Raven Chacon (born 1977) is a Diné-American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, musician and artist. Born in

Fort Defiance, Arizona Fort Defiance ( nv, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Apache County, Arizona, United States. It is also located within the Navajo Nation. The population was 3,624 at the 2010 census. History The land on which Fort Defiance was eventu ...

within the

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native American reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah; at roughly , the ...

, Chacon became the first Native American to win a

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted i ...

, for his '' Voiceless Mass'' in 2022. He has also been a solo performer of

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical ...

and worked with groups such as

Postcommodity Postcommodity, a Southwest Native American Artist collective, was founded in 2007 by Kade Twist and Steve Yazzie Their name refers to the "commodity era" of Native American art trading in the late 1800s and 1900s, with the "post" being in refere ...

Life and career

Raven Chacon was born in 1977 in

, US within the

. He attended the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

, where he obtained his BA in Fine Arts in 2001, then received an MFA in music composition from the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

. He was a student of

James Tenney James Tenney (August 10, 1934 – August 24, 2006) was an American composer and music theorist. He made significant early musical contributions to plunderphonics, sound synthesis, algorithmic composition, process music, spectral music, microtonal ...

Morton Subotnick Morton Subotnick (born April 14, 1933) is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his 1967 composition '' Silver Apples of the Moon'', the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch. He was one of the foun ...

Michael Pisaro Michael Pisaro (born 1961 in Buffalo, New York) is a guitarist and composer. A member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, he has composed over 80 works for a great variety of instrumental combinations, including several pieces for variable in ...

and

Wadada Leo Smith Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Free ...

. Chacon's visual and sonic artwork has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad. His room-sized sound and text installation, ''Still Life, #3'' (2015), was exhibited in the ''Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound'' exhibition at the

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

, New York. His collective and solo work has been presented at

Sydney Biennale The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and ...

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

, the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

documenta 14 documenta 14 was the fourteenth edition of the art exhibition documenta and took place in 2017 in both Kassel, Germany, its traditional home, and Athens, Greece. It was held first in Athens from 8 April to 16 July, and in Kassel from 10 June ...

, Adelaide International,

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...

, ASU Art Museum,

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex. Founded in 1964, it is ...

, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, the

Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...

Chaco Canyon Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a concentration of pueblos. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote ca ...

, and

Performance Today ''Performance Today'' is a Peabody Award-winning classical music radio program, first aired in 1987 and hosted since 2000 by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million liste ...

. Chacon also performs in the groups KILT with Bob Bellerue, Mesa Ritual with William Fowler Collins, Endlings with John Dieterich, and collaborations with Laura Ortman. In 2016, he was commissioned by

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...

to compose a work for their ''Fifty For The Future'' project. Chacon serves as Composer-in-Residence with the

Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project Founded in 2001, the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project (NACAP) is an outreach program of the Grand Canyon Music Festival that is dedicated to teaching Native American young people to compose concert music. Each year, young musici ...

. In 2012, he was awarded a

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...

Visual Arts grant. In 2014, he was honored with a

Native Arts and Cultures Foundation The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports Native American artists, culture bearers, and Native-led arts organizations, providing them with support through fellowships and project funding. ...

National Artist Fellowship in Music. In 2018, Chacon was awarded the Berlin Prize by the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...

. In 2022, Chacon became the first Native American to win the

, which he received for his composition '' Voiceless Mass''.

Postcommodity

Chacon was a member of the Native American art collective,

, with whom he has developed multimedia installations which have been exhibited internationally. Other members include Cristóbal Martínez, Kade L. Twist, Steven Yazzie and Nathan Young. In 2017, as part of Postcommodity, Chacon created the multimedia project, ''...in memoriam'', in Edmonton in 2017, curated by Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective.Postcommodity, Alex Waterman and Ociciwan: “in memoriam…”
uh books. 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2018

Personal life

Chacon lives in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

, and is married to

Candice Hopkins Candice Hopkins (born 1977) is a Carcross/Tagish First Nation independent curator, writer, and researcher who predominantly explores areas of indigenous history, and art. Early life and education Candice Hopkins was born 1977 in Whitehorse, Yuk ...

, a

Tagish The Tagish or Tagish Khwáan ( Tagish: ; tli, Taagish ḵwáan) are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group that lived around Tagish Lake and Marsh Lake, in Yukon of Canada. The Tagish intermarried heavily with ...

curator. His sister Nani Chacon is a muralist.

Awards and honors

Chacon has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the 2022

, an

Prize (music composition), a

award (visual arts), a

United States Artists United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards. Mission The organization' ...

fellowship (music), a

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

fellowship, a

artist fellowship, among others. Chacon received the inaugural

Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

Artist-in-Residence fellowship for the

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College (FAC) is an arts center located just north of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. Located on the same city block are the American Numismatic Association and part of the campus of Colorado ...

Colorado College Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduates at its campus. The college offer ...

Partial discography

* (w/ OvO) Crisalide Fossile (Bronson, 2016) * (w/ Postcommodity) Your New Age Dream Contains More Blood Than You Can Imagine 12"LP (Anarchymoon, 2011) * (w/ Bob Bellerue) Kitchen Sorcery (Prison Tatt Records, 2011) * At The Point Where The Rivers Crossed, We Drew Our Knives 12"LP (Anarchymoon, 2010) * Black Streaked Hum (Lightning Speak/Featherspines, 2009) * Overheard Songs ( Innova, 2006) * (split w/ Torturing Nurse) The Incredible 17000 km Split (8K Mob, 2006) * (w/ Jeff Gburek) Jesus Was A Wino (Herbal Records, 2005) * Still/life (Sicksicksick, 2004) * (Meet the Beatless, (Sicksicksick, 2003)

References

External links

*
Fellow Spotlight: Raven Chacon
at the

2022 Pulitzer Prizes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chacon, Raven 1977 births Living people People from Fort Defiance, Arizona Navajo artists Navajo musicians Native American composers 21st-century classical composers California Institute of the Arts alumni 21st-century American composers American male classical composers American classical composers 21st-century American male musicians 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans Pulitzer Prize for Music winners