Brent Michael Davids (b. 1959)

“If we can excite creativity and cooperation in each other, we have accomplished a magnificent thing,” says Brent Michael Davids. Brent is a member of the Mohican nation, with the Mohican name of “Blue Butterfly.” Trained in the western musical tradition, his music bridges the two cultures that form his heritage.

Brent Michael Davids was born in 1959, in Madison, Wisconsin. In early childhood, his family relocated to Chicago, where his Mohican father, born and raised on the Stockbridge Munsee Reservation, was employed by Bell Telephone. His mother is of English ancestry, and can trace her family back to the first arrivals on the Mayflower.

Brent’s mother was a choral director and music teacher. When Brent was, she made him sit down and learn the piano. At the time, he rebelled against her strict musical discipline, but in later years he was grateful for that early grounding in music theory. He became an accomplished pianist and began to specialize in the flute. Brent’s life was split between Chicago and the traditional life of the reservation at Stockbridge Munsee. He absorbed vital influences from both.

When he graduated from high school, Brent knew his future was as a performing musician and as a composer. He studied composition at Northern Illinois State University and continued his research at the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University. Since graduating with a master’s degree in 1992, he has developed his own individual voice as a composer, and has achieved international success. As David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet has said, “Nobody else in the world can write music like that.”

Brent Michael Davids has written for the concert hall, the theater and the ballet, as well as for film and television. His vocal/choral works range from intimate pieces like Viola Jokes, for singer and viola, to massive works like We The People (2004), scored for full orchestra and 200-voice choir and created to celebrate the opening of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. In the course of this extraordinary work, the indigenous peoples of North America name themselves in their own ways and in their own languages: We Sun People, We Earth People, We Wind People, We Water People, We Desert People, We Mountain People, We Fire People, We Bird People, We Animal People. We The People is a celebration of over 500 distinct and vital human cultures.

Brent’s chamber works have been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and the Miro String Quartet, and performed all over the world. His film scores include Bright Circle, From Moccasins to Sneakers, and Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer. He is currently at work on Standing Bear, which he describes as “the first all-Indian opera.” He is also in great demand as a virtuoso flautist. He performs not only on a standard concert flute, but on various traditional Native American flutes made from reeds and indigenous woods. Brent’s most remarkable instrument is the quartz flute, which produces a haunting purity of tone uniquely appropriate to his music.

Brent Michael Davids’ life and art are a testament to the continuing richness and vitality of Native American culture. He is a tireless activist for the social, political, and professional rights of Native Americans, and is a familiar and popular figure at powwows, universities and lecture halls all over the country.