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About the Score

Marybeth Kurnat, composer · The Lagoon - Choral Arts Initiative, Brandon Elliott, director

I have lived five minutes from Northern Illinois University almost my entire life. Since I graduated in 2011, I have been back to my alma mater every summer to teach at a music camp - but in all that time, I had never returned to campus just to partake in its natural environment… until last year.

Created in 1907, The East Lagoon is nestled just south of the NIU Music Building, along the western edge of the Elwood Historic District. I think it is the single most beautiful area on campus. Still in the quiet of summer break, something pulled me in, and I found myself wandering back to this spot on an unusually forgiving afternoon in early August. In the two hours that I sat there alone, I saw this place through strangely different eyes. As I took in every single detail of the environment around the lagoon, this poetry materialized at the edge of the water as a culmination of my experience.

The first three movements each observe a particular characteristic of the lagoon: the atypical climate, the wind in old maples, and the fountain. The last two movements are a revelation on how your perception of something so familiar or unceremonious to you can evolve after you’ve had time away to grow.

Written for the 2023 PREMIERE|Project Festival, for performance on June 30, 2023 by Dr. Brandon Elliott and the Choral Arts Initiative in Irvine, California.

Featured on the Choral Arts Initiative ICON Series.

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