Tuscarora Singer Jennifer Kreisberg Nominated for an Independent Music Award

Hartford (Connecticut), USA – Native American musician Jennifer Kreisberg (Tuscarora), the youngest member of Ulali, the first Native female a cappella trio of its kind, has been nominated for an Independent Music Award in the Film/TV category for her song “Have Hope”. She both composed and performed the song for the motion picture Unnatural and Accidental. This is on the heels of just receiving a NAMMY (Native American Music Award) for Song of the Year, on October 6, 2007, up at the Seneca Casino & Resort at Niagara Falls, New York.

The song also received the “Genie Award” (Canadian Oscar) for “Achievement in Music – Original Song” from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and the “Critics Pick” from the New York Times. “Have Hope” will be included in her soon to be released solo album titled Wah Thye Yeh Rak (She mixed it, Tuscarora Language). The Independent Music Awards (IMA’s) is an International program that helps Indie artists and releases overcome mainstream obstacles and reach wider audiences. In its seventh year, the IMA’s received over 45,000 submissions from all over the world. Not billed as a contest, the program provides year-long promotion, marketing and distribution opportunities that place IMA Winners and Finalists in front of millions of music fans & industry decision makers around the world. Winners and Finalists of the 7th Annual IMA program will be promoted throughout 2008.

The Native American Music Awards held its Ninth Annual Native American Music Awards in Niagara Falls at the Seneca Casino & Resort on October 6, 2007. The Native American Music Awards were established in 1998 as the first and only national awards show in the world honoring Native American and Aboriginal music, and continues to proudly honor the outstanding musical achievements of Native American artists from across the country in over thirty Award categories.

Unnatural & Accidental, produced by Carl Bessai, is a dramatized film version of Marie Clements'(Dene) stage play The Unnatural and Accidental Woman which is inspired by the true story of the drowning deaths of ten Native women in Vancouver, BC (Due to a prolific serial killer). The coroner labeled each death, “unnatural and accidental.” The DVD is released and available in the US.

As part of the trio, she has contributed to the soundtrack for the TBS series The Native Americans and subsequently contributed two songs on the Robbie Robertson’s album of the same name, The Native Americans. Also, as a member of the trio, Jennifer contributed music to the Showtime hit series The L Word and to the soundtrack of the motion picture Smoke Signals; co-writing and co-performing on the song “Wah jhi le yihm.”

She is a recipient of the “Eagle Achievement Award”, the highest award for outstanding contribution to Native Community and Arts, from the Native American Film Institute in San Francisco; been honored with the key to the city of Greensboro, North Carolina, and a winner of the “Native Women’s Recognition Award” from Ganondagon (a New York State historic site on the location of a major 17th-century Seneca town and granary that is referred to the “Town of Peace” and revered and protected as the burial site of the “Mother of Nations”).

Known for her high reaching vocals, Jennifer Kreisberg singer/composer was born and raised in Connecticut and still resides there with her husband and son when she is not on the road singing as part of the critically acclaimed Native Women’s Trio Ulali. Being a member of the trio for over seventeen years, Jennifer’s work with them has taken her all over the world and extensively throughout Indian Country.

Jennifer has shared the stage with such performers as Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown, Richie Havens, Sting, and many others. She has performed at such venues as Woodstock 94, the Smithsonian Institute – National Museum of the American Indian, 1996 & 2002 Olympics, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, New Orleans Jazz Festival, and the Hollywood Bowl (for the Dalai Lama). She also performed in the Vagina Monologues at Madison Square Garden and in the Vagina Monologues film. She sings a song in the upcoming PBS/National Geographic children’s production Momma Mirabelle. Jennifer is also featured alone and with Ulali on the soundtrack of the upcoming Canadian television film Elijah.

Jennifer made a guest appearance as ‘Salmon Girl’ in Sherman Alexie’s film The Business of Fancy Dancing. The soundtrack features her singing the “Deer Song,” which she composed in 1997 for the Aboriginal Women’s Voices project in Banff, Canada. She can also be heard on two other tracks, including “Osinilshatin,” featuring Michelle St. John, for which Jennifer composed the melody and produced and sang on the track.

Jennifer is a Core Advisory member of the First Nations Composers Initiative. Most recently, she is a recipient of the 2007 Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism Artist Fellowship grant, for music composition, the Native Arts Grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts and a grant from the First Nations Composers Initiative, both for her solo CD project.

Her much anticipated debut solo album titled Wah Thye Yeh Rak (She Mixed It Tuscarora language) is due out this winter. Jennifer is collaborating with Tuscarora (NC) Activist, Actor, and Artist Christopher Lowry for the Tuscarora language translations on her upcoming album. She is also teaming up with renowned Creek/Cherokee/Seminole painter Dana Tiger for the album cover artwork.