To Look West
World premiere by Evergreen Ensemble, David Hendrix, conductor.
To Look West is a new work for choir, string quartet, and piano about the relationship between landscape and memory in the Pacific Northwest, commissioned and premiered by Evergreen Ensemble (Seattle, WA).
The work is a seven-movement ode to a place I’ve come to love and admire, the Pacific Northwest. The work sets a variety of texts from early Pacific Northwest voices including author Ella Rhoads Higginson, explorer David Thompson, and botanist David Douglas. Additionally, the texts include other lines devoted to expressing the beauty of the natural world, including my own writing.
More About the work
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When David Hendrix and I initially spoke about my initial idea for To Look West, I had a different concept in mind. However, as is often the case with my creative process, I found the heart of the work through exploration, discovery, and hours and hours of writing and revising ad nauseam. For me, I often struggle to articulate my ideas verbally, but instead find their true meaning in the work of writing. I suppose that's why I rely on music to speak for me. To Look West is a bespoke creation written for The Evergreen Ensemble. It uses almost exclusively texts from authors who lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest, many of them in the 19th century. Having visited the region many times, I’ve always found a serenity and profundity to the cascading mountains, the curtain of evergreens which drape the landscape, the rushing Columbia River which is as beautiful as it is mighty, and of course, the Pacific in all its glory. I could not help but aspire to capture the feeling and introspection that this place inspires in me.
For me, the PNW is a place that demands that we as humans reflect on our place in this world. I’m not a religious person, but I would say there is a profundity and religiosity to the grandeur and vibrancy of the landscape. How is it possible that human beings can fixate on such non-essential matters when such a place exists and has existed long before we were here?
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I chose to use 19th-century texts to help frame the understanding of the land. These words come from a time when we knew far less than we do. Perhaps, we were more capable of recognizing the profundity of it all than we are now. It does seem as though the more we learn, the more we desire to control, to manipulate, and ultimately destroy these beautiful places. It is my hope that in singing this piece that you find the same sense of awe and reverence that I hold for this place. Additionally, it might inspire you to view life through a new lens, even if only for a brief moment.
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Evergreen Ensemble is a professional vocal ensemble located in the greater Seattle area. Bringing together some of the finest singers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as from around the country, Evergreen provides paid opportunities for vocal artists to collaborate at the highest level and to enrich our community through artistic excellence. The ensemble seeks to use choral music as a way of exploring a variety of voices and cultures, and works to help change the ethics of art consumption in our communities by offering fair and equitable wages to our artists.
