Majel Connery

Majel Connery, a staple in Musica Sierra’s programming, is back in the Sierra Valley for a 10-day retreat to begin composing her newest commission for our Musical Headwaters called Elderflora. Connery was the first songwriter to be commissioned for Musica Sierra’s Musical Headwaters program with a work called “The Rivers are our Brothers,” which premiered in June 2021.

The Rivers are our Brothers is a song cycle on ecological responsibility told from the point of view of the land. Written for vocals, vocoder, electric piano, bassoon, and violin (Majel Connery, Edwin Huizinga, Ben Matus), the songs in the cycle take a first-person view of nature, ascribing human qualities and feelings to elements of the landscape: water, trees, mountains, rivers, etc. Click here to learn more about that piece!

A bit about the newest Song Cycle….set to premiere in October 2024!

Elderflora is a song cycle of the life story of a single tree from birth to death: from tiny seedling to giant megaflora, to decaying nurse log. Elderflora (meaning “old trees”) is also a metaphor for human life. Trees, like us, want to feel the sun on our face. Trees, like us, sometimes climb too high. Trees take risks and trees someday die.

Inspired by the Native American belief that we must relate to the environment as our kin, Elderflora (“old trees”) harnesses the natural human capacity to personify trees, using music to help us become better citizens of nature.

While in the Sierra Valley Majel did perform at the Nevada Museum of Arts Hands On! Second Saturday series as well as the Ramble House in Sierraville Ca.