Whidbey’s Saratoga Orchestra presents Rhythms of Nature III

In celebration of Ocean and Earth Month on Whidbey Island, the musicians of Whidbey’s Saratoga Orchestra invite you to their third annual “Rhythms of Nature” program. This year’s event will be held on April 6 at 2 pm in the Main Barn at Greenbank Farm. Admission is free and donations are gratefully appreciated.

Rhythms of Nature was conceived in 2022 to present and explore a vast array of diverse and eclectic chamber music, mostly centering on the percussion family. Audiences have come to expect — the unexpected. This year’s program will include composers Lauren Bernofsky, John Cage, Stacy Garrop, Alan Hovhaness, and Morten Lauridsen, plus a few improvisatory segments and surprises.

Works to be performed include two compositions by former Seattle resident Alan Hovhaness, “Mysterious Horse Before the Gate,” a short interplay for trombones and percussion, and “Koke No Niwa” or Japanese Moss Garden, featuring the English horn with percussion and keyboard.

Contemporary composer John Cage will be represented with his “Living Room Music” written in 1940 for percussion and speech quartet; it epitomizes the composer’s experimentation with the boundaries of the concert stage and reality, while also demonstrating his exploration of objets trouvés. Cage requires the performers to transform into a speech quartet in the second movement, drawing on text from Gertrude Stein’s poem “The World Is Round.”

Lauren Bernofsky’s delightful “Anacostia Journal,” for string quartet, was written during the composer’s residency with Earth Corps in Washington, D.C. Its premier performance took place at a 2003 Earth Day rally on the banks of the Anacostia River.

“Solitude of Stars” for soprano sax and piano was written by Stacy Garrop and depicts the composer’s awe at experiencing a nighttime view of the starry heavens, shining brightly over the vast expanse of the Wyoming prairie.

Interspersed within the musical program will be special guests Mary Elizabeth Himes, affectionately known as “A Poet on Whidbey,” and the OKK (Okinawa Kenjin Kai) Taiko ensemble from Oak Harbor fusing traditional Okinawan music, dance, chanting, and taiko drumming.

The Earth has music for those who listen. . . . Will you be one who listens?

Further information can be found at www.sowhidbey.com or call 360-929-3045.