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Raven Chacon
Raven Chacon
Raven Chacon
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Raven Chacon (born 1977) is a Diné composer, musician and artist. Born in Fort Defiance, Arizona within the Navajo Nation, Chacon became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music, for his Voiceless Mass in 2022.

Key Information

He has also been a solo performer of noise music and worked with groups such as Postcommodity.[1]

Life and career

[edit]
Still Life #3, detail of sound installation at the National Museum of the American Indian

Raven Chacon was born in 1977 in Fort Defiance, Arizona, US within the Navajo Nation.[2] He attended the University of New Mexico, where he obtained his BA in Fine Arts in 2001, then received an MFA in music composition from the California Institute of the Arts in 2004.[3][4] He was a student of James Tenney, Morton Subotnick, Michael Pisaro, Wadada Leo Smith and Christopher Shultis.

Chacon's visual and sonic artwork has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad.[5] 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, New York.[6][7] His collective and solo work has been presented at Sydney Biennale,[8] Kennedy Center, the Whitney Biennial,[9] documenta 14,[10] Adelaide International, Vancouver Art Gallery, ASU Art Museum, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival,[11] the Heard Museum,[12] Chaco Canyon, and Performance Today.[13]

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 and Igor Cavalera. In 2016, he was commissioned by Kronos Quartet to compose a work for their Fifty For The Future project.[14]

Chacon serves as Composer-in-Residence with the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project.[15] In 2012, he was awarded a Creative Capital[16] Visual Arts grant. In 2014, he was honored with a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship in Music.[17] In 2018, Chacon was awarded the Berlin Prize by the American Academy in Berlin.[18]

In 2022, Chacon became the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, which he received for his composition Voiceless Mass.[19]

Music and Visual Art

[edit]

One of Chacon's well-known music piece, Voiceless Mass,[19] won a Pulitzer Prize for Music. Being the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize, this piece was commissioned by WI Conference of the United Church of Christ, Plymouth Church UCC and Present Music.[20] At first, he turned down the offer but soon reconsidered after realizing the space the music would be performed at.[1] The themes that surround the Voiceless Mass was constructed carefully but intentionally with the performance being held at a Catholic Church where in previous years had mistreated and silenced them.[21] Chacon has underlining themes of Indigenous culture as well as history that relates to the United States to further enhance his work.[22]

Aside from being a composer, he's also known for creating works of art, a prominent example would the Storm Pattern.[23] This piece carries Navajo weaving style while incorporating different symbols such as lightening bolts, arrows, digital audio. Chacon combines different elements like flying drones and the sounds of transmission from broadcast in his area.

Postcommodity

[edit]

Chacon was a member of the Native American art collective, Postcommodity, with whom he has developed multimedia installations which have been exhibited internationally.[9] Other members include Cristóbal Martínez, Kade L. Twist, Steven Yazzie and Nathan Young.[9] In 2017, as part of Postcommodity, Chacon created the multimedia project, ...in memoriam, in Edmonton in 2017, curated by Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective.[24]

Personal life

[edit]

Chacon lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is married to Candice Hopkins, a Tagish curator. His sister Nani Chacon is a muralist.

Awards and honors

[edit]

Chacon has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music, an American Academy in Berlin Prize (music composition), a Creative Capital award (visual arts), a United States Artists fellowship (music), a Joan Mitchell Foundation fellowship,[18] a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship,[25] among others.[5] Chacon received the inaugural Mellon Foundation Artist-in-Residence fellowship for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.[26] In October 2023, Chacon was named a MacArthur Fellow.[27]

Partial discography

[edit]
  • Voiceless Mass (with Present Music and Ariadne Greif) (New World Records, 2025)
  • Inhale/Exhale (w/ Carlos Santistevan and Tatsuya Nakatani) (Other Minds Records, 2022)
  • An Anthology of Chants Operations (Ouidah, 2020)
  • Horse Notations (Cimiotti Recordings, 2020)
  • Crisalide Fossile (w/ OvO) (Bronson, 2016)
  • Your New Age Dream Contains More Blood Than You Can Imagine 12"LP (w/ Postcommodity) (Anarchymoon, 2011)
  • Kitchen Sorcery (w/ Bob Bellerue) (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)
  • The Incredible 17000 km Split (split w/ Torturing Nurse) (8K Mob, 2006)
  • Jesus Was a Wino (w/ Jeff Gburek) (Herbal Records, 2005)
  • Still/life (Sicksicksick, 2004)
  • Meet the Beatless (Sicksicksick, 2003)

Publications

[edit]
  • For Zitkála-Šá Toronto: Art Metropole; ISBN 978-1-989010-16-7 Los Angeles: New Documents; ISBN 978-1-953441-09-6. 2022.
  • OEI #98–99: Aural Poetics Stockholm: OEI. 2023.

