On May 17, 2026, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus will give the premiere performance of the Requiem for America, a new work by the Mohican/Munsee-Lenape composer Brent Michael Davids.

The work takes as its text a mixture of Indigenous letters and founding-era genocidal texts, revealing in the process the dark colonial foundations of America. Structurally, the work is held together by a contralto narrator, who embodies the Earth and walks the audience from the colonial “Doctrine of Discovery” to a final Threnoedia.

Davids himself will appear on the Native American flute, and will be joined by an ensemble of Native American singers. The premiere will be conducted by Teddy Abrams, and the work was initally commissioned by White Snake Projects and The Lenape Center.

The co-founder of the award-winning Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), Davids has had works performed at Carnegie Hall, Disney Concert Hall, Tanglewood Music Center’s Koussevitzky Shed and Ozawa Hall, Rothko Chapel, The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, and The Kennedy Center.

In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts named Davids among the nation’s most celebrated choral composers in its project “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius", and in 2015, the Indian Summer Music Festival awarded Davids its Lifetime Achievement Award.

You can book tickets for the premiere through the Barbican.