Loksi’ Shaali’ means Shell Shaker in the Chickasaw language. It’s also the title of a new opera by Chickasaw classical composer Jerod Tate.
“It’s a hero’s story of a young girl named Loksi’, which is our word for turtle. It’s just her finding herself and her place and she becomes a hero of the tribe. It’s very triumphant and very focused and positive,” he said.
Apart from telling a hero’s story, Tate said the opera shares an origin story for the tradition of shell shaking.
“Shell shaking is part of our stomp dancing. And so, women wear bundles of turtle rattles on their legs and when we're dancing, they shuffle on the ground,” he said.
The world premiere of the opera will be performed by the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and Canterbury Voices at the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City. Tate said premiering the opera in his home state is important to him.
“I'm very proud of our Oklahoma community. We've got 39 tribes here and we have a lot of really exciting things going on with our different tribes. And I just love that I get to premiere here and share that with my native community here in Oklahoma,” he said.
Canterbury Voices artistic director Julie Yu also grew up in Oklahoma. She said she’s proud to represent the state’s diversity through this work.
“Part of our mission in Canterbury for this year, when I came on as artistic director, is that the ensemble itself and the pieces that we perform reflect a greater image of what we see in our community,” she said. “And this is one more way that we can kind of highlight and say how special it is that we have this Native American history and beauty in the arts and such.”
Loksi’ Shaali’ is more than a representation of Native American history. It’s also makinghistory as the first full opera composed entirely in a Native American language — specifically, the Chickasaw language.
Tate has composed smaller works in other Native American languages before, including Lakota and Lumbee. He said elevating Native languages through music is his life’s mission.
“I love bringing our languages to the world stage like that. That's a very powerful thing, to hear your own language being sung in a theatrical, dramatic environment like that,” he said.
Classical singer Kate Morton is an Oklahoma native and member of the Cherokee Nation. She’s performing the title role of Loksi’, and said the opportunity to be a part of this historic performance is a blessing.
“Whenever I started in classical music, I didn't see the Cherokee language represented within the classical voice music cannon,” she said. “And so, to be able to perform this piece in Chickasaw — an opera entirely in a Native language — it’s the greatest honor and it’s just incredible to be a part of this, honestly. I’m floored.”
Yu said a majority of the chorus has never heard Chickasaw before, much less attempted to speak or sing it. However, she said they were able to put words to music rather quickly.
“They say music is the international language. But truly, we operate off of an alphabet that's called the International Phonetic Alphabet. And we were able to come together just like that because the sounds and the ways of speech, you know, we all study that all the time,” she said.
And for audience members who do not speak Chickasaw, Yu said there will be supertitles displaying what is being sung phrase by phrase.
It's almost like you begin to start hearing the language and start understanding what's happening, And I think that’s the beautiful part of hearing languages sung — is that for a moment we force you into that immersion,” she said.
As final rehearsals are coming together, Tate said he has the best seat in the house.
“To see this happening and to be a part of this is an overwhelming honor. And I'm just so grateful that I get to experience this,” he said.
The premiere is on Sunday, Oct. 27. A second premiere in Massachusetts is planned for February.
