American composer Gabriella Smith Photo: Supplied by NZSO
Performed by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya
American composer Gabriella Smith a rising star among contemporary composers. She loves being in nature and found inspiration while hiking in the National Park at Point Reyes in California. She had stopped to rest, and sitting in the sand at the ocean’s edge, began to listen to the hallucinatory sounds of the Pacific Ocean and watching a pair of ravens playing in the wind, rolling, swooping, diving, soaring—imagining the ecstasy of wind in the wings—jet trails painting never-ending streaks across the sky.
The title of Gabriella Smith’s piece, Tumblebird Contrails, is a Kerouac-inspired, nonsense phrase invented to evoke the sound and feeling of the music.
Incorporating the sounds of nature is Gabriella’s way of raising awareness for the destruction of our biosphere, which she believes is the biggest issue facing the planet in our time.
Recorded 10 November 2022, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer: David McCaw
Engineer: Darryl Stack
