Meaningful Music

Delta David Gier’s innovations have elevated the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, and the nation is noticing

Story by John Andrews

In the fall of 2003, Delta David Gier was among five finalists to be the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra’s next music director. When the search committee asked why he was interested in moving to Sioux Falls, he said, “I’m looking for someplace to build something significant.” Gier got the job, and his innovations over nearly 20 years have elevated the orchestra to national prominence, elicited praise from perhaps the nation’s most respected music critic and, most recently, earned him the prestigious 2022 Ditson Conductor’s Award.

​Presented by Columbia University in New York, the award is given to conductors who are passionate about advancing American music. Since its inception in 1945, recipients have included David Zinman, Alan Gilbert, George Manahan and Leonard Bernstein.

​“It really was quite an honor,” Gier says. “We’ve made contemporary music a mainstay of our repertoire since I became music director 18 years ago. We’ve devoted ourselves significantly to living American composers. We’ve had a long relationship with the Pulitzer Prize, and many Pulitzer Prize-winning composers regularly visit Sioux Falls. It was a concerted effort to play music by composers on every level, starting with the greatest living composers and including local composers, young composers, Native American composers, all mixed in with our standard repertoire of Beethoven and Brahms and so on.”

​That approach to programming has allowed audiences to hear work by locals like Stephen Yarbrough, a former music professor at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, and nationally renowned composers such as John Luther Adams, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in music. The orchestra’s world premiere performance of Adams’ An Atlas of Deep Time at its centennial finale in April 2022 truly validated Gier’s direction.

Alex Ross, a music writer who has covered Adams’ career for 30 years, traveled to South Dakota to write about the composer’s newest work. But as Ross learned more about the orchestra’s history, programming and community connections, he changed course. The resulting piece, published in The New Yorker in May, lauded the symphony as one of the country’s best. “The South Dakota Symphony is bolder and savvier in its programming than all but a handful of American ensembles,” Ross wrote, describing the group as “the model of an engaged orchestra.”

​“It was a big attaboy, probably the biggest one I could get,” Gier says. “For the musicians, it’s the same feeling, a huge pat on the back and encouragement to keep going. The hope is that leaders, not just in Sioux Falls but across the state, will say this is something we really need to support. The vision is there, it’s been validated at the highest level, so let’s continue to help this orchestra build and have an even greater impact across the state.”

The Lakota Music Project is an outreach program of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra designed to enhance cultural understanding. The group has recorded an album (left) and given live performances featuring Dakota flutist Bryan Akipa (right).

​Gier began making his own impact on the century-old orchestra and its historic local connections as soon as he arrived. The orchestra was formed in 1922 in conjunction with Augustana University. It was known for some time as the Augustana Town and Gown Symphony, became the Sioux Falls Symphony in November of 1965 and finally the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in 1977. Based in Sioux Falls’ Washington Pavilion, the fully professional 75-member orchestra stages nearly a dozen performances throughout its season. Additionally, nine full-time musicians comprise the Dakota String Quartet and the Dakota Wind Quintet, which perform in schools, hospitals, senior living communities and behavioral health and community centers throughout the region.

Gier arrived in Sioux Falls with a solid musical background. After earning a master’s degree at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, a Fulbright Scholarship allowed him to begin a career in professional conducting in Europe. He completed an apprenticeship with the Philadelphia Orchestra and then spent 15 years as an assistant conductor for the New York Philharmonic. The last five years dovetailed with his appointment with the South Dakota Symphony.

As Gier planned his inaugural 2004- 2005 season, he also wanted to gain a sense of how the orchestra fit into the fabric of Sioux Falls and South Dakota. “The one thing that was an unknown for me was how the orchestra was really serving its community and what the potential was for that,” he says. “During my first year, I was assessing — other than just playing concerts in the Pavilion — what else the orchestra was doing and what else could be done.”

At a reception one evening, Gier met a young African American woman who was involved in the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities. “I suggested to her that maybe we should do something together, because a lot of orchestras have MLK concerts and bring in Black composers and Black artists,” Gier recalls. “She smiled and nodded and said, ‘If you really want to talk about racial prejudice in South Dakota, you should be talking to the Native Americans.’ After 20 years of living in New York, my jaw hit the ground.”

The seed was planted for what became the Lakota Music Project. The SDSO hosted a lunch for Lakota and Dakota leaders that spring where Gier met Barry LeBeau, a tribal relations consultant and Indian affairs and arts lobbyist, who offered to help. The pair traveled to reservations around the state, meeting tribal elders, cultural leaders and musicians. “It took us four years to build the Lakota Music Project before we played a single note,” Gier says. “What’s unique is that we built it together with Lakota and Dakota elders and musicians. It wasn’t us going in and saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool for us to play this music for you?’ It was starting from the ground up. ‘What’s the most meaningful way we can make music together in order to address racial prejudice?’”

Delta David Gier was awarded the 2022 Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University for his commitment to advancing American music. That direction has brought several Pulitzer Prize-winning composers to Sioux Falls.

Since its launch, the Lakota Music Project has commissioned four pieces and one arrangement. The group has toured the state and performed in Washington, D.C., in 2019. The template has since been applied to other ethnic communities to create the Bridging Cultures program.

The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra begins its 2022-2023 season at the Washington Pavilion on October 8. The evening will feature pianist Conrad Tao playing a concerto by Tchaikovsky as well as Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. But as always, Gier is looking at the big picture. That includes solidifying the orchestra’s infrastructure and touring to help create a more statewide presence. “There are several artistic things I would love to accomplish, including commissions and world premieres, composers in residence and artists in residence that have been on our dance card,” he says. “Maybe this is the moment where we can capitalize on it and take the whole organization forward.”

​If the last 20 years are any indication, it would seem nothing is out of reach.