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Raven Chacon

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia

Raven Chacon (born 1977) is a Diné composer, performer, and visual artist specializing in experimental music, noise, and multimedia installations that integrate sound with spatial and cultural elements. Born in Fort Defiance, Arizona, within the Navajo Nation, Chacon creates works as a solo artist, collaborator, and member of the Postcommodity collective, often drawing on sonic experimentation in videos, prints, and performances. In 2022, Chacon became the first Native American composer to win the for his composition Voiceless Mass, a work for organ and ensemble. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2023, recognizing his innovative approaches to musical experiences that explore relationships among sound, space, and people. Additional honors include the American Academy in Prize for Composition in 2018 and the Creative Capital Award in Public Art in 2012. Chacon's oeuvre encompasses , orchestral pieces, and site-specific installations, with contributions to projects like the Sweet Land in 2020.

Early Life and Education

Upbringing in Navajo Nation

Raven Chacon was born in 1977 at Fort Defiance Indian Hospital in , located within the . As a member of the Diné people, Chacon spent his early childhood residing on the , a semi-autonomous territory spanning parts of , , and , characterized by its vast arid landscapes and cultural emphasis on traditional Navajo governance, language, and ceremonies. His family's subsequent relocation from the to , marked the end of this initial phase of upbringing, though Chacon has referenced the region's influence on his artistic development rooted in Diné heritage. Specific details on daily life or familial background during this period remain limited in public records, with Chacon's accounts focusing more on the broader cultural context of Navajo communal structures and oral traditions rather than personal anecdotes.

Academic Training and Influences

Chacon commenced formal instruction as a child, studying for three years under Dawn Chambers, a alumna whose own teacher had been a pupil of . He obtained a degree in music from the in 2001, focusing on composition and investigating the sonic and symbolic capacities of unconventional instruments such as and found objects. Chacon then earned a in music composition from the in 2004, where his diverse pursuits in sound experimentation coalesced. During this period, he trained under composers , known for his work in spectralism and ; Michael Pisaro, associated with the Wandelweiser Group's emphasis on and indeterminacy; and , a pioneer in creative music and African American musical traditions. His formative influences encompassed radio broadcasts encountered in youth, traditional Navajo songs performed by his grandfather, and popular genres including the Beatles' melodic structures alongside heavy metal's intensity and distortion.

Career Development

Involvement with Postcommodity

Raven Chacon served as a member of the Postcommodity from 2009 to 2018. The , founded by Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist, employs an Indigenous framework to examine the impacts of global markets, , and cultural through site-specific installations, interventions, videos, and sound works. Chacon's involvement contributed to projects that centered Indigenous perspectives in response to specific landscapes, often addressing border politics and historical disruptions to native communities. Early in his tenure, Chacon collaborated on "Do You Remember When?" in 2009, an installation produced with co-founders that explored memory and place through multimedia elements. A landmark project during this period was Repellent Fence in 2015, a temporary bi-national land art installation spanning two miles along the U.S.-Mexico border near Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. Comprising 28 helium-filled balloons, each 10 feet in diameter with large "scare-eye" patterns mimicking indigenous bird-scaring devices, the work floated 50 feet above the desert to symbolize reconnection across the artificial divide imposed by national boundaries, fostering dialogue among Tohono O'odham communities separated by the line. Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and supported by local indigenous groups, the installation drew international attention for its scale and critique of border infrastructure without direct confrontation. Chacon's work with Postcommodity also featured in prominent exhibitions, including the in 2017, 14 in 2017, and the Carnegie International in 2018, where collective pieces interrogated land, sovereignty, and sonic interventions in public spaces. These efforts often involved , blending Chacon's compositional skills with visual and performative elements to highlight indigenous resilience against settler-colonial legacies. He departed the collective in 2018 to pursue independent projects, though his contributions remain acknowledged in its history.

Transition to Solo Practice

Chacon concluded his involvement with the interdisciplinary art collective Postcommodity in 2018, after co-creating large-scale installations and performances from 2009 onward. This shift enabled a deeper focus on his individual compositional and performative practice, which had run parallel to his collective efforts, including commissions like a for the written in 2016 and premiered in 2017. In solo work, Chacon employs experimental notation, acoustic and electronic instruments, and site-specific elements to explore sonic landscapes tied to Indigenous histories and environments, contrasting the consensus-driven timelines of group projects with more improvisational, midnight-hour revisions at a personal desk. A pivotal early example of this intensified solo output was American Ledger (No. 1) (2018), a graphic score designed for projection or display on billboards and buildings, evoking colonialism through layered sounds such as wood chopping, coin clinking, and choral elements. Concurrently, Chacon was awarded the Berlin Prize for Music Composition by the American Academy in for its Spring 2018 residency, announced in 2017, which recognized his independent explorations in chamber and noise-based music. These endeavors underscored his evolving methodology, blending Diné perspectives with forms unbound by collective structures.

