Kirsten C. Kunkle said when she heard her 4-year-old daughter break into song it made her excited and proud.
It’s no big deal to hear a child, teen, adult, or any human being sing, but Kunkle noticed that song was the one she had composed and hadn’t yet performed it publicly.
More than that, the little girl sang some of the words in the Mvsoke — Muscogee — language.
Trey Clegg , the director and founder of the Trey Clegg Singers, a multicultural chorus based in Atlanta, commissioned the choral work, “Mvskokvkvle, Este’ Cate,” which means “Muscogee People, Native People,” from Kunkle, a soprano born in Toledo, raised in Fremont, and residing in Sandusky, who is a citizen of the Muscogee tribe based on her mother’s lineage.
Her choral work will premiere Sunday in the historic First Congregational Church in Atlanta at 3 p.m. Other music from indigenous Americans and sung in other native languages will be included in the program. A member of the indigenous Cherokee Nation, flutist Amanda Johnson , will be the featured instrumentalist.
Kunkle wrote both the music and the lyrics to this acapella choral piece, which she is says is about 5 to 6 minutes long.
“It is not an easy thing, but it is something that I think, when executed well will be extremely powerful,” she said.
Composing is relatively new to Kunkle, only starting a little more than three years ago to mine her talent.
According to her website, kirstenckunkle.com , she “has commissioned and premiered 16 original compositions, including one of her own, based upon the poetry of her ancestor and highly-acclaimed poet of the Native American Muscogee Nation, Alex Posey.”
In the summer of 2021, Kunkle composed and performed “Reclaim the Land” in a concert at Yellowstone National Park’s 150th birthday for the Yellowstone Revealed program at the All Nations Teepee Village.
She said that Clegg had received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to do a season of indigenous choral music.
But, she said, “he quickly realized there isn't a whole lot of it.”
That’s because, Kunkle said, during the assimilation policies in the decades after the Civil War, the goal was to destroy and erase all traces of tribal culture to force indigenous people to basically, “fit in.”
So Clegg commissioned a piece by Kunkle to feature the Trail of Tears, when the Muscogee people native to Alabama, Georgia, and northern Florida, and four other tribes were forcibly removed from their homeland — including what is now Atlanta.
During the summer and winter of 1836 and 1837, the tribes made the three-month, 800 miles by land and 400 by water, journey to Oklahoma.
“I thought, this is something that is really about the culture, and I think there's going to be some humanity, so I decided to write an eight-part a cappella voice choral piece,” Kunkle said. “It's all about Muscogee heritage and talks about the old land in Georgia, ... a new home in Oklahoma, and then coming back to Georgia.”
The piece says, “We are still here, we are still here. … We would not be here and be able to tell these stories if we hadn’t endured the Trail of Tears, if our mother’s mothers had held their tongues.”
“And I meant that in two ways,” she said in an interview with mvskokemedia.com . “You know, they kept to themselves and did what they had to do to survive. But they also kept our language, which was so important. And language is the key to culture in so many ways.”
But the Muscogee did return to Georgia. That occurred July 9, 2021, said a news release from the Muscogee Nation, “on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, McGirt vs. Oklahoma , confirming the sovereignty and territorial boundaries of the Muscogee Nation.”
In a simple yet thrilling act, a Muscogee flag was planted on Georgia soil, soil that her ancestors once called home.
Kunkle, who has been studying the Muscogee language and teaching it to her daughter, hopes that by giving Native Americans a voice in classical music literature, more of it will be played in more settings.
She acknowledges, though, the responsibility she has by not only performing this music but by writing it as well.
“Being able to be that representation, of course, it's also an extreme responsibility that we have to represent our cultures authentically, so I am truly excited that I can represent in this way,” Kunkle said.
She said she’s excited to share her culture in her Ohio community, but her work gives her daughter, also a Muscogee citizen, the culture that was destroyed over a century ago.
“She now is getting this piecemeal, little by little,” Kunkle said about her daughter.”
Sometimes it’s just a random phrase, but now her daughter, also a Muscogee citizen, will ask for a Muscogee lullaby.
“I just think that's the coolest thing,” Kunkle said. “We are just the start of it, a small bloom.”
Kunkle and other Native Americans hope that bloom will reseed decimated cultures.
Coming up:
■ Dawson Auditorium, 240 Charles St., Adrian College. Adrian; 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Adrian Symphony Orchestra ends its study of Igor Stravinsky with his most controversial ballet, which caused a near riot at its world premiere in 1913 Paris, the Rite of Spring . The program includes performers Valerie Coleman ’s Umoja Anthem of Unity and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” with Dominic Cheli, piano. Tickets: $23, $31, and $37. Visit adriansymphony.org , call 517-264-3121, fax 517-264-3833, or email infor@adriansymphony.org .
■ The Summit Toledo, 23 N. Summit St. Toledo; 6:30 p.m., Friday. Candlelight Concerts, a Tribute to Queen. Listeso Quartet performs the hits including: “Don't Stop Me Now,” “Killer Queen,”“Under Pressure” (Queen and David Bowie), “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Are The Champions,” and more. Some other works include Gianni Schicchi and La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, and Die Zauberflote ( The Magic Flute )’s Queen of the Night aria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Tickets: $42.50 and $56.50, with an added fee for flexible cancellation.
■ The Toledo Club, 235 14th St. Suite 508, Toledo; 6 p.m. Friday. Toledo Opera’s annual gala. A special tribute Suzanne Rorick , who is retiring after thirteen years as Toledo Opera’s executive director. Gala concert includes tenor Victor Robertson and Toledo Opera’s resident artists. Kevin Bylsma is the master of ceremonies. Tickets: $300 per person; $3,500 to host a table of 8. Visit toledoopera.org or call 419-255-7464.
■ Toledo School for the Arts, 333 14th St., Toledo; TSA Black Box Studio. 7 p.m. Friday. Toledo. Loved By Millions Tribute to EJ Wells. The popular 1980s Toledo-based rock band Loved by Millions will reunite to celebrate the life of bandmate and bassist Ed Wells. The show aims to raise money for music scholarships. Tickets: $20 per person. Visit app.arts-people.com .
■ Stranahan Theater, & Great Hall, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., Toledo; 7 p.m. Saturday. Toledo Symphony Orchestra. May the 4th Be With You. The TSO accompanies Star Wars: Return of the Jedi , the third movie of the original Star Wars trilogy released in 1983. Tickets: $20 to $89. Visit artstoledo.com , the box office at 1838 Parkwood Ave., or call 419-246-8000.
Send news of music to hdenniss@theblade.com at least 10 days before your event.
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