R. Carlos Nakai

American flutist of Navajo/Ute heritage who has received 11 Grammy Award nominations for his albums. Nakai's music prominently features original compositions and improvisations on the Native American cedar flute inspired by traditional Native American melodies. He also plays the eagle-bone whistle, and uses synthesizers, chanting, and sounds from nature.

Nakai played brass instruments in high school and college, and auditioned for the Armed Forces School of Music after a two-year period in the United States Navy. He began playing a traditional Native American cedar flute after an accident left him unable to play the trumpet. Largely self-taught, he released his first album Changes in 1983, and afterward signed a contract with Canyon Records, who produced more than thirty of his albums in subsequent years. Nakai has collaborated with musicians William Eaton, Peter Kater, Philip Glass, Nawang Khechog, Paul Horn, and Keola Beamer.

He earned a Bachelor's Degree from Northern Arizona University in 1979 and later earned a master's degree in American Indian studies from the University of Arizona.

In 2005, Nakai was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame. Nakai was awarded the Arizona Governor's Arts Award in 1992.