Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and the Dover Quartet Carry Chickasaw Stories Through Strings

In classical music, tradition can feel fixed and untouchable, but Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate is changing that. His latest work, Woodland Songs, performed by the Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet, brings the forest into the concert hall. Strings become storytellers, carrying the rhythms, movements, and presence of nature through a Native perspective that is all Tate’s own.

Each movement channels the energy of a creature from Tate’s Chickasaw homeland: the squirrel, the woodpecker, the deer, the fish, and the raccoon, which represents his clan. These pieces are living portraits of the natural world, giving listeners a sense of each animal’s presence and movement in sound.

The Dover Quartet approaches the work with a mix of precision and freedom, following Tate’s guidance while bringing their own interpretations to the music. Every performance becomes its own living experience, where structure and spontaneity coexist, and the music feels alive in the room.

His arrangements of Rattle Songs, featuring vocal and turtle-shell rattle arrangements by Tuscarora/Taino artist Pura Fé that weave traditional and modern harmonies together, moving fluidly between past and present, were also commissioned by the Dover Quartet. The music reflects a deep connection to the land and the people it comes from, while opening space for new stories to emerge.

Woodland Songs does more than expand the string quartet repertoire, it brings Native stories, landscapes, and rhythms into spaces where they are rarely heard. Tate’s compositions let listeners feel the life and movement of the forest and its animal inhabitants, and the pulse of tradition, showing that classical music can carry new voices and energy without losing its clarity or depth.