Expansion into Installations and Multimedia

Raven Chacon's expansion into installations and began early in his career with Field Recordings in 1999, an installation featuring , audio recordings, photographs, and text that marked his initial foray into integrating visual and sonic elements. This work laid the groundwork for his multidisciplinary practice, blending composition with visual media to explore auditory landscapes and cultural narratives. Over the subsequent decades, Chacon developed solo projects that incorporated video, textiles, and hyper-directional sound, distinguishing his approach from purely musical performances. A pivotal example is Gauge (2013–2015), a three-channel sound and video installation created in collaboration with Danny , utilizing 5.1 audio over 14 minutes to examine industrial and environmental themes through synchronized visual and auditory layers. Building on this, Chacon's Three Songs () comprises a three-channel that interrogates histories of Native resistance and the myth of an uninhabited American West, paying tribute to Indigenous women via interwoven sound, video, and visual components exhibited at institutions like the Harwood Museum of Art. In parallel, Chacon advanced sound installation techniques with Storm Pattern (2021), featuring a score paired with an eight-channel hyper-directional audio , which probes atmospheric and sonic disruptions and was displayed at the Albuquerque Museum from May 25, 2024, to March 2, 2025. These works exemplify his shift toward forms that extend beyond traditional scoring, incorporating elements like , , earth, and digital video—as seen in A Often Played on the Radio (2018) with Cristóbal Martínez—to create immersive experiences addressing place, , and Indigenous perspectives. His practice continued evolving with exhibitions such as Place Where the Waters Crossed at Concordia University's Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen, aggregating recent pieces centered on Diné () themes. This trajectory reflects a deliberate broadening of sonic experimentation into visual and performative realms, as recognized by the for works that traverse art boundaries to illuminate landscapes and histories.

Major Works and Compositions

Key Musical Pieces and Performances

Chacon's compositional output includes experimental chamber works such as For Zitkála-Šá (2014), a set of 13 graphic scores drawing on the life and writings of Yankton Dakota musician Zitkála-Šá, which employ unconventional notation to facilitate improvised performances blending Indigenous motifs with techniques. These scores have been interpreted in ensemble settings, emphasizing fluidity between fixed structure and performer agency, as explored in discussions of Chacon's notation practices. Another significant piece is Owl Song (2021), a composition contributed to the Kronos Quartet's 50 for the Future project, which commissions diverse works for standard to expand repertoire accessibility. The American Ledger series represents Chacon's engagement with site-specific and historical resonance, with American Ledger No. 1 (2020) premiered in performances involving participants reciting ledger entries from 19th-century Native American captivity narratives, accompanied by amplified percussion and to evoke dissonant historical layers. Subsequent iterations, such as American Ledger No. 3, have been performed in concert halls, conjuring sonic landscapes responsive to place through processed field recordings and chamber ensembles. Earlier noise-oriented works like An Anthology of Chants Operations (date unspecified, self-released via ) feature short pieces such as "Singing Toward The Wind Now / Singing Toward The Sun Now" (2:25 duration) and "Tyuonyi" (2:13 duration), layering vocal chants with electronic manipulation to reference ancestral Puebloan sites. Live performances highlight Chacon's versatility in and , including a 2022 Alcatraz Island set excavating the site's violent histories through field recordings and minimal electronics in a former healing space. In September 2025, he presented Tiguex, a durational work streamed live from Albuquerque, integrating environmental sounds with performative elements tied to Tiwa Pueblo histories. sets, such as his 2025 appearance at Le Guess Who? festival, utilize tape players, effect pedals, and layered field recordings to create dense sonic tapestries. Chacon has also debuted compositions with ensembles like Present Music, whose 2021 premiere underscored his shift toward orchestral experimentation. These events often occur in interdisciplinary contexts, such as galleries or sculpture parks, blending music with installation.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Voiceless Mass

