CONTRIBUTOR:

Heidi Aklaseaq Senungetuk

AFFILIATION:

TITLE:

Iñupiaq musician and scholar

DEPARTMENT:

INSTITUTION:

Wesleyan University

BIOGRAPHY:

Heidi Aklaseaq Senungetuk is an Inupiaq musician and scholar. As an ethnomusicologist, Heidi received a master’s degree from Wesleyan University, where she is currently completing the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the University of Michigan School of Music. In addition to her current performance schedule with the Anchorage Symphony and the Anchorage Opera, Heidi held positions with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, and the Breckenridge Music Festival. She has performed as a violinist at the Inuit Artist’s World Showcase in Inukjuak, Canada, and at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. in their Classical Native Series. As first violinist with The Coast Orchestra, an all-Native American ensemble, Heidi performed at the National Gallery of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. Heidi is also member of the Kingikmiut Dancers and Singers of Anchorage, a dance group with ancestral ties to Wales, Alaska that shares traditional Inupiat performing arts with the community. A strong advocate for Alaska Native cultures, Heidi has been teaching ethnomusicology at the University of Alaska Anchorage since 2015.