Born in 1977 in Fort Defiance, Arizona, on the territory of the Navajo Nation. He studied at the University of New Mexico, where he became a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2001 and went on to complete a Master’s degree in composition at the California Institute of the Arts in 2004. He studied with James Tenney, Morton Subotnick, Michael Pisaro, Wadada Leo Smith, and Christopher Shultis. His visual and sound works have been widely presented in the United States and internationally. The large-format sound-and-text installation Still Life 3 (2015) was featured in the exhibition Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. His individual and collaborative work has been presented notably at the Sydney Biennale, Kennedy Center, Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, Adelaide International, Vancouver Art Gallery, ASU Art Museum, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Heard Museum, Chaco Canyon, and in Performance Today.
He also performs with the groups KILT (with Bob Bellerue), Mesa Ritual (with William Fowler Collins), and Endlings (with John Dieterich), and carries out joint projects with Laura Ortman and Igor Cavalera. In 2016 he received a commission from the Kronos Quartet for a work for the Fifty for the Future project. He serves as composer-in-residence for the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project. His numerous awards and honours include a Pulitzer Prize (2022), American Academy in Berlin Prize in music composition, Creative Capital Award in the visual arts, United States Artists fellowship in music, Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, and a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship. He was also the first recipient of the Mellon Foundation Artist-in-Residence fellowship at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. In October 2023 he became a MacArthur Fellow.
Selected works: Duet for two musicians (2000), piano, noise electronics (2000), Pointillissimo for string quartet (2001), Whistle Quartet for dog whistles (2001), Niltsa Bińdd Hooltil [Female Rain Approaching] for chamber ensemble (2001), Octet (dando la vuelta) for mixed ensemble (2002), Bilagáana ádin for flute and ensemble (2003), Beesh Naalnishi for chamber orchestra (2003), Atsiniltlish’ iye for flute, clarinet, bassoon, cello and percussion (2003), Music for Voice for four tam-tams (2003), (+) cello for looped cello and action initiator (2003), Ella Llora for voice (2003), Mirror Quintet/Teasing Game for five string instruments of the same kind (2004), La’ts’ áadah for violin (2004), Mute Nonet for electric guitars and 8-channel mixer (2004), …lahgo adil’i dine doo yeehosinilgii yidaaghi for large ensemble (2004), Naakishchiin ana’i for flute and marimba (2004), Echo Contest for two musicians (2005), Scream Out of Each Window for a family performing the work (2005), Hasta’aadah for wind orchestra without a conductor (2006), Solo for Guitar (2006), Taago Deza [Three Points], three songs for singing cellist (2007), Round for multiple performers and turntable (2007), Nihikeedoo’ yinaal for mixed ensemble and electronics (2007), Nilchi’ Shada’ji Nalaghali for excessively amplified piano (2008), Whisper Trio for three performers (2008), Drum Grid for dozens of percussionists performing the work in an open space (2010), Biyán for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion (2011), Double Weaving for string quartet (2014), Song for Voice, Drum, and Shadowing Voice (2015), Journey of the Horizontal People for string quartet (2016), Asdzaa Nadleehe & Yoolgai Asdzaa for soprano, mezzosoprano and instruments (2016), Invisible Arc for cello (2017), Quiver for cello (2018), Nuestro día viene for choir (2018), Chorale for 4–8 moored ships using fog horns (2018), Táá’ts’áadah for trumpet (2018), American Ledger No. 2 (2019), Tremble Staves for quartertone electric guitar, percussion and narrator with supporting ensemble (2017–19), (Bury Me) Where The Lightning [Will] Never Find Me for bass clarinet, percussion, violin and cello (2019), Horse Notations for flute, string quartet and two hand drums (2019), For Zitkála-Šá, 12 graphic scores for artists of Native American descent (2017–20), American Ledger No. 3 for two female choirs (2020), Sweet Land, opera (2020), Voiceless Massfor pipe organ and large ensemble (2021), Compass for excessively amplified electric guitar (2021), Being Future Being for dancers and noise sound (2021), Owl Song for sinfonietta and voice (2021), Old Song for English horn, bass clarinet, cello and percussion (2022), Call for the Company in the Morning for eight trumpets of varied performance character (2022), Ashdla’ for string orchestra (2022), Reckoning for voice, trumpet, bass clarinet and trombone (2023), Wave upon Wave for eight highly directional voices (2023), Inscription for orchestra (2024), Couplet for cellos (2024), Background Music (2024), Vertical Neighbors for two trumpets and two trombones (2024), Tiguex for the entire city of Albuquerque (2025), Conductus for multiple choirs distributed across numerous spaces (2025), Dį́į́į́’ts’áadah į́ for double bass (2025), Compound for pianist, four archers firing arrows at a pianola, and shooting darts (2025).