Voiceless Mass is a composition by Diné composer scored for chamber ensemble, , and sine tones. The work consists of three movements performed without pause, structured around repeating patterns that create a mesmerizing, immersive experience for listeners. Commissioned specifically for Present Music's annual concert, it was designed as a site-specific piece utilizing the acoustics and historical resonance of a church setting. Premiered on November 21, 2021, at Plymouth Church in , , Voiceless Mass draws on the organ's sonic capabilities alongside instruments including , , , percussion, strings, and . Chacon, reflecting on the commission from the Wisconsin Conference of the and Plymouth Church UCC, emphasized creating work that confronts the layered histories embedded in such spaces, particularly from an Indigenous perspective. The piece earned the for Music, with the jury citing it as "a mesmerizing, original work for organ and that evokes the weight of in a church setting." This award marked Chacon as the first Indigenous composer to receive the honor, highlighting the composition's innovative blend of experimental sound elements with traditions. Critics have described it as haunting and immersive, noting its ability to repurpose sacred spaces for reflection on voiceless narratives amid colonial legacies. Subsequent performances, including recordings released by New World Records, have extended its reach, maintaining the work's block-like repetition to foster contemplation of historical silences. Chacon's approach integrates noise studies and sound installations, positioning Voiceless Mass as a bridge between his broader practice and formal composition.

Recent Projects (2021–2025)

In 2021, Chacon created Storm Pattern, a textile score interpreted as an eight-channel hyper-directional sound installation that evokes Navajo weaving traditions alongside experimental audio compositions, which was exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum from May 25, 2024, to March 2, 2025. That same year, he produced Three Songs, a video installation depicting Indigenous women singing at sites of historical massacres, displacement, or relocation, reoccupying these spaces through vocal performance; the work was featured in exhibitions such as at the Harwood Museum of Art. Also in 2021, Compass premiered as a solo electric guitar performance with an overly amplified setup, interpreted outdoors from Chacon's graphic score, often preceded by Background Music, a preparatory audio element. Chacon's 2024–2025 installation transformed the American Academy of Arts and Letters building in Manhattan's Washington Heights into an immersive sonic environment mimicking birdsong and , incorporating site-specific responses from invited musicians and vocalists through a series of free public concerts held on-site throughout the year. In September 2025, he presented a citywide across Albuquerque from dawn to dusk on September 27, engaging multiple locations in a durational event that extended his interest in public, site-responsive composition. Further exhibitions in 2025 included a solo show at Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen in from September 3 to November 1, showcasing Chacon's interdisciplinary works blending sound, performance, and visual elements. He also curated the festival of new music in in late November, focusing on experimental compositions, and participated in performances such as solos, a series of improvised short works, alongside events at institutions like the ICA integrating found sounds and conceptual . Additionally, Conductus marked his first solo exhibition in German-speaking countries at Kunstverein Hannover, emphasizing his compositional approach to installation.

Artistic Themes and Reception

Core Themes and Methodologies

Raven Chacon's artistic practice centers on interrogating the intersections of sound, space, and human experience, particularly through an Indigenous lens that critiques settler colonialism and the erasure of Native voices. His works often derive from narratives addressing ecological degradation, social inequities, and the historical silencing imposed by institutions like churches and governments, as seen in compositions that evoke the weight of and cultural loss without resolution. Central to his thematic concerns is , including the suppression of Indigenous languages and the abuses inflicted on Native populations through religious and imperial structures, which he frames not merely as accusation but as a call for reconciliation amid ongoing political crises. Methodologically, Chacon employs experimental techniques that blend traditional Western notation with graphic scores—visual representations displayed as flags or building projections—to generate unconventional sonic outcomes from charged stories. He incorporates non-musical elements such as rifles in Report, wood-chopping in American Ledger No. 1, or matchsticks in Tremble Staves, symbolizing colonial exploitation or environmental peril, thereby activating spaces and challenging listeners' expectations of musical form. Site-specific installations and performances, like the opera Sweet Land in a state park, layer dual narratives for diverse audiences, using field recordings, hybrid instruments, and collaborations to foster accessibility in underserved communities, such as reservations. Chacon's approach prioritizes noise improvisation and integration—encompassing video, prints, and photography—to amplify Indigenous resistance, particularly Native women's voices, while reimagining American foundational myths like as sites of dissonance rather than harmony. This methodology extends to curatorial efforts, such as selecting performers who convey urgency in addressing and policies, ensuring his output remains adaptable across global contexts sharing colonial histories.

