Talk:David A. Yeagley
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His music "career" doesn't seem like much. He's mostly a speaker for the far right, who seems to be pretending to be Comanche. Seems like the focus on his music carrer is just trying to weasel out of what he actually is.
I tried to add the following sources and it seems the article is now too long. Could others add them? Here's the article in full as I tried to leave it:
David Anthony Yeagley (born September 5, 1951) is an American composer, pianist, conservative commentator, and portrait artist. He also writes poetry and fiction, plays the Native American flute, and Gourd Dances. He lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Oklahoma City, Yeagley is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, based in Lawton, Oklahoma, and claims descent from Bad Eagle, a band headman among the Kwahadi (Antelope) Comanche of West Texas. His actual birth is in dispute. He claims he was born to a Comanche (and part Chickasaw) mother, Norma Juanita Portillo Yeagley (1922-2005)[1] (who was Bad Eagle's great-granddaughter), and a white father, Ned Carlton Yeagley.[2]. Most of Yeagley's critics, and most Comanches, say that Yeagley was adopted. His family, by his own account, identified as white. Yeagley did not identify himself as Comanche until after being sought out by David Horowitz.
[edit] Education
Yeagley received a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance and Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a Master of Divinity in Biblical Studies and History from Yale University, a Master of Arts in Literature and History from Emory University (1981), an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the Hartt School of Music, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Composition from the University of Arizona (1994). For his senior recital at Oberlin Conservatory, Yeagley performed a program of his own solo piano compositions. This program was aired on radio in Connecticut, California, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas.
During his college career, Yeagley studied piano with Fernando Laires, John Perry, James Mathis, Dadi Mehta, Louis de Moura Castro, Paul Rutman, Nicholas Zumbro, Ruth Slenczynska, Alexander Uninsky, and Frank Mannheimer. He has studied composition with Daniel Asia, Krzysztof Penderecki, Richard Hoffman, and Joseph Wood.
[edit] Social work
Yeagley worked as a child care resident counselor at St. Francis Home for Children in New Haven, Connecticut for four years (1980-1984). Following this, he was employed at the ACES Academy, a secondary level special education facility for children in Hamden, Connecticut (1985-1987). He has also held professional positions in the private elder care field.
[edit] Teaching career
Yeagley taught a single course in humanities for a single semester at the University of Oklahoma's College of Liberal Studies in 2001. By his own account, he was fired for his attempt to use the course to teach his political point of view to his students, and then attempting to claim he officially represented the university's administration.
[edit] Writings
Yeagley has only published a single academic article in the US in his entire career. His other articles are, notably, published by an Iranian foundation that he is a member of. In 1987 and 1995 Yeagley's musicology articles were published in The Journal of the American Liszt Society. In addition to his musicological research, he has also published in Persian Heritage magazine (for which he has been a member of the editorial board since 1998).[3] The magazine published his collection of epic poetry, entitled Jahan-dideh, which is dedicated to the Empress of Iran, Farah Pahlavi. In 1999 Yeagley was a guest lecturer on the topic of American culture and religion at the University of Tehran and Ferdawsi University. In May 2000 he appeared in Bethesda, Maryland, at the Conference on Iranian Studies, to present a paper about Zoroaster and the Jews, which was also published in Persian Heritage Magazine. He presented a second paper at the May 2002 Iranian Studies Conference, also in Bethesda, Maryland, entitled "David and Darius: The Origins of Internationalism." In Fall 2000 a third paper on an Iranian subject, entitled "The Original Diaspora: A Case for Persian Jews," was distributed (but not publicly read) at The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., at the Mihan Foundation conference "Pluralism and Religions in Iranian History and Civilization." For this paper, Yeagley received letters of praise, including one from the President and CEO of the Mihan Foundation.
[edit] Compositions
In 1997 Yeagley was commissioned by the New Jersey Chamber Music Society for his duo for oboe and bassoon entitled Three Spirit Dances on the Bark of an Ancient Stump, which premiered in the Jersey City Museum as part of a concert featuring works by American Indian composers. In 1998 this work was performed in Caesarea, Israel as part of a benefit concert, including a guest appearance/lecture by Yeagley himself.
In 1999 he was commissioned by James Pellerite for a new solo sonata for traditional Northern Plains Native American flute, which was premiered at the Annual Native American Symposium at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. This, along with his 10 Etudes for Native American Flute, can be found on his 2004 album Awakenings. He was also commissioned by José Cordero, Founder and President of the Native Sun Symphony Orchestra, to compose that organization's anthem. Yeagley's music for Native American flute has also been recorded by Timothy Archambault.
Also in 1999, Yeagley was commissioned by the late Jack P. Eisner for an opera about the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, entitled Jacek. Eisner was one of the last surviving leaders of the Warsaw Resistance. During a recent visit to Israel, Yeagley was appointed by Eisner to depict his published autobiography, entitled The Survivor of the Holocaust, through the medium of a grand opera. A portion of the opera was released on CD by the Opus One label in 2005.
Yeagley has long falsely claimed this work was the first opera about the Holocaust. However, numerous operas about the Holocaust preceded his, included ones by Viktor Ullman, Hans Krasa, Stefan Heucke,Nicholas Maw, Cathy Mansfield,David Amram, Joel Hoffman, and others.
In October 2006, his music was performed in the Elmer and Mary Louise Rasmuson Theater at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.[4] On November 10, 2007, an entire concert at the same location was devoted to his music.[5] Yeagley has frequently dispraraged
the NMAI as "Communist" and "anti white" and objects to their inclusion of Latin American Indians, who he refers to as "darkies." The NMAI currently vows that Yeagleuy will not be permitted to return.
[edit] As political commentator and white supremacist blogger
Yeagley, who also writes columns on political subjects, presents himself as "the only voice of conservative American Indian thought," a label his critics strongly dispute, describing him as anti-Indian and white supremacist. [6] He is a contributor to David Horowitz's website FrontPageMag.com and has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, and C-SPAN. He has been on the roster of speakers for the Young America's Foundation since 2001.[7] He has been outspoken in his criticism of the movement to eliminate sports mascots claiming to "honor" Indigenous peoples[8][9] as well as the opponents of Columbus Day.[10]
Yeagley is also a member or supporter of a number far right or white supremacist groups. He wrote articles for the anti-Indian group One Nation, the self described white nationalist and anti immigrant website VDARE. He is a speaker for the anti-Semitic John Birch Society, best known for its many conspiracy theories. His online forum Badeagle includes many white supremacists, including members of Stormfront and the National Alliance. A member of Stormfront moderated his forum's section on Jews.
Among Yeagley's more controversial positions are his defense of slavery, his defense of the word "nigger," comparing Janet Jackson to an ape, describing Martin Luther King as "a blight on history," calling for the mass murder of illegal immigrants and the mass deportation of Muslims and Arabs, and describing the victims of the Virginia Tech University massacre as "cowards." [1][11]
