Dawn Avery

Dawn Avery's Mohawk name is Ieriho:kwats and she wears the turtle clan. Composer, cellist, vocalist, educator, GRAMMY and NAMA nominated performer Dawn Avery has worked with musical luminaries Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, John Cale, John Cage, R. Carlos Nakai and Joanne Shenandoah. She's toured around the world playing Delta Blues with the Soldier String Quartet, Persian Funk with Sussan Deyhim, and opera with the New York City Opera Company. Her own music spans from orchestral to downtempo.

Contents

• Bridging traditions r carlos nakai with dawn avery and guests
• Hohonkweta ka ionse by dawn avery dawn avery and r carlos nakai live at montgomery college
• Works
• 50 Shades of Red
• Our Fire
• Alchemy
• True
• Selected Recordings
• References

Dawn's music can be heard on several award-winning films, including: “Basquiat,” the Smithsonian’s “Always Becoming” by Nora Naranjo-Morse, several Rich/Heape Films and "Tadpole" featuring John Ritter and Susan Sarandon. Her most recent project and recording 50 Shades of Red features music, dance, film, and ritual. Tara Gatewood of “Native America Calling” said this downtempo work is a new genre in Native American music.

Committed to Indigenous language and cultural preservation as a musician, educator and participant of Longhouse ceremonies, she leads workshops and produces projects as part of the Native Composer’s Project. Dawn Avery's Mohawk name is Ieriho:kwats and she wears the turtle clan. Our Fire: Contemporary Native American Song won several nominations in the Indian Summer Awards, New Mexico Music Awards, and Native American Music Awards.

Dawn’s exploration of sacred music led her to study the relationship between music and spirituality. She has led meditation groups and spiritual music performances at the Esalen Institute, the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, Milan Sacred Music Festival, The Open Center in NYC, and Musicales Visuales in Mexico City. As a leader of meditation and creativity workshops, she has worked with great healers such as the Dalai Lama, Rick Jarow, Ron Young, and Hilda Charleton. Rapidly Approaching Ecstasy: Music for Movement and Meditation features world grooves on the Hindu chakras along with a guided visualization track. Alchemy: Music for Meditation features tracks with various world music artists in duets with Dawn on cello and voice.

With all of her commercial success as an individual artist, she has also collaborated on famous pieces, even receiving a Grammy nomination for her works as a vocalist and cellist on Grover Washington's album "Breath of Heaven", released in 1997. It was released as a Christmas collaboration of many artists, with the main focal point on Washington's soprano saxophone. The album also featured Billy Childs on the piano, a renown jazz pianist that has multiple pieces charting #1 on the jazz album billboards.

In addition to touring her most recent downtempo project 50 Shades of Red, Dawn Avery tours with the North American Indian Cello Project, in which she premieres contemporary classical works by Native composers. She has collected awards for her classical works from Duke University, NYU, Meet the Composer, among others. She recently completed her doctoral degree in ethnomusicology on Native Classical composition and Indigenous theory. Nurturing future generations, Dawn Avery is a professor at Montgomery College. She was awarded the 2012 United States Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.