Political and Cultural Engagements

Chacon's political engagements are primarily channeled through artistic interventions that critique , borders, and environmental exploitation from an Indigenous perspective. As a member of the interdisciplinary collective Postcommodity from 2009 to 2018, he contributed to projects examining the U.S.- border as a site of historical division imposed on Indigenous territories. The collective's works, including those involving Chacon, employed , , and to highlight how global economic forces and state policies erode Indigenous sovereignty, framing art as a tool for reasserting Native viewpoints on land and identity. A key example is Postcommodity's Repellent Fence (2015), a temporary installation spanning two miles across the U.S.-Mexico border between , and , , from October 9 to 12. Featuring 28 large, inflated sculptures resembling sacred katsina figures, the project drew on and Diné spiritual traditions to symbolize unity across artificial divides, while evoking the precarity of Indigenous communities amid militarized frontiers and policies. Chacon's sonic elements in such collaborations amplified these critiques, integrating and field recordings to disrupt narratives of border security and . In solo practice, Chacon has incorporated direct into his sound works, such as a 2016 audio recording of a silent by hundreds of No Dakota Access Pipeline demonstrators at Standing Rock, which formed the basis of installations like those at the Swiss Institute in 2024. This piece captured the embodied resistance of water protectors against infrastructure threatening sacred sites and water sources, using absence of voice to underscore suppressed Indigenous claims to land stewardship. His broader oeuvre engages by reorienting sound practices toward ecological justice and , often prioritizing Native narratives over Western musical canons. Culturally, Chacon's engagements emphasize amplifying Diné and broader Native perspectives, including works that foreground Native women's resistance to historical erasure and contemporary inequities. Through experimental compositions, he critiques American imperialism's linguistic and auditory impositions, advocating for Indigenous methodologies in art-making as a form of epistemic reclamation. These efforts align with his role in fostering Native artistic autonomy, though they remain embedded in institutional art contexts that may dilute radical Indigenous critiques through .

Critical Reception and Debates

Chacon's compositions, particularly Voiceless Mass (2021), have garnered widespread acclaim from critics for their innovative fusion of experimental noise, indigenous perspectives, and historical reflection. The Pulitzer Prize jury described the work as a "mesmerizing, original work for organ and ensemble that evokes the weight of history in a church setting," highlighting its structural ingenuity and thematic depth without relying on vocal elements to convey narratives of displacement and resilience. Reviews in outlets like The Quietus praised the recorded version for offering "a new perspective into both the physical and metaphorical aspects" of communal sound-making, emphasizing its ability to commune with architectural spaces and unspoken histories. Critics have lauded Chacon's broader oeuvre for disrupting conventional musical narratives through and multimedia elements, often positioning his work as a vital intervention in underrepresented indigenous artistic traditions. A commentary noted that Voiceless Mass "elevates unsung histories" by subverting the organ concerto form to address power imbalances, framing it as a voiceless critique of colonial legacies. Similarly, highlighted pieces like While Hissing (2023) for amplifying Native women's voices in resistance, blending visual art, music, and community to challenge erasure. Such reception underscores Chacon's role in expanding experimental music's boundaries, with publications like describing him as "one of our most significant and affecting artists working with sound," adept at conveying complex sentiments about place and history. Debates surrounding Chacon's work are limited but center on the tensions between experimental abstraction and cultural specificity in indigenous representation. Some discourse questions whether noise-based deconstructions, as in his firearm-instrument integrations critiqued in e-flux, risk alienating audiences expecting more accessible traditional forms, though this is framed positively as a deliberate critique of musical constraints rather than a flaw. In contexts like graphic notations for For Zitkála-Šá (2022), reviewers note the polarizing legacy of figures Chacon engages, such as the subject's navigation of assimilationist pressures, prompting discussions on whether such works romanticize or rigorously interrogate hybrid identities. These points emerge more in interviews than outright controversies, reflecting a field where acclaim from arts institutions—potentially influenced by progressive emphases on decolonial themes—dominates over substantive pushback. No major scandals or retractions have marred his reputation, with critical consensus affirming his contributions amid a historically underrepresented domain.

Awards, Honors, and Recognition

Major Awards and Fellowships

In 2022, Raven Chacon was awarded the for his composition Voiceless Mass, a work for organ and premiered on November 21, 2021, in , , noted for evoking historical weight in a church setting through innovative without vocal elements. This marked him as the first Native American to receive the prize, recognizing his experimental approach blending Indigenous perspectives with contemporary music. In 2023, Chacon received a MacArthur Fellowship, an unrestricted $800,000 grant awarded over five years to individuals demonstrating exceptional creativity, often termed a "genius grant" for its support of innovative work across disciplines. The fellowship highlighted his boundary-crossing compositions and installations that integrate sound, space, and Indigenous histories, positioning him among 20 recipients that year. Earlier, in 2018, Chacon was granted the Berlin Prize in Music Composition by the American Academy in Berlin, funding a semester-long residency in spring 2018 to develop new works amid interdisciplinary exchange. He also holds a United States Artists Fellowship in Music, supporting mid-career artists through financial awards and professional resources, and a 2012 Creative Capital Award in Public Art for projects engaging community and environment. Additionally, in 2014, he received a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist Fellowship in Music, aimed at sustaining Indigenous creative practice.

