Get an introduction to a musician who made history when the Jerome Nerman Lecture Series presents Diné composer and Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Raven Chacon Thursday October 27 at 6:30pm in Yardley Hall, Midwest Trust Center at Johnson County Community College.

Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. Chacon’s exhibits and performances — as a solo artist, collaborator or with musical ensemble Postcommodity — have taken him to Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, REDCAT, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Borealis Festival, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Chaco Canyon, Ende Tymes Festival, 18th Biennale of Sydney and the Kennedy Center.

Every year, he teaches 20 students to write string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). He is the recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship in Music, the Creative Capital Award in Visual Arts, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship, the American Academy’s Berlin Prize for Music Composition, and the Pew Fellowship. His composition “Voiceless Mass” was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Kansas City Art Institute and the Nerman Museum will also co-host a performance of Chacon’s piece “American Ledger (No. 1),” Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at Agnes Arts, 1328 Agnes Ave. Kansas City, MO 64127. The performance will be free and open to the public.

The Jerome Nerman Lecture Series was generously endowed by Central Bank of Kansas City and the Tutera Family.
A reception with light refreshments is offered at 5:30 p.m. before the lecture at 6:30 p.m.