Louis W. Ballard (July 8, 1931 – February 9, 2007) was a Native American composer, educator, author, artist, and journalist. He is "known as the father of Native American composition."

Early life

Louis Wayne Ballard was born on July 8, 1931, in Devil's Promenade near Miami, Oklahoma. His father was Charles G. Ballard, Cherokee, and his mother Leona Quapaw was Quapaw. On his mother's side, he was related to a prominent medicine chief of the Quapaw Tribe, and on his father's side he was related to Joel B. Mayes, a principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

His music has been celebrated with three concerts at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. in 2006 as well as a memorial concert held at the same venue on November 10, 2007.

Awards and recognition

Ballard graduated in 1962 from the University of Tulsa, and was distinguished by being the first American Indian to receive a graduate degree in music composition. In 1969, Ballard's Ritmo Indio, a three movement work for woodwind quintet, won the Marion Nevins McDowell Award for American Chamber Music. Ballard's Desert Trilogy, his second work for ballet, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1971. In 1999, he was the first American composer to have a complete concert dedicated to his music at Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Germany. He has also received the National Indian Achievement Award four times. In addition, he was awarded with several more awards in honor of his contributions which include: the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Central Office of Education, a citation in the U.S. Congressional Record, and the Cherokee Medal of Honor.

Ballard was also the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts. In February 1997 he received a Lifetime Musical Achievement Award from the First Americans in the Arts in Beverly Hills, California. The College of Santa Fe and William Jewell College awarded him honorary Doctor of Music degrees. In 2004 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.

Discography

Filmography

  • 1971: Discovering American Indian Music. Directed by Bernard Wilets. Barr Films.

See also

  • List of Native American artists
  • Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas
  • Quapaw Tribe
  • Quapaw, Oklahoma

Notes

  • Louis W. Ballard Louis W. Ballard official site from family 2022-onwards
  • Louis W. Ballard inductee info from Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame
  • Program note for Incident at Wounded Knee, from American Composers Orchestra site
  • Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Ballard, Louis
  • Louis W. Ballard obituary, by David Collins and Craig Smith, from The New Mexican
  • "American Indian Composers Go Classical", by Felix Contreras, from All Things Considered, January 1, 2009