Biography
During his enrollment as a pupil at Zuni Elementary School in the late 1960s, Fernando Cellicion faced an assignment to describe his adult ambitions yet needed scant reflection, since worldwide fame as a musician had long been his goal. By 1996 the same individual appeared onstage at Carnegie Hall in New York City alongside other Native American performers. His former instructor and classmates, who had viewed him simply as an oversized jokester unsuited to celebrity, would scarcely have predicted the outcome. Precedents exist of distinguished musicians once dismissed by contemporaries, and such early dismissal often fuels later creative depth. Cellicion’s catalog spans multiple strands of traditional music, yet he is recognized chiefly for his solo recordings on the traditional Indian flute, a field crowded with imitators and with releases frequently marketed through aroma-laden imagery.
Cellicion has attributed his achievements, which include appearances before royalty in France, to sustained effort and deliberate disregard of detractors. An upbringing steeped in the arts supplied further impetus. His father, Roger Cellicion, established the Traditional Zuni Dancers to transmit Zuni heritage to his offspring; leadership of the ensemble eventually passed to Fernando, opening additional international opportunities.
At age 22 Cellicion began creating original pieces while absorbing an array of traditional Zuni songs, work that yielded more than ten albums issued by Indian Sounds, Essential Dreams, and Oyate. His involvement with music originated in middle school when he joined the band under the mistaken belief it would reduce academic obligations. During his initial year he played baritone horn and managed, by the close of twelve months, to perform a B-flat scale together with “The Marine’s Hymn.” The following year brought rapid improvement, growing attachment to the musician’s life, and experimentation with additional instruments. Upon high-school graduation he was proficient on roughly a dozen instruments. For the ensuing eight years he performed with the Zuni Pueblo Indian Band and rose to assistant director. During the 1980s he participated in powwows and formed a drum group. Shortly afterward he experimented with an ordinary recorder, recognized its kinship with the flute—an instrument he had long admired without playing—and purchased an inexpensive Native American-style model. He taught himself by listening to recordings by R. Carlos Nakai and Tree Cody. Most tracks on his debut album had first been composed on the recorder; that release inaugurated a multi-volume series titled The Traditional and Contemporary Indian Flute of Fernando Cellicion on the Indian Sounds label. The repertoire he assembled incorporated Zuni, Navajo, and Comanche material as well as the Christian spiritual “Jesus Loves Me.” At a moment when only about five artists were widely known for traditional-flute performance and recording, Cellicion entered the scene just as interest revived and the lyrical timbre of the instrument found favor within the expanding new-age audience.
He assembled a set of nearly a dozen flutes of varied dimensions, most received as gifts from their makers. After internalizing compositions by his chosen models, he cultivated a personal approach and began writing original music. Audiences came to associate him with a trance-inducing atmosphere produced by restrained, nuanced flute tone frequently combined with his smooth yet textured voice. Traditional narratives recount that a woodpecker fashioned the flute at divine instruction and that its first human player thereby secured numerous blessings, among them marriage to a chief’s daughter. While Cellicion has not claimed an identical reward, the instrument has carried him to seventeen countries plus repeated engagements across the United States; he also appeared in Istanbul in the late 1990s. In 2001 the dance ensemble joined a large international festival in Taiwan. Additional appearances have included the World Music Festival in Tokyo, the Gallup, NM, Intertribal Ceremonials, the New Mexico State Fair, the Connecticut River Rendezvous, parades, celebrations, powwows, and numerous other events, earning multiple first-place awards in dance competitions.
Beyond recordings and tours, Cellicion has been featured in motion pictures and on programs such as Good Morning America and the Today show. His performances have aired on National Public Radio and National Native News, the latter originating from Anchorage, AK.
Cellicion has attributed his achievements, which include appearances before royalty in France, to sustained effort and deliberate disregard of detractors. An upbringing steeped in the arts supplied further impetus. His father, Roger Cellicion, established the Traditional Zuni Dancers to transmit Zuni heritage to his offspring; leadership of the ensemble eventually passed to Fernando, opening additional international opportunities.
At age 22 Cellicion began creating original pieces while absorbing an array of traditional Zuni songs, work that yielded more than ten albums issued by Indian Sounds, Essential Dreams, and Oyate. His involvement with music originated in middle school when he joined the band under the mistaken belief it would reduce academic obligations. During his initial year he played baritone horn and managed, by the close of twelve months, to perform a B-flat scale together with “The Marine’s Hymn.” The following year brought rapid improvement, growing attachment to the musician’s life, and experimentation with additional instruments. Upon high-school graduation he was proficient on roughly a dozen instruments. For the ensuing eight years he performed with the Zuni Pueblo Indian Band and rose to assistant director. During the 1980s he participated in powwows and formed a drum group. Shortly afterward he experimented with an ordinary recorder, recognized its kinship with the flute—an instrument he had long admired without playing—and purchased an inexpensive Native American-style model. He taught himself by listening to recordings by R. Carlos Nakai and Tree Cody. Most tracks on his debut album had first been composed on the recorder; that release inaugurated a multi-volume series titled The Traditional and Contemporary Indian Flute of Fernando Cellicion on the Indian Sounds label. The repertoire he assembled incorporated Zuni, Navajo, and Comanche material as well as the Christian spiritual “Jesus Loves Me.” At a moment when only about five artists were widely known for traditional-flute performance and recording, Cellicion entered the scene just as interest revived and the lyrical timbre of the instrument found favor within the expanding new-age audience.
He assembled a set of nearly a dozen flutes of varied dimensions, most received as gifts from their makers. After internalizing compositions by his chosen models, he cultivated a personal approach and began writing original music. Audiences came to associate him with a trance-inducing atmosphere produced by restrained, nuanced flute tone frequently combined with his smooth yet textured voice. Traditional narratives recount that a woodpecker fashioned the flute at divine instruction and that its first human player thereby secured numerous blessings, among them marriage to a chief’s daughter. While Cellicion has not claimed an identical reward, the instrument has carried him to seventeen countries plus repeated engagements across the United States; he also appeared in Istanbul in the late 1990s. In 2001 the dance ensemble joined a large international festival in Taiwan. Additional appearances have included the World Music Festival in Tokyo, the Gallup, NM, Intertribal Ceremonials, the New Mexico State Fair, the Connecticut River Rendezvous, parades, celebrations, powwows, and numerous other events, earning multiple first-place awards in dance competitions.
Beyond recordings and tours, Cellicion has been featured in motion pictures and on programs such as Good Morning America and the Today show. His performances have aired on National Public Radio and National Native News, the latter originating from Anchorage, AK.
Albums