Jenni Brandon’s “Multitudinous Stars and Spring Waters” and “Sequoia Trio” Performances Are Scheduled at The Women In Music Conference

  Sequoia Trio Brandon

Jenni Brandon’s “Multitudinous Stars and Spring Waters” and“Sequoia Trio” performances are scheduled at The Women In Music Conference, Ball State University, .2000 W. University Ave. Muncie, IN 47306. The conference takes place March 12 -14, 2020. The Whistling Hens, on March 14, 2020 in Sursa Hall at 1:30-3:00 PM perform “Multitudinous Stars and Spring Waters.” The Limit Less Collective” performs the “Sequoia Trio” on March 14, 2020 at 7:30 PM in Sursa Hall.

Whistling Hens was founded by Jennifer Piazza-Pick (soprano) and Natalie Groom (clarinet) with a vision to celebrate and advance the artistic accomplishments of women through an ensemble performing all female-composed music.

LIMITLESS Collective is an artistic collective of female musicians aimed at revolutionizing the dynamic between audience, performer, and creator. By investing in the diversity and inclusiveness of our audience, we invest music as a means of empowering a viable community. Limitless Collective Members are:

”Multitudinous Stars and Spring Waters for soprano and oboe” (arr. for clarinet by Natalie Groom) by Jenni Brandon combines a collection of poems by women poets from a vast period of Chinese history. Their poems make up the larger picture of love and waiting, sometimes with disappointment and grief, of admiration, of marriage and of eternal love. The whole work is a love song – telling that age-old story of the push and pull of emotions that only love can cause. Poetry edited and translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung.

Each movement of “The Sequoia Trio” (oboe, clarinet, bassoon sheet music) takes a quote about Sequoia trees from John Muir’s book The Yosemite and uses it to inspire the music. The opening waving pattern creates the gentle breeze as the growth of the tree starts in the bassoon, moving through the clarinet and is carried all the way to the top of the tree through the oboe. Movement two is sassy and jazzy, describing the kind of resilient attitude that young trees must maintain in order to survive. “The Three Graces” plays on the idea of the three instruments in the ensemble and Muir’s own reference to Greek mythology. Finally, in “The Noble Trees” the instruments play a hymn-like tribute to the largest living things on earth. The two “Tree Interludes” represent the individual voice of a tree and its story.

This piece was written during my composer residency with the Vientos Trio during 2008-2009.

”Multitudinous Stars and Spring Waters for soprano and oboe and The Sequoia Trio are available for purchase on Jenni’s website https://jennibrandon.com