For Immediate Release: May 20, 2003
Contact: Michael Wiliiams, 970-882-4811

Flute Performance at Anasazi Heritage Center

Traditional Ute flute music by Norman Lopez will fill the Special Exhibit Gallery at the BLM Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, Colorado on Monday, May 26.

Lopez, of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, is both a musician and a craftsman of cedar flutes. Flute music has roots that run deep in the history of the Ute People. Ute elders say that flutes are an instrument of romance, and were made and used by bachelors to win the affection of maidens. Scholar Cathy Wright reports that "flute makers feel that only the young woman being courted could hear the heartfelt songs of the player, or that only she alone would recognize the song of her suitor."

Mr. Lopez will perform periodically between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the museum's Special Exhibits Gallery, where the exhibit "A Celebration of Basket Weaving" is presently on display. This exhibit of contemporary basketry is on loan from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. More special events are planned, including a demonstration by local Ute elders of their unique basketry techniques on June 15.

The Anasazi Heritage Center is open daily from 9 to 5. Special events are made possible by fees collected under the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program. Admission is $3 for adults, and free for children, educational groups, and federal pass holders. For more information, call (970) 882-4811 or visit the Center's web site at www.co.blm/gov/ahc.

-BLM-