Louis W. Ballard
Louis W. Ballard ( July 8, 1931 - February 9, 2007 in Santa Fe (New Mexico) ) was an American composer of Native American descent.
life and work
Ballard studied music at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa . His composition teacher was Bela Rozsa , and later he had private lessons with Darius Milhaud , Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco , Carlos Surinach and Felix Labunski . In 1962 he moved to Santa Fe , New Mexico , where he taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts until 1975 .
Ballard composed works for orchestras, chorales and chamber music , with several compositions referring to texts and melodies of North American Indians. He has collected Indian music, edited it in several volumes and edited it for classical ensembles. His best known pieces are "Incident at Wounded Knee" and "Why the Duck Has a Short Tail".
Individual evidence
- ^ "Louis W. Ballard: Composer Fuses World With Native Sound," by Brenda Norrell, from Indian Country Today , September 2, 2004
Web links
- Louis W. Ballard's page via Internet Archive ( Memento of October 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- Louis W. Ballard site of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame
- Program note for Incident at Wounded Knee , from the American Composers Orchestra site
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Ballard, Louis
- Louis W. Ballard obituary , by David Collins and Craig Smith, from The New Mexican
- "American Indian Composers Go Classical," by Felix Contreras, from All Things Considered , January 1, 2009
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ballard, Louis W. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 8, 1931 |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 9, 2007 |
| Place of death | Santa Fe (New Mexico) |