Suite” set to music by Antonin' Dvorak. The photography and film clips will feature natural spaces sacred to First Peoples of the Americas and a brilliant overview of our shared National Parks.