Impact on Native American Arts

Chacon's mentorship through the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP), an outreach initiative of the Grand Canyon Music Festival, has directly shaped the development of young Indigenous musicians. From 2004 to 2019, as composer-in-residence, he guided over 300 high school Native American students in composing original string quartets, emphasizing musical literacy, , and adaptation of Western forms to Indigenous sensibilities. This program, which Chacon co-led with initiatives like the SHIFT project alongside Michael Begay, amplified emerging voices on the by providing performance opportunities and professional feedback, resulting in hundreds of new works premiered annually. His 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Voiceless Mass—the first awarded to a Native American composer—elevated the profile of Indigenous experimental music within broader artistic institutions. Composed for chamber ensemble without voices to evoke silenced histories, the piece drew on and decolonial themes, prompting increased commissioning and programming of Native-led works by orchestras and festivals. This milestone, coupled with his installations addressing land encroachment and Indigenous identity, has influenced peers to integrate noise, electronics, and site-specific elements, expanding Native American arts beyond traditional idioms toward hybrid, politically engaged forms. Chacon's interdisciplinary practice, spanning performance with groups like Postcommodity and solo electronic works, models resistance to Eurocentric composition norms, encouraging Native artists to prioritize relational, land-based methodologies over assimilationist frameworks. By 2023, his efforts had contributed to a measurable uptick in Indigenous representation in programs, as evidenced by heightened fellowships and residencies for Native composers.

Mentoring and Community Contributions

Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project

The Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP), founded in 2001 by the Grand Canyon , aims to foster musical , , and composition skills among Native American high school students from underserved rural communities, such as those on the and Nations. The program integrates European techniques with Native American musical heritages through workshops, theory instruction, notation training, and software use, culminating in students composing original string quartets premiered by professional ensembles like the Catalyst Quartet. Raven Chacon has served as composer-in-residence for NACAP since 2004, co-teaching alongside Michael Begay (Diné), who joined in 2009, to mentor over 300 Native high school composers in writing new works for . Typically guiding about 20 students annually, Chacon emphasizes experimentation, practical tools like and incorporating Native symbolism, and disrupting stereotypes by allowing students to compose freely without mandatory cultural . The initiative partners with including Chinle High School, High School, and since 2023, Santa Fe Indian , supported by grants from the and others. NACAP's outcomes include world premieres of apprentice compositions, such as those featured in annual concerts (e.g., August 31, 2025), and broader recognition like the 2020 Lewis Prize for youth programs and appearances on American Public Media's Performance Today. Chacon's sustained mentorship has contributed to the project's receipt of the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award and NewMusic USA’s New Music Educators Award, enhancing Indigenous visibility in contemporary composition while prioritizing skill-building over representational burdens.

Broader Educational Initiatives

Chacon has contributed to higher education through faculty appointments at the , where he served on the Music and faculties. He also acted as a visiting artist in the & Performance program at . In academic year 2023–2024, Chacon held the position of Bill and Stephanie Sick Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, he co-instructed the "Advanced Studio V" course in Fall 2023 (course code A4105-8) and Fall 2024 (course code ARCH4105-8), collaborating with Mario Gooden. Beyond formal appointments, Chacon has led workshops and seminars on compositional techniques. In early 2024, he conducted a three-day seminar at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, exploring experimental notation forms, which concluded with participants creating and publicly presenting a collaborative one-page score. Chacon has delivered guest lectures at universities, including a colloquium at the University of Chicago in 2024 on amplification in artistic practice and a multi-day engagement at Yale University in 2025 featuring new works and discussions on sound and landscapes. These activities foster advanced learning in sound art, experimental music, and interdisciplinary approaches among college-level students and professionals.

Personal Life and Legacy

Family and Personal Background

Raven Chacon was born in 1977 at Fort Defiance Indian Hospital in , within the . He spent his early childhood on the Navajo reservation in , where his mother, who is , was raised. Chacon's father hailed from Mora in northern , and the family relocated to Albuquerque around age eight. Chacon's initial exposure to music came through listening to his grandfather's songs and receiving lessons from a neighbor, despite his parents not being musically inclined; his grandfather recognized and nurtured his early interest in music. He continues to reside in . Chacon is married to Candice Hopkins, a curator and director of a contemporary Native-led arts organization, whom he met during his involvement with the artist collective Postcommodity. His father, Lawrence E. Chacon (1949–2022), passed away after a battle with throat cancer.

