The Cooper Union’s Gardiner Foundation Great Hall Forum will present the New York stage premieres of two short operas this November in Manhattan.

The program, titled “Native Voices Karenna—Lay Our Vibration Down,” features music by Dawn Avery, a Grammy nominated cellist and composer of Mohawk descent. Danielle Olana Jagelski, of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe, serves as music director.

“Trials and Tears” is a collaboration between Avery and Oneida/Ojibwe multidisciplinary artist Ty Defoe. The piece responds to the painting “Trail of Tears” (2005) by Benny Andrews, held in the collection of the Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C. Commissioned by New Music Theatre Alliance in 2022, the opera will receive its first live performance at this event. Baritone actor Jarrod Lee portrays Andrews, who taught art in the New York prison system and co founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. Tenor Bo Shimmin, of the Pueblo of Acoma, also performs.

“Sacajawea: Women of Many Names” is a collaboration between Avery and librettist soprano Blake Hill Saya, of Waccamaw Sioux descent, developed with input from Shoshone advisor and elder Francesca Mason Boring. The opera presents Sacajawea, performed by mezzo soprano Kate Morton, of Cherokee descent, through the lens of Shoshone ancestral tradition rather than Western historical narratives about her life.

The program also features original video design by Kate Freer.