'You are probably familiar with the oft-used icon of Kokopelli, hunched over and playing the Flute. Kokopelli is an American Indian god – a trickster, a shaman, and a god of fertility. I’ve tried to capture some of these playful qualities in this music. However, I’ve made no attempt to emulate Native American music in Kokopelli. I thought that would be inappropriate and fail miserably. Instead, I listened to a great deal of American Indian music over the course of several months and then created my own impressions of what I heard for this piece. I have scored Kokopelli for some of the flautists to play simple percussion parts on instruments that are common in a grade school music class: Shaker, Rattle, Tambourine, Triangle, and a small Drum.

Combining Flutes with percussion is an ancient human ritual — among the oldest of musical traditions, perhaps first experienced while gathered around a campfire — so I wanted the Flute players to perform their own percussion instruments in this piece. This is also a nod to the traditions of Flute and percussion in American Indian music. I want to stress that I’ve kept these parts very basic. They are simple to play on easily accessible children's percussion instruments and, hopefully, add color and make the piece fun to perform and unique among Flute choir works. Premier performance at the Florida Flute Fair in Orlando in 2013, and scheduled for the National Flute Association convention in New Orleans. Dedicated to William Averitt.'