What’s New? Summer 2016

Cadillac Moon Ensemble performs the World Premiere of "Refuge" by Nell Shaw Cohen, with video projection of the Kemp's ridley sea turtle.

Cadillac Moon Ensemble performs Refuge by Nell Shaw Cohen, with video projection of the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, at the Parrish Art Museum.

With the Fall Equinox fast approaching, it’s the perfect time to get caught up on everything that’s been happening here at Landscape Music over the summer: a collaborative concert production, new Composers Network members, and new articles!


Cadillac Moon Ensemble at the Parrish Art Museum

Last Friday, September 9, our concert with Cadillac Moon Ensemble at the Parrish Art Museum on the East End of Long Island received a great audience turnout and response. The program, which celebrated the 2016 National Park Service centennial, featured two World Premieres of works written for Cadillac Moon Ensemble and four works for solo instruments. All of the music was composed by members of Landscape Music Composers Network—Nell Shaw Cohen, Stephen Lias, Justin Ralls, Alex Shapiro, and Stephen Wood—four of whom were in attendance.

Stay tuned for videos from this special event, including a conversation with the composers and clips from the concert itself.

A group discussion with the composers at the Parrish Art Museum. Left to right: Stephen Lias, Stephen Wood, Justin Ralls, and Nell Shaw Cohen.

A conversation with the composers at the Parrish Art Museum. Left to right: Stephen Lias, Stephen Wood, Justin Ralls, and Nell Shaw Cohen.


Libby Meyer and Oliver Caplan Join Composers Network

Two exciting composers have joined the Landscape Music Composers Network!

Libby MeyerLibby Meyer‘s music is fueled by her interest in natural soundscapes, conservation of special places, and curiosity about the relationship between the arts and the natural world. A composer, fiddler, co-founder of the Keweenaw Soundscape Project, and former Artist in Residence at Isle Royale National Park, Libby hails from Houghton, MI.

Oliver Caplan
Boston-area composer Oliver Caplan creates music in which the geographies of people, places and ideas intertwine to become tales of transformation. Oliver’s inspirations have included Jane Goodall, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the landscapes of New England.


Recent Articles on Landscape Music

Stories of Wildlife Conservation in “Refuge” by Nell Shaw Cohen — What do the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, Mission blue butterfly, and American bison have in common? The National Park Service! Nell explores how each of these species’ conservation stories connect to the NPS in Refuge, her piece for Cadillac Moon Ensemble.

Exploring “Of Wolves and Rivers” by Justin Ralls – The wolves of Yellowstone National Park are a powerful symbol of wilderness and demonstrate how one species can alter an entire ecosystem. Through his piece for Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Of Wolves and Rivers, Justin references and sanctifies the relationships between wolves and rivers and between humans and their environment.

Exploring “Of Wolves and Rivers” by Justin Ralls

Yellowstone River, Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone River, Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Editor’s Note: “Of Wolves and Rivers” by Justin Ralls receives its World Premiere on our upcoming Landscape Music Composers Network concert. In this essay, Justin explores the inspiration behind his piece.

I am honored to be a part of Landscape Music’s upcoming concert with Cadillac Moon Ensemble at the Parrish Art Museum in The Hamptons, NY on September 9, 2016, celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service and our common natural heritage. In creating a piece for this very special concert, I looked to Yellowstone for inspiration. Not only was Yellowstone the nation’s first national park, dedicated in 1872, but the greater Yellowstone ecosystem is a living portrait of wilderness: filled with free rivers, rugged mountains, thick forests and wildlife. Yellowstone exemplifies what much of North America, both east and west, was once like only generations ago. Nell Shaw Cohen’s Refuge also draws inspiration from Yellowstone, with a movement exploring a musical narrative of the bison’s once and future home in the American landscape and consciousness.

Along with the bison, the wolf has become an emblem of such primal wilderness. Continue reading

What’s New? Spring 2016

Inaugural Concerts from the Landscape Music Composers Network

Cadillac Moon Ensemble

Cadillac Moon Ensemble. Photo by Karjaka Studios.

Our upcoming event Landscape Music Presents Cadillac Moon Ensemble at the Parrish Art Museum celebrates the National Park Service’s century of conservation with a concert of new music evoking landscape, ecology, wildlife, and adventure.

This concert, which takes place on September 9 in Water Mill, NY, is an exciting collaboration between the Landscape Music Composers Network, the Parrish Art Museum (the Hamptons’ premier fine art museum), and NYC’s fantastic Cadillac Moon Ensemble. We’ll hear music by five Landscape Music composers—Nell Shaw Cohen, Stephen Lias, Justin Ralls, Alex Shapiro, and Stephen Wood—including World Premieres composed by Cohen and Ralls for this occasion.

Check out the press release, purchase tickets, and watch this space for detailed coverage!

Last month saw the first-ever concert affiliated with Landscape Music Composers Network, New Music of Our National Parks, created by Rachel Panitch and presented by the Advent Library Concert Series in Boston, MA. It was an evening of beautiful performances and we were fortunate to attract an appreciative audience, which included members of the National Park Service. In case you missed it, here’s the press release with an overview of the event and a concert preview with samples of each of the pieces that were featured on the program.


Michael Futreal Joins the Composers Network

Michael FutrealWe recently welcomed a new addition to the Landscape Music Composers Network: Michael Futreal, a composer, improvising performer, instrument builder, and multimedia artist based in Shreveport, LA. Recently an Artist-in-Residence at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Michael creates unique works that “articulate impressions of places as powerful catalysts to imagination and memory.”


Recent Articles on Landscape Music

Intersections: Duets with Nature — The first in Nell Shaw Cohen’s series highlighting large-scale, interdisciplinary, multimedia, and/or collaborative projects at the intersection of music, nature, and environmental advocacy.

Stephen Wood: Wilderness Advocacy Through Music and Education — In this in-depth interview, Stephen Wood shares ideas and experiences behind his concerts and educational programs, elucidating his vision of how music acts as a catalyst for reconnecting us to our environment.

Sketches of Nature: Landscape Music in the Central Asian Steppe — Justin Ralls explores the musical culture of the central Asian steppe and reflects on parallels between the Tuvan approach to “sketches of nature” and western music composition.