APRYL ALLEN has a passion for stories, words, and music. She’s an author, playwright, Comanche Storyteller, composer, singer, songwriter, actor, and musician who has been recently signed by Lisa Gallagher of DeFiore & Company Literary Management in New York. A Voting GRAMMY Member and former Miss Arizona-USA, Apryl is on boards of The Metropolitan Opera Rocky Mountain Auditions Region, Arizona Opera Spark Commissioning Club, Young Arts Arizona and is President and CEO of ADA Music.

Apryl has recorded two award-winning albums: Morningstar and Na Unu Nahai (Shape Shifter) which have been recognized by the GRAMMYs (Recording Academy) and NAMMYs (Native American Music Awards). Her album Na Unu Nahai (Shape Shifter) was nominated for four NAMMYs and took home Best Pop Recording in 2009. Furthering her accomplishments, Apryl authored a memoir: A Tango with Cancer, is finalizing a stage musical (melodies, music, lyrics, and book): ShapeShifter: A Comanche Musical, and will soon publish the first book of a young adult Comanche fantasy book series — title to be announced upon publication.

Apryl has received extraordinary responses from fans throughout the Americas, Europe, Britain, Australia, China, and Japan. Her albums have been placed in the Comanche Nation Historical Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society Indian Archives, Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center, National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian), and the Heard Museum, among various other institutions. Her accomplishments are staggering and among them, in 2010 she was honored to be a featured soloist of the Phoenix Symphony.

In 2008 the Comanche Nation named November 7th ‘Apryl Allen Day’ based on her international success, Comanche leadership, and involvement to keep Comanche traditions, stories, and language alive. Since 2002 Apryl has been working with a Comanche Language Archivist, the Comanche Language & Cultural Preservation Committee, the Comanche Nation Language Department, Comanche Elders, and various tribal members documenting personal narratives and oral histories to create her works.

The research and creation of her music and books has been an unexpected and profoundly life altering experience. This opportunity to be a voice for a dying language and culture, a voice for real-life stories both spoken and documented, handed down from generation to generation was unforeseen. The language and stories of Comanche people are among those that are in danger of extinction — less than three people in the world today speak Comanche fluently. It wasn’t until 2002 that the spoken words of the Comanche people became a written language.

Apryl understands the fragility of life and views it as a sacred gift we should all cherish. Her dream, as a member of a dying culture, is to be a voice that echoes throughout the world and time.

Nasutamu, Nasutamu . . . (Remember, Remember . . .)