Instrumentation: orchestra (1+picc.2.2.2/4.3.3.1./timp.3 perc/str)

Duration: 9’50”

Program notes

“A chorus of living wood sings to the woman: If your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we’d drown you in meaning.

The pine she leans against says: Listen. There’s something you need to hear.”

-The Overstory, Richard Powers

This music tracks my own emotional journey growing up in the pacific northwest and exploring and learning about the natural and human history of the bioregion around me: The awe the comes over you when standing amidst the scale and apparent stillness of an ancient rainforest, specifically the northern coast redwood forests. The deep joy and gratefulness for life and the natural world the redwoods remind me to experience. The forces that overcame these magnificent forests and ecosystems, the forces that threaten to overcome us all: shortsightedness and greed. The challenge: to be better stewards of our only world; to be kinder to one another; to learn from and empower indigenous peoples who have more reciprocal relationships with the creatures we share this place with, who managed and maintained it sustainably before us; to be worthy of the gifts the world gives: life, food, shelter, medicine.