Citywide Performance by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer Raven Chacon Premieres September 27

Tiguex, a large-scale, one-day musical performance by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and Albuquerque native Raven Chacon, will turn Albuquerque landmarks into a citywide stage for sound, history, and community. The event will take place rain or shine on Saturday, September 27, across 20 locations throughout the city including the bosque, KiMo Theatre, and Petroglyph National Monument.

Composed specifically for Albuquerque, Tiguex unfolds in 20 overlapping movements performed by more than 200 musicians from across the city’s diverse music communities. The work will be presented as a series of live performances spread throughout the day, connecting audiences to the landscapes and histories that shape Albuquerque, from the Sandia Mountains and West Mesa volcanoes to the Rio Grande, railroads, Route 66, and the Pueblos of Sandia and Isleta.

Tiguex.com will have a comprehensive list of the schedule and locations of all 20 movements, including a downloadable PDF guide. Viewers can also follow the One ABQ Media’s YouTube channel the day of to livestream the events as they unfold.

The performances include a trumpeter heralding the beginning and end of the day at sunrise and sunset; two trombonists in a hot air balloon circling the city; singers from Sandia and Isleta pueblos singing traditional songs from a rooftop at 2^nd and Central; a gathering of heavy metal drummers performing blast beats at the Atomic Museum; and a cellist in a raft floating down the Rio Grande.

The score for Tiguex takes the form of a lithograph map of Albuquerque, showing both the geographic and temporal structure of the work. The title itself comes from the Tiwa word meaning “the valley between Sandia and Isleta Pueblos.”

“Tiguex is a score of remembering. It is a map to find the reminders that cities are meeting points. Residents and tourists will encounter surreal moments of music-making throughout the day, but every note played in Tiguex will be sounded with humility,” Chacon said.

Tiguex is a collaboration with the Tamarind Institute, the City of Albuquerque’s Department of Arts & Culture, and UNM’s Department of Music, with fiscal support from the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

“Raven Chacon’s Tiguex is unlike anything else, a massive performance that could only be created by someone with such deep roots in Albuquerque,” said Dr. Shelle Sanchez, director of Arts & Culture. “This project is a true gift from one of our own, bringing music, history, and community together across the places that define our city.”

For more information: https://www.tiguex.com/

Raven Chacon is a composer, performer, and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. As a solo artist, Chacon has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Renaissance Society, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Borealis Festival, SITE Santa Fe, Chaco Canyon, Ende Tymes Festival, and Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York. As a member of Postcommodity from 2009-2018, he co-created artworks presented at the Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, Carnegie International 57, as well as the 2-mile-long land art installation Repellent Fence.

A recording artist over the span of 24 years, Chacon has appeared on more than eighty releases on various national and international labels. In 2022, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition Voiceless Mass. His 2020 Manifest Destiny opera Sweet Land, co-composed with Du Yun, received critical acclaim from The LA Times, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and was named 2021 Opera of the Year by the Music Critics Association of North America.