Elderflora: An oratorio on the life and death of a tree
Friday, May 30th, 7:30pm | First Congregational Church of Oakland
2501 Harrison St, Oakland, CA 94612

Featuring Majel Connery & the Bowerbird Collective

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 the Bowerbird Collective (AUS) and cellist Felix Fan (US), 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.”

Program:
Elderflora - 60 minutes without intermission

Performers:
Majel Connery | vocals, keyboard
with The Bowerbird Collective
Simone Slattery | violin, vocals
Anthony Albrecht | cello

*****

What others are saying...

"Superb"
Zachary Woolf, NY Times

“haunting, Bjork-like vocals"
SF Classical Voice

"Spectacular" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Limelight Magazine

*****

About the artists:

Majel Connery is a composer, vocalist and musicologist combining Classical influences with electronic mentality. Her voice has been called "superb" by the New York Times and her compositions "thoroughly Schubertian" by the Wall Street Journal. An educator working at the intersection of arts and scholarship, she has taught and mounted productions on campuses like Stanford, UC Berkeley, Wellesley and Princeton. As an advocate of women in music, she hosts the NPR/CapRadio podcast A Music of Their Own. Connery appears regularly as a solo artist making supernatural music about the environment, and with her art-rock duo Sky Creature. Her song cycle The Rivers are our Brothers is currently on tour with Grammy-winning ensemble Chanticleer. Connery holds a PhD in musicology from the University of Chicago and an A.B. in music composition from Princeton.
www.majelconnery.com

The Bowerbird Collective makes art for nature. Through innovative live performance, digital engagement and educational outreach, this inspiring non-profit seeks to strengthen emotional connections to conservation issues. Australian-based, the Bowerbird Collective tours extensively, with a focus on performing in regional areas, delivers exceptional educational programs to school age children, and works with national and international conservation organizations. Founded by Simone Slattery (violin, vocals) and Anthony Albrecht (cello) in 2017, the Collective has produced more than 250 events across Australia, the UK and the US. Their concert production 'Where Song Began' was called 'spectacular' in a ***** review by Limelight Magazine and won a Ruby Award from Arts South Australia. ‘Life on Land’s Edge’, created with support from Arts South Australia and the Australia Council for the Arts, received the Independent Art Foundation Award for Innovation in 2022. Their albums of threatened bird, frog and mammal calls, 'Songs of Disappearance', have thrice made it to the top of Australia’s ARIA Album Charts ahead of Taylor Swift, ABBA, Ed Sheeran and Adele. They are founders and directors of the Moonbird Festival, King Island, Tasmania and the Lyrebird Festival, Megalong Valley, New South Wales, both launched in 2023.
www.bowerbirdcollective.org