Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) received the FIRST NATIONS COMPOSERS INITIATIVE Common Ground Award Grant for founding The Coast Orchestra, the all-Native American orchestra in 2008. They premiered to sold-out audiences at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and opening night of the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival in New York. She musically collaborates with Native American artists and filmmakers, such as Alan Michelson, Nanobah Becker, Raven Chacon, Jock Soto, Sterlin Harjo and Blackhorse Lowe. She was a member of the acclaimed, genre-bending New York band STARS LIKE FLEAS who has performed at the Centre Pompidou and Museum of Modern Art and has recorded two solo albums playing violin, Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, samples, megaphone and organ.