Finale: Shaping Nature

As hard as it is to believe, the Light in Winter weekend has already drawn to a close, with an impressive finale: a performance by the full Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Jeffery Meyer. They performed seven movements from a piece by composer Michael Gandolfi that was inspired by a garden in Scotland known as the “Garden of Cosmic Speculation.”

Composer Gandolfi started off the event by speaking about his creative process – why he was inspired by the garden to compose a piece, and how he was able to transform his visual impressions into musical themes. He showed a series of photos he had taken of the garden during his talk. More photos were shown during the piece’s performance, which helped us to visualize the specific aspects of the garden which had inspired specific movements within the piece.

Gandolfi explained that his piece currently was made up of 11 movements (although he seemed to suggest it could expand in the future), but that he had stipulated that it need not be performed in his entirety. He suggests instead that orchestras perform any number of movements, in whatever order they want – just a visitor could choose to visit only specific parts of the garden. The seven movements chosen for performance here were varied and very interesting to listen to (especially in conjunction with photos of the garden), and the IC orchestra’s performance was very impressive.

…. Looking back, this weekend’s events have all explored Identity in so many different ways – altered identities, secret identities, biological identities, artistic identities, and cultural identities. Taken all together, it makes me realize how important and complex our identities are, both as individuals and as communities. I’m glad that we’ve been able to come together as a community to celebrate these things and learn about new ideas.

I’m already looking forward to another great year of Light in Winter – next January!

Categorized: General