People and Places
About the Project:
“People and Places” presents a collection of works, each inspired by a location that shaped their creation. From the trilling insects in the Thai countryside to the soulful landscapes of Norway and the serene shores of Hawaii, this program honors the deeply personal connection between place and music.
These compositions are woven from threads of heartache, longing, and wonder, and are expressions of the intersection between geography and experience.
program
The Wind Sings III by JunYi Chow
Shadow Drawing No. 5: Svalbard Fjords and Glaciers by Jessica Ackerley
ko’u inoa by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti
You are still here by Sarah Gibson
Second Nature for violin and electronics by Christopher Stark
(Program Length: 65 min)
Featured and launched on
Hawai’i Public Radio’s ‘Live from the Atherton series’
August 9, 2025
Program notes
The Wind Sings III
JunYi Chow
“Wind, though unseen, is felt through sensation. Its essence alternates between emptiness and comfort, turbulence and tranquility. If the wind could sing, what melody might it weave?
The Wind Sings is a series of works that sonically explores the ever-changing character of wind. Each piece seeks to depict its diverse textures through dynamic intensities, timbral contrasts, and extended techniques, often incorporating improvisational elements. The music gives voice to the wind, expressing its unpredictable beauty and depth.
Though The Wind Sings III does not depict a specific place, it reflects Chow’s journey as a global citizen shaped by life across Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the United States. Living and creating in these diverse cultural environments has deeply influenced Chow musical language—one that moves fluidly between structure and spontaneity, tradition and innovation. In this piece, the wind becomes a metaphor for that transnational experience: unseen yet ever-present, shifting yet resonant, always in motion across borders and soundscapes.”
”Shadow Drawing No. 5’ is part of a larger body of work merging synesthetic experiences between sight and sound. The composition process begins with a graphic score sketch of abstract automated drawings on a time stamped grid to outline the form. This is inspired by a similar process that early Surrealist painters used to unlock memories of the subconscious through improvising drawing and painting.
The initial abstract graphic sketches for this piece are inspired by memories of time spent in the Arctic Circle, sailing along the coast and fjord inlets of Svalbard, Norway. The imagery is then reinterpreted through staff music notation while maintaining the structural form of the graphic image.”
Shadow drawing no 5: Svalbard fjords and glaciers
Jessica ackerley
Ko’u inoa
Anne Leilehua lanzilotti
“Described as “a homesick bariolage based on the anthem Hawaiʻi Aloha,” koʻu inoa exists in several forms. . . . koʻu inoa translates from ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi to “my name is” and frames a perspective and statement to absorb the meaning of identity. . . . Hawaiʻi Aloha, usually performed at the end of concerts, offers the audience a parting gesture of farewell to sing as one, to be a community connected. When koʻu inoa is performed as a concert opener, the anthem becomes a welcoming gesture rooted in the Kanaka Maoli protocols of first contact; to introduce who you are. As listeners, the invitation stands to meditate on our identity, discover meaning in the melody of our name, and feel rooted and connected to the place we call home.”
— Excerpts from a program note by Dr. Michael-Thomas Foumai, Lecturer, Academy of Creative Media, University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu, originally written for the orchestral premiere of koʻu inoa, April 2022
You are still here
Sarah gibson
“You are still here was inspired by Mona Hatoum’s artwork of the same name. The work, which is a double mirror containing the titular phrase sandblasted on the surface, allows the viewer to see their face doubled in their reflection with this phrase stamped across their view. Hatoum describes this artwork as a way to spark a conversation with oneself about the confirmation of existence and survival. This sentiment, and the need to talk to oneself about these subjects, spoke to me powerfully during the beginning of the pandemic. My work for Jennifer was a way for me to convey that dialogue and what I was seeking in the spring of 2020: a frantic need for personal expression contrasted with a calmer desire for an empathetic space in which to create during a dark time.”
Second nature
for violin and electronics
Christopher stark
“2nd Nature takes its title from Cicero’s ancient text On the Nature of the Gods. In this book, Cicero describes seconda natura as man’s ability to augment nature to create a second nature. While the intention of this augmentation has been to grow food and ultimately survive, our disregard for sustainable practices has led us into our current climate crisis.
My work regularly looks to nature for inspiration, and in this work I started with a recording of cicadas I documented in the mountains of northern Thailand. The field recording appears halfway through the work, and I hope that by asking the audience to listen to this beautiful sound, that we might contemplate how to resolve our fraught relationship with nature and perhaps consider a path forward in which nature is no longer second to our demands.”
New Commissions for the project
coming Spring 2026
Bobby Ge
Bobby Ge is a Chinese-American composer and avid collaborator whose work, often collaborative in nature, focuses on themes of home, communication, and hybridity. Winner of the 2022 Barlow Prize, Ge has received commissions and performances by groups including the Minnesota Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, the New York Youth Symphony, the Albany Symphony, the U.S. Navy Band, Music from Copland House, the Bergamot, Tesla, and JACK Quartets, and many more.
Sepehr Pirasteh
Sepehr Pirasteh (He/They/او) is a composer, conductor, and interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Shiraz, Iran. His compositions draw on Persian classical and folk traditions, as well as contemporary classical music vocabularies, to express his deep concerns and fears about the political and social realities of the world we live in. Through his art, Sepehr reflects on his personal journey as an immigrant and his commitment to activism
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