Synopsis:

A multi-year project exploring birdsong and sunrises, with listening expeditions at dawn to meditate with and record a bird of the day, followed by creative response - a compositional sketch, an idea for movement piece, etc. A blog followed the first year of the project, which included residencies at Acadia National Park, and Signal Fire residencies at Mt. Hood and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests in Oregon. A suite of original compositions for violin, voice, and looping pedal was composed in year one, with solo performances in Boston, MA and Dayton, OH. In the third year, in response to to a commission from A Far Cry chamber orchestra, Shaw Pong composed “Arise”, a site-specific composition for 18 string players choreographed as “birds” in the three-tiered concert hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. “Arise” was revised and updated to be adaptable to a range of venues for its 10th anniversary performance at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in 2023.