Ongoing Influence and Future Directions

Chacon's compositions continue to shape practices within and beyond Native American communities, emphasizing acoustic feedback, environmental sounds, and communal structures that challenge Western classical norms. His 2022 Pulitzer-winning work Voiceless Mass, scored for organ and ensemble, has inspired subsequent pieces exploring silenced histories and land-based acoustics, influencing composers to integrate Indigenous perspectives into and installation genres. Through mentoring via the Native American Composer Apprenticeship , which he co-founded, Chacon has guided over a dozen emerging Diné and other Indigenous musicians since 2006, fostering scores that blend traditional elements with amplified electronics and promoting in artistic output. His influence extends to interdisciplinary fields, where sound installations like Storm Pattern (2021), featuring hyper-directional audio derived from scores, have prompted curators and artists to reconsider Indigenous contributions to sonic and decolonial narratives in . Exhibitions such as at the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2024–2025) demonstrate how Chacon's avian-inspired works critique and cultural erasure, impacting visual artists and sound designers to adopt site-specific, non-human-centered approaches. In academic and institutional settings, his role as a MacArthur Fellow since 2023 has amplified calls for diversifying music curricula, with programs at institutions like incorporating his methods to train students in experimental Indigenous composition as of January 2025. Looking ahead, Chacon's trajectory points toward larger-scale, participatory events, exemplified by Tiguex (premiered September 27, 2025, in Albuquerque), a 12-hour composition involving hundreds of performers across 19 sites, which signals a shift toward public, decentralized orchestras rooted in regional histories. Upcoming presentations, including works in An Indigenous Present at the Institute of Contemporary Art (starting October 2025) and Echoes of a Place at Hauser & Wirth (September 2025 onward), suggest deepened exploration of landscape-responsive scores and multimedia collaborations. These directions indicate sustained innovation in blending Navajo oral traditions with technological amplification, potentially expanding to global residencies and influencing policy on Indigenous arts funding through his advisory roles.

