ELDERFLORA

the trees are speaking

Elderflora is an oratorio on the life and death of a tree. Narrated from the perspective of the tree itself, Elderflora invites on a musical journey inside the mind of a tree, experiencing its thoughts and feelings in hyperreal detail.

Created by Majel Connery and performed by Connery in collaboration with cellist Felix Fan, Elderflora is part Classical song cycle, part electronic soundscape, with snatches of madrigals and hymns intersecting with mood paintings that evoke wind, rain, and light. Structured as a series of musical portraits, each movement in the oratorio represents a significant moment in the life of the tree: birth by fire, discovery of the sun, or becoming a mother.

“I want us to see humanity in the world around us,” says Connery. “Music gives me the power to join what we know with what we don’t know: to combine the familiar with the strange. Because if trees have a voice — and I think they do — that voice won’t sound like us. It’s going to sound utterly out of this world.”

Elderflora includes an optional multimedia installation featuring the surreal tree portraits of American photographer Noah Kalina, who uses minimal lighting to supernatural effect. Kalina is the creator of “Everyday,” a video of Kalina’s face aged over a period of 20 years. In Elderflora, each of Kalina’s images is manipulated by video design created by Stewart Copeland, director of UNM ArtsLAB.

Electronic press kit available on request.

Majel Connery (vocals, synths) is a composer, vocalist and roving musicologist elevating Classical music with the power of modern technology. Her voice has been called "superb" by the New York Times and her compositions "thoroughly Schubertian" by the Wall Street Journal. Connery’s environmental song cycle “The Rivers are our Brothers” has been toured and recorded by Grammy-winning choir, Chanticleer. As a musciologist Connery hosts “A Music of Their Own” on NPR and “Reverberations” for New Amsterdam Records.

Felix Fan (cello) has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham and Janos Starker in venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Musikverein and Royal Festival Hall. Fan’s collaborators include many of today's leading composers from Philip Glass to Michael Gordon, Hans Werner Henze, Oliver Knussen, David Lang, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Kaija Saariaho, Tan Dun, Julia Wolfe and Charles Wuorinen. Beyond Classical music, Fan has performed with Sonic Youth, Sigur Ros, Wilco and The National and appears regularly with FLUX Quartet.