Olmsted 200: Lungs of the City – Olmsted's Parks in Music

Oliver Caplan — Selected works
Nell Shaw Cohen — Selected works
Michael-Thomas Foumai — Selected works
Libby Meyer — Selected works
Ayumi Okada — Selected works
Justin Ralls — Selected works
Christina Rusnak — Selected works
Ryan Suleiman — Selected works

Lungs of the City: Olmsted’s Parks in Music is a program of new chamber music commemorating the 2022 bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted, the 19th-century American landscape architect who laid the groundwork for today's public parks, famously envisioned Central Park as "the lungs of the city". This unique concert program explores that sentiment through musical investigations of Olmsted’s living legacy of vital urban landscapes across the United States.

In a cross-regional collaboration amongst a consortium of ensembles and presenters, the concerts will take place in several cities in the Northeast and Midwest U.S. during the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2022.

The all-World Premiere program will feature works for flute, clarinet, horn, percussion, violin, viola, and cello, by composers Oliver Caplan, Nell Shaw Cohen, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Libby Meyer, Ayumi Okada, Justin Ralls, Christina Rusnak, and Ryan Suleiman. These accomplished and musically diverse composers, hailing from New York to Hawai'i, are members of Landscape Music: a network of composers and performers whose music engages with landscape, nature, and place.

Lungs of the City: Olmsted’s Parks in Music is co-curated and co-commissioned by Landscape Music in partnership with American Wild Ensemble (also a member of Landscape Music), a chamber ensemble which celebrates the people, places, and stories that shape American history and culture through the commission and performance of new music; Juventas New Music Ensemble, a Boston-based contemporary chamber group with a special focus on emerging voices; and Michigan Technological University Department of Visual and Performing Arts, which presents concerts of new music with notable guest performers. All three performance partners will be giving concerts of this program on their 2022 seasons.

About Music in the American Wild

http://www.musicintheamericanwild.com

About Landscape Music Network

Landscape Music is a network of musical artists. Our mission is to deepen public appreciation of the natural world by providing a platform for contemporary composers and performers whose music engages with landscape, nature, and place.

https://landscapemusic.org/