References

  1. https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/raven-chacon
  2. https://americanart.si.edu/artist/raven-chacon-32047
  3. https://news.nau.edu/raven_chacon/
  4. https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2023/raven-chacon
  5. https://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/raven-chacon/
  6. https://www.arch.columbia.edu/faculty/5546-raven-chacon
  7. https://www.windrep.org/Raven_Chacon
  8. https://mirage.unm.edu/consonance-and-dissonance/
  9. https://www.curtis.edu/news/celebrating-native-american-heritage-raven-chacon/
  10. https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/raven-chacon-explores-dissonance-indigenous-identity-through-music/
  11. https://music.unm.edu/pulitzer-winning-alumnus-raven-chacon-to-debut-new-composition-perform/
  12. https://finearts.unm.edu/macarthur-fellowship-awarded-to-unm-alum-raven-chacon/
  13. https://plainsart.org/raven-chacon-transcript/
  14. https://calarts.edu/news/calarts-alum-raven-chacon-named-2023-macarthur-fellow
  15. https://50ftf.kronosquartet.org/composers/raven-chacon
  16. https://thepool.calarts.edu/2022/07/26/raven-chacon-producing-pulitzer-prize-winning-work-through-experimental-sound/
  17. https://www.classnotes.org/story/2023/09/21/meet-the-composer-raven-chacon
  18. https://postcommodity.com/About.html
  19. https://art21.org/artist/postcommodity/
  20. https://smarthistory.org/postcommodity-arts-collective/
  21. https://www.instituteforpublicart.org/case-studies/repellentfences/
  22. https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/repellent-fence
  23. https://asuartmuseum.org/event-exhibition/postcommodity-repellent-fence/
  24. https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/mending-border-indigenous-eye-postcommodity
  25. https://www.cousincollective.org/ravenchacon
  26. https://southwestcontemporary.com/raven-chacon/
  27. https://blog.calarts.edu/2017/08/28/raven-chacon-awarded-berlin-prize/
  28. https://www.musicworks.ca/listening-conditions-raven-chacon-lou-sheppard
  29. https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/622981/raven-chacon-rift-variations-collaborative-video-works
  30. https://torontobiennial.org/artist/raven-chacon/
  31. https://harwoodmuseum.org/exhibition/raven-chacon/
  32. https://www.cabq.gov/artsculture/albuquerque-museum/exhibitions-1/raven-chacon-storm-pattern
  33. https://kag.bc.ca/soundings/asongoftenplayed
  34. https://ellengallery.concordia.ca/ways-of-thinking/current/?lang=en
  35. https://icareifyoulisten.com/2022/08/raven-chacon-for-zitkala-sa-graphic-notation-identity/
  36. https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/raven-chacon
  37. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/performance-of-raven-chacons-american-ledger-no-1-tickets-1564008504539
  38. https://www.wattis.org/browse-the-library/watch-listen/past-events/live-performance-by-raven-chacon
  39. https://chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/concerts-and-events/raven-chacon-american-ledger-no-3
  40. https://ravenchacon.bandcamp.com/album/an-anthology-of-chants-operations
  41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He6pWcVceqw
  42. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbX5efjVWxA
  43. https://leguesswho.com/lineup/raven-chacon?referrer=lineup
  44. https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/raven-chacon-fluidity-of-sound/
  45. https://socratessculpturepark.org/chacon-performs/
  46. https://www.createastir.ca/articles/voiceless-mass-raven-chacon
  47. https://www.newworldrecords.org/products/raven-chacon-voiceless-mass
  48. https://scottishensemble.co.uk/programme/2024-25/raven-chacons-voiceless-mass/
  49. https://spiderwebsinthesky.com/voiceless-mass/
  50. https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2022/05/10/1097760129/raven-chacon-pulitzer-prize-music
  51. https://therestisnoise.com/a-pulitzer-for-raven-chacon/
  52. https://hyperallergic.com/740610/raven-chacon-loud-and-clear/
  53. https://newworldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/raven-chacon-voiceless-mass
  54. https://www.slashart.org/raven-chacon-compass/
  55. https://www.artsandletters.org/exhibitions?slug=chacon
  56. https://www.hauserwirth.com/ursula/echoes-of-a-place-raven-chacon/
  57. https://www.cabq.gov/artsculture/news/citywide-performance-by-pulitzer-prize-winning-composer-raven-chacon-premieres-september-27
  58. https://www.frieze.com/article/raven-chacon-profile-2025
  59. https://ellengallery.concordia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Leonard-Bina-Ellen_Communique_Raven-Chacon_ANG.pdf
  60. https://www.icaboston.org/events/raven-chacon/
  61. https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/676961/raven-chacon-conductus
  62. https://thequietus.com/interviews/raven-chacon-interview/
  63. https://act.mit.edu/about/people/postcommodity/
  64. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/arts/design/raven-chacon-swiss-institute-art.html
  65. https://hyperallergic.com/856209/the-many-voices-of-raven-chacon-while-hissing/
  66. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/arts/music/raven-chacon-pulitzer-prize-music.html
  67. https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/raven-chacon-voiceless-mass-review/
  68. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-05-09/commentary-raven-chacons-voiceless-mass-gives-voice-to-the-voiceless
  69. https://www.artforum.com/columns/lauren-rosati-raven-chacon-552350/
  70. https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/604734/raven-chacon-s-a-worm-s-eye-view-from-a-bird-s-beak
  71. https://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/newsroom/beatcolumns-sp-2121861476/newmusic2/28910-the-music-of-raven-chacon
  72. https://www.americanacademy.de/person/raven-chacon/
  73. https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/raven-chacon
  74. https://grandcanyonmusicfest.org/native-american-composer-apprentice-project/
  75. https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/michael-begay-raven-chacon
  76. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/first-native-american-composer-to-win-pulitzer-prize-on-his-experimental-process
  77. https://www.ascap.com/news-events/articles/2022/11/raven-chacon-native-american-composer-pulitzer-sound-advice
  78. https://icareifyoulisten.com/2021/04/5-questions-to-raven-chacon-about-radio-coyote/
  79. https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/551981/raven-chacon-2023-24-bill-and-stephanie-sick-distinguished-visiting-professor
  80. https://icamiami.org/seminar/raven-chacon/
  81. https://icamiami.org/video/performance-with-raven-chacon-composing-for-one-page-scores/
  82. https://music.uchicago.edu/event/colloquium-raven-chacon
  83. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iYjfjkS9zU
  84. https://theviolinchannel.com/composer-raven-chacons-new-work-for-double-bass/
  85. https://proartesmexico.com.mx/aquialla-raven-chacon-english-transcription/
  86. https://www.chronogram.com/arts/the-forever-sound-18655393/
  87. https://www.instagram.com/p/CaZykYtlvaD/?hl=en
  88. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/arts/music/indigenous-experimental-music.html
  89. https://www.wattis.org/our-program/on-view/raven-chacon-radio-coyote/on-raven-chacon-by-anthony-huberman
  90. https://empac.rpi.edu/program/people/artists/raven-chacon
  91. https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/music/a-raven-chacon-world-premiere-in-albuquerque-and-you-can-join-in/article_b7e79efa-af52-413c-a89f-30f58a1386f2.html
  92. https://curatorsintl.org/collaborators/7707-raven-chacon
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