Jennifer Cavanaugh performs Jenni Brandon’s “Going To The Sun” at the College Music Society Pacific North West Conference at Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington on March 29 -31, 2019. Dr. Cavanaugh commissioned Jenni to write this piece. Dr. Cavanaugh is also presenting a paper titled “Commissioning New Music and Promoting Living Composers”
Dr. Jennifer Gookin Cavanaugh, oboist and Professor of Music (Double Reeds & Theory), joined the School of Music faculty at the University of Montana in August of 2009. Dr. Cavanaugh is proud to be a Yamaha Performing Artist. She is frequently invited to perform solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States, and she is currently the principal English horn player with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra. She regularly performs principal oboe and/or English horn duties with organizations such as the String Orchestra of the Rockies and the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. While a faculty member, at Central Michigan University, Dr. Cavanaugh was a member of the Powers Woodwind Quintet.
Going to the Sun: Snapshots from Glacier National Park for oboe and bassoon explores the beauty of Glacier National Park in Montana. When Jennifer Gookin Cavanaugh approached me about writing a work, she told me how much she has always loved visiting the park and that it had been a family tradition for many years. Both Jennifer and Elizabeth Ball Crawford, who premiered this work, taught at the University of Montana at the time of writing this work. I thought it fitting to write a work that highlighted the performers’ close connection to the area in which they lived.
As I began to spend time with hiking books, topographical maps, and pictures taken by many visitors to the park over the years, I knew that a work about a journey through this park would be a great way to share not only Jennifer’s memories, but also the many travelers on the Going to the Sun Road. Those fifty miles across the park bring the visitor in contact with lakes, weeping walls, animals, meadows, the Continental Divide, and the power of the glacier that now moves closer and closer to extinction due to climate change.