"ALL AMERICAN"

Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 8 pm

Heart of the Wild
for Orchestra & Storyteller
- World Premiere -

Duncan Neilson III.................Composer
David Robinson........................Narrator
Liz Gill Neilson..........................Visuals

SEASON CONCERTS (unless indicated) ARE HELD IN KAUL AUDITORIUM AT REED COLLEGE
3203 SE WOODSTOCK BOULEVARD PORTLAND OREGON 97202

SEE BUILDING 14 ON CAMPUS MAP FOR LOCATION OF KAUL AUDITORIUM

HANDICAP ACCESSIBILITY FROM 28TH AND BOTSFORD DRIVE

David Robinson and I adapted the story for the stage and David will perform the narration. Liz Gill Neilson created additional images, choreographed the imagery for the show, and designed and constructed the Bear Paw quilt.

HEART OF THE WILD
World Premiere by Duncan Neilson III

The music and wonder tale presented for the Portland Chamber Orchestra's 60th anniversary celebration is a portion from Heart of the Wild, an evening-length sonic tapestry (music, story, and images) that I wrote, painted, and composed.

Paintings by Duncan Neilson III
HENRY WILD AND THE FOXES
INTO THE DARK FOREST
HENRY REMOVES THORN FROM WOLF PAW
The story begins:
There is a terrible force devastating the land. As "The Heart Most True," Henry Wild is entrusted with a magical braid that he must deliver safely to the wise woman at the ceremony. She is preparing to raise the great Sun Bear from the center of the earth. It is the only way to stop the destruction. If Henry fails all will be lost…
IRON BIRD IN CAGE
I've wondered a lot about how music and story can place one in resonance with the wild majesty of the planet -- our little blue oasis in a vast cosmos. Music is an ecological language. And wonder tales and myths hold us in right-relation to the world.

Music and wonder tales remind us to celebrate - to pause and embrace the wonder of forest and ocean and our fellow family of beings, whether it's in Portland, Oregon where I grew up, or in the urban wilds of New York City where I currently reside.

Music, story, and art-making must also address key ideas of our time, in order that we may celebrate properly. Author Daniel Quinn sums up a key idea of our time, which he also calls the most dangerous idea in existence -- the idea that "Humans belong to an order of being that is separate from the rest of the living community."

CRAZY FOREST
CARNIVAL ATTACK
Quinn states: "… even more than being the most dangerous idea in existence, it's the most dangerous thing in existence -- more dangerous than all our nuclear armaments, more dangerous than biological warfare, more dangerous than all the pollutants we pump into the air, the water, and the land."

In other words, when humans decided to unweave themselves from the web of the wild -- to declare ourselves separate from the ecological order, separate from animals, separate from nature itself -- the seeds of our modern planetary crisis were born.

Understanding can thus create proper celebration. And celebrate we must. We are dancing animals. We are laughing, inventive, wildly intelligent, poetic and musical animals. Respecting our home (the planet) and our wild family (humans, animals, trees, all manner of beings) rekindles the deepest magic in us and all the world. It is time to celebrate…

TOTEM WOLF
ANIMALS MAKING QUILT BY MOONLIGHT
Special thanks to Yaki Bergman, David Robinson, my wife Liz and family, the Portland Chamber Orchestra, and the majestic forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest, which I consider my spiritual home. Wishing wildness and wonder to all…

-- Duncan Neilson