Joanne Shenandoah, a composer and vocalist from the Wolf Clan of the Iroquois Confederacy and Oneida Nation, will visit The University of Toledo this week.

She will perform a free, public concert Thursday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Center for Performing Arts Room 1025.

“We are honored to have acclaimed artist and activist Joanne Shenandoah come to the University in honor of Native American Heritage Month,” Dr. Barbara Alice Mann, professor in the Jesup Scott Honors College, said. “It is not often that we are able to bring in an indigenous Grammy winner.”

A Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, Shenandoah has 18 discs and has recorded her original folk music with Neil Young, Bruce Cockburn, Bill Miller and Mary Youngblood. She has won more than 40 awards, including 14 Native American Music Awards. And she has performed at five presidential inaugurations, as well as at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the White House, and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Growing up on the Oneida Territory near Oneida, N.Y., Shenandoah learned to play several instruments, including guitar, piano and flute, and absorbed many traditional songs and music styles.

In addition to her music, Shenandoah is passionate about peace and earth justice.

“As I make this journey in life, I’ve found that most people around the world are compassionate about our Mother Earth and concerned about the environmental changes affecting all living things,” she wrote on her website, joanneshenandoah.com.

Shenandoah is a founding board member of the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge, a nonprofit educational facility based on Iroquois principles that operates in partnership with Syracuse University.

For her music and humanitarian efforts, Shenandoah received an honorary doctorate of music from Syracuse University in 2002.

Shenandoah’s UT appearance for Native American Heritage Month is sponsored by the College of Arts and Letters; Jesup Scott Honors College; Division of Student Affairs; Office of Diversity and Inclusion; and Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women.