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Meira’s Symphony No. 1: Living Breathing Earth has been awarded 3rd Place in the 2018-19 American Prize Competition’s orchestra music division. It consists of four movements, Call of the Cicadas, Tahuayo River at Night, Wings in Flight and Living, Breathing Earth. Read more about the award at theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2019/05/winners-composers-orchestra-divisions.html.
She writes, “The title Living, Breathing Earth came to me in contemplating the image of the rainforests as lungs of the earth. I felt our planet, alive with all variety of creatures and plants living in symbiosis with each other, breathing in and out, and the planet as a whole, pulsing with breath. I also contemplated the earth rotating through space, a spinning orb of blue and green, at just the right distance from the sun to support life, and our protective blanket of air, the atmosphere of the earth, providing the medium for our breath.”
She continues, “I am grateful for time spent as a Hambidge Fellow at The Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, Georgia, Fall, 2005, and Spring, 2006, where I began and continued this composition.”
The work was also supported by unrestricted funds from the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Fellowship in Music Composition, 2005-06. It was commissioned by Western Piedmont (NC) Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, and Dayton (OH) Philharmonic Orchestra, and premiered by each orchestra in Spring, 2007.
Much more about the Symphony, including recorded excerpts, notes and the score at meirawarshauer.com/works/symphony-no-1-living-breathing-earth/. It’s published by Keiser Southern Music (https://keisersouthernmusic.com/catalog/search?text=warshauer) and was released on the Navona CD label (NV5842) – meirawarshauer.com/discography/living-breathing-earth/.
The American Prize in Composition recognizes and rewards the best composers in America of works for orchestra, chorus, concert band, chamber ensemble, theater, opera, dance or film that have been publicly performed, or read and recorded.