Warshauer symphony receives honors

Meira Warshauer’s Symphony No. 1: Living Breathing Earth was awarded 3rd place in the 2018/2019 American Prize Competition’s orchestra music division.

Composer Meira Warshauer

The work consists of four movements, Call of the Cicadas, Tahuayo River at Night, Wings in Flight and Living, Breathing Earth. Read more about the award here.

The composer 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 added, “I am grateful for time spent as a Hambidge Fellow at The Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, Georgia, from fall 2005 to spring 2006, where I began and continued this composition.”

The work was also supported by unrestricted funds from the South Carolina Arts Commission’s 2006 Fellowship in Music Composition. It was commissioned by Western Piedmont (NC) Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, and Dayton (OH) Philharmonic Orchestra, and premiered by each orchestra in spring 2007.

It’s published by Keiser Southern Music and was released on the Navona CD label (NV5842).

Hear Warshauer’s recent interview about the symphony with South Carolina Public Radio’s Bradley Fuller here and a profile by Aileen LeBlanc for PRI’s “Living on Earth” here.