Hopi and Hope

I had the great privilege of interviewing composer/scholar/advocate Trevor Reed this week for a podcast. It was an amazing experience. I've known about his work for a while. Two years ago, I wrote an article for an online magazine (SquareTwo) that I titled, "Mormon Masterworks of the 21st Century." In it, I described ten Mormon composers' works. One of them was Reed's  "Puhutawi." 

For our podcast, we listened to three movements of the 2016 work and talked about Trevor's career path, which is about an interesting as anybody I know. Last week, he graduated from Columbia University with a PhD in Music and a JD degree from the Law School. He's off to teach at Arizona State in the fall. 

His confluence of interests fascinates me. He's Hopi and Mormon; he writes contemporary music that is influenced by traditional Hopi songs; he's interested in progress but is also a fierce advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples. 

In our discussion, I heard a lot about hope and fairness and the future. I'm very excited to see what Trevor's future will be.