Today’s Program

March 7, 2024

Stephen F. Austin State University - Cole Concert Hall

Click on the links to learn more about each artist!

Join us on Saturday March 9 at the Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary at 9:30am for a forest walk!

Ben Morris - Longleaf (2024, World Premiere)

GRASS STAGE:

I. Ninety Million Acres

II. What East Texas Used to Sound Like

III. Lightning Burn

IV. Regrowth

V. Ten Thousand Years of Manmade Fire

ROCKET STAGE:

VI. Turpentine Blues

VII. The Sawmills

VIII. Clear Cut

IX. The Terrible, Empty Sky

X. Old Field

MATURE STAGE:

XI. Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires

XII. Pine Plantations

XIII. Prescribed Fire

XIV. Dawn Chorus

XV. Trees as Old as Earth

Composer’s note

The longleaf pine forest is an ecosystem that was once spread throughout ninety million miles of the American Southeast including rural East Texas. Now, only under three million acres remain, with under fifty thousand in Texas. It is a delicate ecosystem that must be maintained with frequent fires that clear out other species and create an open, majestic savannah habitat home to endangered species including the red cockaded woodpecker. This piece tells the story of this unparalleled tree: its flourishing through natural and indigenous manmade fires, its use to make turpentine during the early settlement days, its widespread destruction at the hands of the lumber barons and sawmills of the early 20th century, and its rebirth with the advent of responsible forestry and prescribed fires. The piece weaves together a tapestry of virtuosic brass features, ambisonic field recordings captured in longleaf forests, videos of longleaf habitats, found sounds, and historical photographs and videos from the East Texas Digital Archive, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, and The National Archives.

Tonight’s Performers

Alexander Ramazanov, trumpet // Brian Mangrum, horn // Cameron Kerl, trombone // Caitlin Mehrtens, harp // Graeme Francis, percussion // Jacob Schafer, violin // Cindy Ahn, violin // Sergein Yap, viola // Chris Ellis, cello // Max Winningham, double bass // Craig Hauschildt, conductor

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Special thanks to Shawn Benedict, Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary, and the Nature Conservancy!

This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.