NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN features VIENTO! "This music is fresh in every sense of the word!" The First Native Classical Festival took place between October 5-8, 2006 at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, DC and featured CELLOVISION DUO (Dawn Avery - cellist/ vocalist/ composer and Tom McGrath (percussionist/ composer) performing works from their new CD entitled VIENTO. The performance and CD have received an especially enthusiastic reception! VIENTO began as a cello, voice and percussion project in 1992 with percussionist, Tom McGrath. Our duo, called CELLOVISION! performs and composes avant-garde music based on indigenous themes for various modern dance companies and music festivals around the world. Viento is based on and inspired by ancient cultures, including that of Native America (Navajo, Cheyenne, Pueblo, Mohawk), Peru (Quechua), Paraguay (Guarani), Guatemala (Mayan), Japan (Samurai), Iran (Persian Sufism), and Ancient Greece. The works employ contemporary extended vocals and instrumental techniques and have been described as “shamanic journeys”, “fresh in every sense of the word”, and a “style associated with Meredith Monk.” The music is emotional and dramatic; it breaks the rules of European traditional composition and performing while using traditional techniques; it takes risks while creating boundaries; it emits wildness without losing control. While some of the pieces contain the occasional short improvised “solo” section borrowed from world music and jazz, they are all scored classically. I have had the privilege of working closely with many choreographers and dancers. The works were collaborative in the truest sense of the word. Often we took the opportunity to develop pieces during the course of several weeks and hours of rehearsal. Although all the pieces continue to be performed live in a variety of settings, the dance companies will also perform with the recording. In describing the specific compositions, I have deliberately left out detailed descriptions of the choreography. The works can stand alone as a type of visual music to coin a phrase used in the first music and dance festival I performed for in Mexico called Musicales Visuales. MORE ABOUT DAWN AVERY: "Rarely are performers as at home at Lincoln Center as they are in a sweat lodge. Composer, cellist, vocalist, educator and Grammy-nominated performer Dawn Avery is equally comfortable in either. Working with musical luminaries from Luciano Pavarotti to Sting, Dawn has blazed her own trail. What began as a career in classical music turned into an exploration of the diversity and function of musical performance and in using music as a tool for deepending meditation and practical transformation." ... Virginia Prescott, NPR To learn more, please go to my website www.dawnavery.com MORE ABOUT TOM MCGRATH: Tom MCGrath has resided in New York City for the past 25 years, where he has performed, recorded and composed in a variety of settings. He toured with several dance companies, including the Manhattan Ballet Company, Mimi Garrard Dance Company and The Bang Group with David Parker. His talents have extended to playing contemporary classical music of John Cage and Lou Harrison at the Bang on A Can and Day of Percusson music festivals in NEw York, to touring with alternative folk and rock 'n' roll bands." To learn more about Tom go to his website: www.tommcgrath.com We would both like to thank the indigenous culture that we feel deeply attuned to, for their music that opens our heart and teaches us great things! Nia:weh, Dawn