Performances by the Lontano Ensemble led by Conductor
Odaline de la Martinez
Boston, MA — Charles Shadle has announced the Aug. 15 release of his debut LORELT album Choctaw Places, a stirring homage to his native Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma for which the composer reconvened the dynamic chamber group, Lontano Ensemble, at the helm of award-winning Cuban-American conductor Odaline de la Martinez. Dedicated to his Oklahoma homeland, Choctaw Places captures the Choctaw aesthetic—the tribe’s cultural, spiritual, and physical connection to its environment.
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. The displacement of the Choctaw from their ancestral lands with a forced migration of 20,000 Choctaw to Oklahoma (leading to the death of some 4,000) only deepened the tribe’s bond with place.
“As a member of the Choctaw Nation, I feel that my identity is connected to land because it was once taken away from us. All of the album’s songs are deeply rooted in landscape, in that they are focused on the natural world and the relationship of human beings to that world. I drew on my own memories, and those of my Choctaw ancestors, when evoking and celebrating our Oklahoma homeland.” — Charles Shadle (b. 1960)
The album presents the recording debut of two of Shadle’s compositions. The opening track is Oklahoma Choctaw Cycle (2010-16) commissioned by Lontano. It comprises three movements: Limestone Gap (2010), Red Cedar (2014), and The Old Place (2016), all heard for the first time on this recording as the triptych it was intended to be. The eponymous Chahta Aiasha (Choctaw Places) (2022) was commissioned by the Radius Ensemble and born out of solitude during the COVID pandemic. Consisting of five interconnected sections, Chahta Aiasha suggests a multi-movement form while retaining the motivic integrity of a developing variation.
Choctaw Places presents the Lontano ensemble at an elevated level of consciousness and artistry. The best way for Shadle to honor the spirits and preserve the legacy of the Choctaw people is to cultivate an interconnectedness among listeners and the performing artists. His long and fruitful relationship with the London-based group and its intrepid Music Director, Odaline de la Martinez, creates a powerful album that transcends genres, cultures, and time.
Digital + Physical Release Date: August 15, 2025
LORELT #LNT149
Download Album: CHOCTAW
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About Charles Shadle
Charles Shadle teaches composition, music theory, and music history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he serves as a Senior Lecturer in Music, and as Theory Coordinator.
He is the 2016 and 2024 recipient of a SHASS Levitan Teaching Award. Numerous institutions, including SUNY Buffalo, Longwood Opera, the Lake George Opera Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Intermezzo, the Newton Choral Society, the Radius Ensemble, the Frances Clark Center, the Baroque Orchestra of Oklahoma, the University of Colorado, and Lontano (UK) have commissioned his work.
For the National Film Preservation Foundation, he has composed six film scores, all of which are commercially available. A career-long focus on vocal music has resulted in commissions from such distinguished singers as Carlos Archuleta, Marcus Deloach, Fernando Del Valle, Gale Fuller, Jason McStoots, Margaret O’Keefe, Laura Strickling, and Jeremy Huw Williams. Dr. Shadle collaborated with MIT colleague and librettist Michael Ouellette on three operas, Coyote’s Diner, A Question of Love and A Last Goodbye, as well as the cantata, A New England Seasonal.
Major recent works include the song cycle Primordia for Baritone Jeremy Huw Williams, a Missa Brevis Sanctii Oswaldi for the Schola Cantorum of St Stephen’s, Providence, Dogtown Common (piano quartet) for the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, a 3rd Symphony and Symphony No.4 for the MIT Symphony Orchestra, and Three Chardin Fantasies for fortepiano trio, as part of “On Beethoven’s Piano” a residency cosponsored by MIT and The Handel and Haydn Society.
Performances during the 2024-25 season included first performances of Wheelock Variations for guitar with Choctaw guitarist Alexander Lassa, Iti Fabvssa with cellist Leo Eguchi, and Grace for Soprano, Chorus and Chamber Orchestra to a poem by Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan, for the opening of MIT’s Linde Music Building.
In the coming year Dr. Shadle will complete commissions from violinist Nash Ryder, Emmanuel Music, the MIFA Festival, and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra.
He received his Ph.D. in Composition and Theory from Brandeis University and counts among his teachers Cecil Effinger, Richard Toensing, Barbara Jazwinsky, Yehudi Wyner, Edward Cohen, Harold Shapero, and Eloise Ristad.
Dr Shadle is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. This heritage is reflected in works ranging from the large-scaled Oklahoma Choctaw Cycle (Limestone Gap, Red Cedar, and The Old Place) for chamber ensemble as well as songs to poems of Alexander Posey (Muskoke/Creek) for the Plimpton Foundation’s “North American Indigenous Songbook”, to the short and accessible Choctaw Animals piano pieces, recently made available by MIT.
