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Marble Surface

Dawn Avery
Biography

For up-to-date, tailored bios contact dawn@dawnavery.com

Native Composer Bio, Short

GRAMMY and NAMA nominated performer, composer, professor, Dawn Avery has worked with musical luminaries Pavarotti, Sting, Nakai and, Shenandoah, as well as composers including John Cage, Charles Wuorinen, and Phillip Glass.  Of Mohawk Kaniènkeha descent, she is dedicated to the Indigenization of composition and performance. With a PhD in ethnomusicology, her work focuses on Native Classical Music, Indigenous theory and research. Avery’s work has been performed at the National Museum of the American Indian, Lincoln, and Kennedy Centers. Several chamber works can be heard on the recordings Tulpe, North American Indian Cello Project.  Several of Avery’s recordings have won Global Music Awards, including those for theatre and downtempo. She has written two short operas Sacajawea: Woman of Many Names and Trials and Tears.  Avery was a composer for the award-winning film Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native Mascots. She won best composer in the Paris Women’s Film Festival for a video by Duo Concertante of Iotsistokwaron:ion. North American Indian Cello Project (Innova) and her works recorded by cellist Wilhemina Smith, produced by Judith Sherman are expected in 2025. Other commissions and premieres include those by the Alexandria and Ancaster Symphony Orchestras and works for Carillon at the University of Michigan and in Berlin as part of “A Century of Women and the Carillon.” Avery fosters future generations through retreats, mentorship, composition programs and as a professor at Montgomery College in Maryland. 

Composer & Spirituality Bio, Short

The GRAMMY and NAMA nominated performer, composer, and professor Dawn Avery has worked with Pavarotti, Sting, Darling, Nakai, and Shenandoah, as well as composers John Cage, Charles Wuorinen, and Phillip Glass. Her exploration of sacred traditions and music around the world led her to study the relationship between spirituality and sound as her work seeks to enter different realms of vibration and connection with the human spirit, the land, and the skyworld. She frequently composes works that connect specifically to the land upon which they are played. Avery has been honored to work with spiritual masters Ron Young, Hilda Charleton, Tawente’se, the Dalai Lama, Chidvilasananda, and Sherif Baba Chatilkaya. Chakra, music for movement and meditation features world grooves (2025 release). Her music spans from chamber, orchestral, to film, theatre, downtempo and electronic. Of Mohawk Kaniènkeha descent, Avery is dedicated to the Indigenization of composition and performance. With a PhD in ethnomusicology, she focuses on works related to Native Classical Music, Indigenous theory and research. Her work has been performed at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Lincoln and Kennedy centers, and throughout Europe. Several of her chamber works appear on the recording Tulpe and she have been recorded by Wilhemina Smith and Duo Concertante.  She composed music for the award-winning film Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native Mascots and won best composer in the Paris Women’s Film Festival (Duo Concertante). 

© 2024/2025 Dawn Avery. Webmaster Stephanie Pierce

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