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Cherokee National Children's Choir

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - The Cherokee National Children's Choir will perform during the most prestigious Native American musical event of the year, the Native American Music Awards (NAMMYS). The choir, which has earned two NAMMY nominations, has been invited to perform a medley of selections from their first full-length CD, "Voices of the Creator's Children."

"We are so excited," said Jamie Geneva, program director for the choir. "It is just incredible for us to have gotten these two nominations."

The NAMMYS award ceremony will be held at the Marcus Amphitheater, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on September 7.

The Cherokee National Children's Choir is nominated for NAMMYs in the categories of Debut Artist/Group of the Year, and their album, "Voices of the Creator's Children," featuring Rita Coolidge, has received a nomination for best Gospel/Christian Album.

The Cherokee National Children's Choir features children from Cherokee communities like Kenwood, Oaks, Leach, Briggs and Tahlequah. The choir members are between the sixth and ninth grades. Their album, "Voices of the Creator's Children," was the inspiration of Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, who has always believed in the potential of the group.

"These children show the strength of Cherokee culture by continuing to sing our songs that have survived for hundreds of years," Smith said. "We truly appreciate their talents, and it is good to see them get recognition on a national level."

Early in the planning stages for the record, Smith called on two-time Grammy award-winning songstress Rita Coolidge, who is of Cherokee descent (and herself a past recipient of the Native American Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAMMYS), and she agreed to lend her vocal talents to the project. The choir and Coolidge were also joined on the recording by the Kenwood Emmanuel Baptist Church Choir, the Cherokee Choir, and Cherokee storyteller and musician Choogie Kingfisher. Together they created a musical statement that is steeped in the strength of the Cherokee culture, and the beauty of its language. Produced and funded by the Cherokee Nation, the album was co-produced by program director Jamie Geneva, choir director Jan Ballou, and Jeffrey Gray Parker, and was recorded at various locations in the Tahlequah area, with final production at Cimarron Sound Lab studio, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Since the release of the album earlier this year, 2002 has been an exciting time for the choir, with a busy performance schedule that has taken them as far away as New York City, where they performed at "Ground Zero," and for several of the firehouses of the brave men and women firefighters who were called to duty on 9/11. That was followed with shows in Washington, D.C., at the Smithsonian Institution and the Department of the Interior. The Children's Choir also made their voices heard with a stirring performance on the mall of the U.S. Capitol Building.

The NAMMYS are a national platform for the exposure of both new and well-known musical talents, and features the best of Native American and Native-influenced performers from all genres and styles of music. The organization's roster of past winners and present nominees showcases some of the biggest names in the field of entertainment. The nominees were selected from a field of more than 140 entries. The Native American Music Awards advisory membership then narrowed the submissions to five artists for final nomination in each category.