BOSTON, MA (For Release 02.11.26) — Hailed for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera-theater, White Snake Projects (WSP) presents the premiere of Brent Michael Davids’s monumental work Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People. Drawing deeply from his Native American heritage, Davids tackles the genocidal founding of America, challenging music norms and sanitizing historical rhetoric to give voice to America’s invisible people: American Indians. In time for America’s 250th anniversary since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Requiem for America will premiere by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on May 17, 2026, in London, followed by the American premiere by White Snake Projects on November 14, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts, both featuring Native American chorus singers and Davids on Native American flute.
Known for creating a hybrid between Native American song traditions and orchestral concert music, in Requiem, Davids juxtaposes actual historical letters from Native Americans with founding-era genocidal texts from America’s founding to lay bare, state by state, the dark foundations of the United States of America. The inaugural Requiem features 17 states, with other states being featured in subsequent Requiems. Requiem for America features a contralto narrator embodying the Earth guiding audiences along a deeply moving musical arc. Requiem begins with Movement #1, “The Doctrine of Discovery”, a Papal edict which authorized European colonizers to subjugate Indigenous peoples; and ends with “Threnoedia”: We Are Still Here.” The Massachusetts movement tells of the Mohicans fighting side by side with American revolutionaries.
Quote from Brent Michael Davids,
composer/writer: “Requiem for America tells the Indigenous perspective of the original founding events of our shared American history. It sings about the invisibility of Native people. I hope Requiem reminds audiences that Native people have vitality and that our voices can be clearly heard. Requiem is more than a piece of music – it’s a reckoning, a remembrance, and a call to truth through the arts.”
Quote from Cerise Lim Jacobs,
producer/dramaturg/artistic director of White Snake Projects: “250 years later we are continuing to build equity through the arts. To ensure that Indigenous voices are represented at America’s semi-quincentennial, we commissioned this powerful piece to raise Native voices not only in the United States but also across the pond to England. We are excited to share Native American perspectives on America’s founding and their stories and music that have too often been overlooked or exoticized in mainstream performing arts.”
Quote from John Luther Adams,
composer/supporter: “As we struggle against the deep legacy of racism in the United States, it’s high time for us to face and to mourn the genocide of Native Americans, on which this nation was founded. I'm proud to be associated with this project.”
This project is co-commissioned by White Snake Projects and The Lenape Center with support from Mellon Foundation, Native Arts & Culture Foundation’s Transformative Change Indigenous Arts (SHIFT) program, Creative Capital, MAP Fund, Aaron Copland House, the School for Advanced Research Indian Arts Research Center, the Society for New Music, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College of Arts and Communication, Forge Project, the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Music Program, the Northern Illinois University School of Music, Red Road Reclamation, the American Composers Forum, and the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture.
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WSP’s Commitment to Uplifting Marginalized Voices
Dedicated to using the power of music theater and the arts to effect social justice, WSP commits its 2026 season to celebrating Native American cultures and traditions by producing Indigenous-led performances and community events. With Requiem for America bookending the year, other 2026 happenings include: the debut of Trails, Ancient and Modern App designed as an historical walking tour of important Indigenous sites in the Boston area comprising virtual musical performances by Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and other Native American artists; Sing Out Strong: Indigenous Voices recital featuring texts by WSP’s first poet-in-residence, Lokosh (Joshua Hinson), a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, paired with brilliant young composers; and the amplification of WSP’s recently launched Indigenous Directory for Musical Storytelling (IDMS), a searchable online platform designed to amplify the visibility of Native American arts professionals, connect them with opportunities, and help the entire performing arts ecosystem thrive.
About Brent Michael Davids
Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) is an internationally celebrated composer, a music warrior for native equity and parity, and our most seasoned Indigenous composer. A citizen of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Davids is co-director of the Lenape Center in Manhattan. He created and co-founded Arizona’s renowned Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), with the Grand Canyon Music Festival, championing indigenous youth to compose written music. He designs instruments and pens performable notations that are themselves visual works of art. His composer career spans five decades, with myriad awards and commissions. As an American Indian Music Specialist, Davids is in demand as composer, educator and consultant for film, television, universities and festivals. With myriad awards and commissions, the Venice Biennale Musica 2022 featured Davids on a concert he co-curated with a specially commissioned work. In 2015, Indian Summer Festival awarded Davids its “Lifetime Achievement Award.” Davids holds both Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Music Composition from Northern Illinois University (1981) and Arizona State University (1992) respectively, trained at Redford’s Sundance Institute, and apprenticed with film composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare In Love). He has garnered the Distinguished Alumni Awards from both NIU (1996) and ASU (2004); and is repeatedly commissioned by the nation’s most celebrated ensembles, such as the National Symphony Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Chanticleer, the Joffrey Ballet, and The Santa Fe Opera. FilmComposer.us
About White Snake Projects
White Snake Projects (WSP) is an activist performance company making mission-driven work that unites artmaking with civic practice. Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera-theater, it envisions a world where the power of music expands our collective understanding of community and transforms lives through creative storytelling. The company programs thematically. Its most recent themes have been “voting rights” (2024) anchored by Is This America?, the story of Fannie Lou Hamer; and “climate” (2025) anchored by White Raven, Black Dove. A critical element in the exploration of these themes is the establishment of authentic connections with thought leaders in social justice to ensure that the company’s creative work lives in an ecosystem of activism. WSP sees opera not just as performance, but as performance with purpose, a vibrant and vital art form that is also a champion of change. WhiteSnakeProjects.org
Program Ticketing Info:
Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People (2026)
Brent Michael Davids, composer/Native American flute/writer
Cerise Lim Jacobs, producer/dramaturg
Sun May 17, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. | Barbican Hall, London, UK world premiere
Tickets Info: Tickets now on sale at BBC.co.uk.
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Sat Nov 14, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. | NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA U.S. premiere
Tickets Info: Tickets will go on sale in Summer 2026 at WhiteSnakeProjects.org.
Full orchestra (names TBA)
White Snake Projects Chorus
Tianhui Ng, conductor
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