West of Nowhere - Wind Ensemble
The United States is one of the most geographically diverse places in the world. The Northeast is filled with boundless green mountains and the world’s largest freshwater lakes. West of Appalachia, the Great Plains go for hundreds of miles, terminating into the Mojave Desert and the Rocky Mountains. Despite the awe-inspiring expansiveness of these places, I have always wondered what was beyond the West, beyond what I have seen and understood.
Alaska, often called the last frontier, is this place beyond the West. Alaska is a state of superlatives: the largest, least populated, and most Northern, containing 56 million acres of wilderness, 60% of all land managed by the United States National Parks Service. It is theorized that nearly 18,000 years ago, an ancient land bridge connected what is now Russia to Alaska, supposedly allowing the first indigenous peoples to inhabit North America (nps.gov). The combination of this ancient history and expansive untouched beauty makes an environment that is unlike anything else. My first trip there changed me.
Six composers, including myself, were selected as part of a project with Composing in the Wilderness and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. The composers and two wilderness experts spent five days on Lower Tazimina Lake in Lake Clark National Park, the goal being to inspire new music connected to and informed by our shared experience bushwacking in Alaska. Lower Tazimina Lake is one of the most rarely visited locations in the world. It takes multiple flights over nearly 200 miles to land by float plane on the Lake from Anchorage, Alaska. The area is practically untouched by humans, characterized by summer snow-capped mountains, dense alpine tundra, alien-like ecology, and endless daylight. Following the journey in June of 2023, I composed West of Nowhere to process my experience.
Much like Alaska, West of Nowhere is a sound-world of its own. The composition explores careful evolutions of timbre, loosely following the chronological events of the adventure. An initial dream of Alaska propels the narrative into reality. A plane engine starts in a flash and then soars through the clouds and mountains. The narrative builds to a meditation on a mountain summit, ultimately revealing that Alaska is larger than life, unlike anything I could have ever imagined.
The United States is one of the most geographically diverse places in the world. The Northeast is filled with boundless green mountains and the world’s largest freshwater lakes. West of Appalachia, the Great Plains go for hundreds of miles, terminating into the Mojave Desert and the Rocky Mountains. Despite the awe-inspiring expansiveness of these places, I have always wondered what was beyond the West, beyond what I have seen and understood.
Alaska, often called the last frontier, is this place beyond the West. Alaska is a state of superlatives: the largest, least populated, and most Northern, containing 56 million acres of wilderness, 60% of all land managed by the United States National Parks Service. It is theorized that nearly 18,000 years ago, an ancient land bridge connected what is now Russia to Alaska, supposedly allowing the first indigenous peoples to inhabit North America (nps.gov). The combination of this ancient history and expansive untouched beauty makes an environment that is unlike anything else. My first trip there changed me.
Six composers, including myself, were selected as part of a project with Composing in the Wilderness and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. The composers and two wilderness experts spent five days on Lower Tazimina Lake in Lake Clark National Park, the goal being to inspire new music connected to and informed by our shared experience bushwacking in Alaska. Lower Tazimina Lake is one of the most rarely visited locations in the world. It takes multiple flights over nearly 200 miles to land by float plane on the Lake from Anchorage, Alaska. The area is practically untouched by humans, characterized by summer snow-capped mountains, dense alpine tundra, alien-like ecology, and endless daylight. Following the journey in June of 2023, I composed West of Nowhere to process my experience.
Much like Alaska, West of Nowhere is a sound-world of its own. The composition explores careful evolutions of timbre, loosely following the chronological events of the adventure. An initial dream of Alaska propels the narrative into reality. A plane engine starts in a flash and then soars through the clouds and mountains. The narrative builds to a meditation on a mountain summit, ultimately revealing that Alaska is larger than life, unlike anything I could have ever imagined.
The United States is one of the most geographically diverse places in the world. The Northeast is filled with boundless green mountains and the world’s largest freshwater lakes. West of Appalachia, the Great Plains go for hundreds of miles, terminating into the Mojave Desert and the Rocky Mountains. Despite the awe-inspiring expansiveness of these places, I have always wondered what was beyond the West, beyond what I have seen and understood.
Alaska, often called the last frontier, is this place beyond the West. Alaska is a state of superlatives: the largest, least populated, and most Northern, containing 56 million acres of wilderness, 60% of all land managed by the United States National Parks Service. It is theorized that nearly 18,000 years ago, an ancient land bridge connected what is now Russia to Alaska, supposedly allowing the first indigenous peoples to inhabit North America (nps.gov). The combination of this ancient history and expansive untouched beauty makes an environment that is unlike anything else. My first trip there changed me.
Six composers, including myself, were selected as part of a project with Composing in the Wilderness and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. The composers and two wilderness experts spent five days on Lower Tazimina Lake in Lake Clark National Park, the goal being to inspire new music connected to and informed by our shared experience bushwacking in Alaska. Lower Tazimina Lake is one of the most rarely visited locations in the world. It takes multiple flights over nearly 200 miles to land by float plane on the Lake from Anchorage, Alaska. The area is practically untouched by humans, characterized by summer snow-capped mountains, dense alpine tundra, alien-like ecology, and endless daylight. Following the journey in June of 2023, I composed West of Nowhere to process my experience.
Much like Alaska, West of Nowhere is a sound-world of its own. The composition explores careful evolutions of timbre, loosely following the chronological events of the adventure. An initial dream of Alaska propels the narrative into reality. A plane engine starts in a flash and then soars through the clouds and mountains. The narrative builds to a meditation on a mountain summit, ultimately revealing that Alaska is larger than life, unlike anything I could have ever imagined.
Stephen F. Austin State University Wind Ensemble, Nacogdoches, Texas
World Premiere, Syracuse University Wind Ensemble
Performance by the University of Delaware Wind Ensemble, Newark, DE, May 14th, 2024