ADMISSION & CAMPUS ACCESS:
Admission is free. Reservations are required. Campus access is limited to registered guests and USC students, staff, and faculty with current USC ID.

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DESCRIPTION:  
Award-winning composers Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) and Raven Chacon (Navajo) will play together, drawing from their respective practices and building upon their previous collaborations to create an experiential, improvisational live set of sound and movement. Ortman is a soloist musician, composer, and vibrant collaborator creating across multiple platforms, including recorded albums, live performances, and filmic and artistic soundtracks. Chacon is a Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, performer, and installation artist who has appeared on over 80 releases on national and international labels. The performance will be preceded by a conversation with USC Thornton School of Music professor Veronika Krausas exploring their creative processes​​​​​​.

Bios:  

A recording artist over the span of 22 years, Raven Chacon (Navajo) has exhibited, performed, or had works presented at LACMA, The Whitney Biennial, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, SITE Santa Fe, The Kennedy Center, and more. As an educator, Chacon is the senior composer mentor for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP). Originally from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation, he currently lives in Red Hook, NY, and Albuquerque, NM.  

An inquisitive and exquisite violinist, Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) is versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and amplified violin; often sings through a megaphone; and is a producer of capacious field recordings. She has collaborated with Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Raven Chacon, Nanobah Becker, Okkyung Lee, Martin Bisi, Jeffrey Gibson, Caroline Monnet, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Demian DinéYazhi, New Red Order, and In Defense of Memory, and has performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Guggenheim, MoMA in New York, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Artists Space, Venice Biennale, The Stone residency, The New Museum, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the Toronto Biennial, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, among countless established and DIY venues in the United States, Canada, and Europe.   

Presented by USC Visions and Voices during Trojan Family Weekend. Organized by the USC Thornton School of Music. Co-sponsored by the Native American Student Assembly.

Photos: Manuel Molina Maragón/Public Art Fund 2023