Arturo Márquez
Apsáalooke hip-hop artist and fancy dancer Supaman brings Native American spiritual traditions to his performances.
PROGRAM NOTES
Danzón No. 4
1996
Arturo Márquez
b. 1950
Mexico native and son of a mariachi musician, Arturo Márquez was educated in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Paris, before resettling back in Mexico. Like the other two composers on this program, Márquez was educated in modernist classical styles fashionable at the time, but eventually Márquez chose to focus his output on the traditional music of his home country.
​
Márquez has composed nine danzones, a couple’s dance originating in Cuba and popular in certain regions of Mexico, which contrasts sensual passages for the dancers with virtuosic interludes by the musicians. Though not as raucous as the composer’s famous Danzón No. 2, Danzón No. 4 incorporates many of the same rhythmic and melodic touches while more closely capturing the intimacy of the chamber-like ensemble which historically accompanied this dance.
​
Inspirational Sounds
Fratres
1977
Arvo Pärt
b. 1935
Estonian composer Arvo Pärt also departed from the modernism of his education, instead developing a musical language inspired by early music, minimalism, and Christian mysticism that he called tintinnabuli, after a bell used in Ancient Roman and Catholic religious ceremonies.
He describes the style as “an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers – in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours,
I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning. The complex
and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises – and everything that is unimportant falls away.”
​
Reflecting Pärt’s interest in music of Medieval and Renaissance eras, Fratres (“Brothers”) was originally composed without a specific instrumentation in mind, and premiered by the early music ensemble Hortus Musicus. The work’s haunting stillness has made it one of Pärt’s most popular – indeed, one of the most popular classical compositions of the last 50 years by any composer – and has been used frequently in film. Pärt has adapted the work for almost 20 different ensemble types, including
the chamber orchestra version on this program.
Arvo Pärt
CONCERT SPONSORS
ADVERTISING & STREAMING SUPPORT BY KRTV
Christian Zeal & Activity
from American Standard
1973
John Adams
b. 1947
Like Pärt, John Adams’s compositional style skirts the edges of minimalism, in turns incorporating that style’s characteristic simplicity and rhythmic drive. Also like Pärt, Adams is among the most often performed living composers, particularly in the realms of opera and symphony orchestra. After his upbringing and education in New England, Adams has spent the bulk of his career based in San Francisco.
​
Originally conceived as the middle movement of American Standard, Christian Zeal and Activity has emerged as an independent concert work, more often played by itself than in its original context. Adams refers to it as a hymn, and in fact, the melodic material is formed from an extremely slow performance of “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” This musical material is overlaid with a spoken-word audio recording to be chosen by the performer, typically on a religious theme.
John Adams
Raise Em / Boom / Why
Freestyle / Prayer Loop /
Best Friend / Lil Love Remix
Supaman
As a member of the “Apsáalooke nation,” Supaman makes his home on the Crow reservation in Montana.
​
Supaman Is Christian Parrish Takes the Gun, a Native American dancer and innovative hip hop artist who has dedicated his life to empowering and spreading a message of hope, pride and resilience through his original art form.
​
He began DJing in the ’90s after hearing a Litefoot song. The two later toured together in 1999.
​
In the fourth grade, Christian began dancing at powwows. While in elementary school, he began to write poetry and later began to rap. He related to rap music because he felt he was going through the same issues that most artists were rapping about.
​
He took the name ‘Supaman’ at the spur of the moment in a DJ competition. A spiritual encounter led him to bend the influence hip-hop culture was having on him toward more meaningful and inspirational topics.
​
In 2003, he founded the Native American hip-hop group Rezawrecktion, whose first album, It’s Time, won a Native American Music Award in 2005. Since then, he has released four solo albums and received coverage and plaudits for the song Why? (featuring Acosia Red Elk).
​
In his hit track Prayer Loop Song, Supaman utilizes various instruments including the drum and the ute, all while beatboxing, rapping, and remixing Native tracks; His reasoning for the song and video was an audition tape for America’s Got Talent.
​
Alongside rapping, he also tours schools, where he educates students about Native American history and culture. Supaman is known for performing his music while wearing his traditional fancy dance outfit. He started doing this by accident when he was forced to do his musical performance right after he had performed a fancy dance while at a show for a school.
​
He performed live on MTV as part of a show featuring new artists. In 2013 his music and his fancy dancing skills were featured on a float for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
​
Supaman typically fuses spiritual concepts and ideas with his rap music. Supaman creates all of his albums by himself, doing everything from singing and writing the music to creating and designing the covers.
​
Prayer Loop Song and Why both have gone viral and have millions of views on YouTube and Facebook, putting him in high demand, touring extensively throughout the USA and internationally. He performed for Google at their headquarters in San Francisco. He was asked to audition for the Broadway play Hamilton.
​
Since releasing Gorilla in 2013, he has been featured on various songs and released Illuminatives in 2018, which features songs from his viral videos. He has been working with Taboo from the multi grammy-award winning group Black Eyed Peas.
​
Supaman is featured, with MAG7, in the Taboo video Stand Up / Stand N Rock #NoDAPL which won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Fight Against the System in 2017.
​
He has also been nominated for and received multiple awards for his work as a DJ, singer, rapper, and fancy dancer, including the Tuney Award, which he won seven times, the Aboriginal Peoples Music Choice Award (Canada) for best video, and the North America Indigenous Music Award.
​
His 2018 nominations brought him home awards for Best Hip Hop Album and Best Producer for the Indigenous Music Awards.
​
Supaman was a contributor to the Standing Rock protest in which the Taboo song he is featured in is about. During the movement, Supaman visited Standing Rock frequently to perform and speak.
​
Supaman’s one-of-a-kind presentation combines Native culture, comedy, and urban hip-hop culture, which dazzles audiences and captivates listeners. For this he has gained the respect of his community and generation.
​
The communicative talent, along with the compassion that exudes from his music, allows him to connect with people from all walks of life. His uncanny ability to motivate, encourage, and inspire through dance and hip-hop music keeps him at the forefront among his contemporaries, giving him a platform to educate on Indigenous issues.
​
Supaman
FOR SUBSCRIBERS
Free tickets will be available to 2019-2020 subscribers one week before the general public: APRIL 12 - 16. Due to the fact that we cannot guarantee seats this year, free tickets will be made available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC
Free tickets will be available to the general public (as capacity allows) one week prior to the live concerts: APRIL 19 - 23.
WHERE TO GET TICKETS
Pick up free tickets at the Mansfield Box Office:
M - F 11:00am to 4:30pm.
​
No phone or online ordering for non-subscribers.
To provide a more socially distanced concert, we will seat just 600 for the 3:00 performance.
1200 will be seated for the 7:30 concert.
​
Tickets and masks are required to be seated.