When
Where
On Thursday, March 20 @ 7 PM, Meira’s American Prize-winning Ocean Calling will be the subject of Art and Activism: Meira Warshauer’s Ocean Calling, a panel discussion that will be part of The Society for American Music’s 51st Annual Conference, to be held at the Hotel Murano, 1320 Broadway in Tacoma, Washington.
Elizabeth Loparits of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will perform the trilogy with Oksana Ejokina, of Pacific Lutheran University in a West Coast premiere of the composition. Ms. Loparits recorded Ocean Calling along with Phillip Bush for the Navona label, released in 2023.
Meira will participate in a panel along with Dr. Elizabeth Keathley, emeritus professor of the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Bonnie Monteleone, Founder and Executive Director of Plastic Ocean Project, will participate remotely via video. Meira will discuss her activism with Plastic Ocean Project alongside the release of the Ocean Calling CD, as well as her previous work combating oil and gas exploration off the Carolina coast.
Loparits will help demonstrate the innovative techniques which Warshauer employed to create the underwater atmosphere of the composition. Keathley will relate the composition to the marine ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest—traditionally stewarded by the Coast Salish tribes—which is now troubled by the byproducts of human” development,” threatening the iconic orca (killer whale) and salmon. Indigenous activists have been at the forefront of efforts to restore habitats and conserve species.