Kat Epple Presents Calusa-Inspired Music & Storytelling

The Marco Island Historical Society (MIHS) continues its 25th Anniversary celebration on Tuesday, March 5, with “Calusa-inspired Music & Storytelling,” presented by Emmy and Peabody Award winning composer and flutist Kat Epple. The performance is from 7-9 PM at the Rose History Auditorium, located on the Marco Island Historical Museum (MIHM) campus. Admission is $10 for non-members, and free for MIHS members.

The program is a special salute to the enigmatic Key Marco Cat and other rare 500 to 1,500-year-old Pre-Columbian Native American artifacts discovered on Marco Island in 1896 that are on loan to the Museum from the Smithsonian Institution and University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The artifacts are showcased within the museum’s award-winning permanent exhibit Paradise Found: 6,000 Years of People on Marco Island now until April 2021.

Epple composed and performed the Calusa-inspired music that plays in the immersive exhibit. Her music and story-telling program is based on a written account by the Spaniards of their arrival in Southwest Florida in the 1500s when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés met Calusa Chief Carlos and encountered Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a young Spaniard who survived a shipwreck and lived among the Calusa for many years. Fontaneda’s memoir is considered to be the best historical record of the fascinating Calusa people. Epple’s compositions will be performed on instruments described in these written accounts, and will include a conch shell horn, cane flute, bird-bone flute, shells and wooden percussion.

Epple has studied the music and customs of native cultures in Florida and throughout the world, and has collected flutes from these cultures during her extensive global travels. She has released 30 albums of original music, and has composed music for National Geographic, PBS’s Nova and many documentaries on the Calusa. “If the ancient Calusa were to hear my music, I hope they would think that it sounds familiar, and appreciate that I am trying to give them a voice to remind us that they once lived here,” notes Epple.

The Marco Island Historical Museum is located at 180 S. Heathwood Drive, and is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 AM to 4 PM. Admission is free. For information call 239-389-6447 or visit www.theMIHS.org.