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LaRae Wiley is a life-long resident of
Northeastern Washington State and is an
enrolled member of the Colville Confederated
Tribes, Lakes Band. She currently lives in the
town of Chewelah, Washington with her husband
and children. LaRae divides her time between
composing and performing music, studying Interior
Salish, the language of her tribe, and caring
for her family.
LaRae is a graduate of Eastern Washington
University, where she earned bachelors degrees
in both History and Education. She is an
active alumnus of Eastern, serving on the
scholarship committee of the Indian Studies
Program, supporting the Women's Studies and
Indian Studies Programs, and helping to form an
American Indian Alumni Association at the university.
LaRae has many years of experience working as
a teacher and librarian.
LaRae Wiley has recorded and published two full
length albums of original music on her own
HummingTree Productions label. Her debut recording,
Dissonant World, was released in the fall of 1999.
Her second album, Kelly Hill was released in the fall
of 2001. She is currently composing and arranging
music for a third release.
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As a solo artist, LaRae has played a variety of venues in Washington, Oregon and Idaho
ranging from small town coffee shops to Seattle's Northwest Folklife Festival.
She most often performs as a three-piece, accompanied by long-time collaborator
Maria Tart on bass and backing vocals and by a percussion player, currently her husband,
Christopher Parkin.
LaRae also gained considerable performance experience while playing with Jim Boyd's
band Rez Bound. Boyd won Album of the Year at the 2002 Native American Music Awards
for his recording, Alternatives. With Boyd, LaRae played many shows including
The Sundance Film Festival, the Native American Music Awards, an opening for folk legend
Joan Baez, and several collaborative performances with author/poet Sherman Alexie.
Since the fall of 2002, LaRae has been a full time student of the Interior Salish
language. She has studied at the Wellpinit branch of the Salish-Kootenai College,
and also at Usk, Washington on the Kalispel Indian Reservation. For personal,
cultural and historic reasons, LaRae dreams of becoming fluent in three dialects
of Interior Salish- Spokane, Kalispel and Lakes. Her dream is to play a part in
preserving and rebuilding the language by learning from her elders and then teaching
a new generation.
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