Isle Royale 85th Anniversary Celebration

Conducted by a fly swatter, the KSO performs "Marauding Mosquitos" the fourth movement of "The land that speaks when we've ears to listen," on the Rozsa Center stage.

NPS

For 85 years, Isle Royale National Park has protected a vast wilderness archipelago nesled within Lake Superior. Its wave-washed shores, boreal forests, island-evolved wildlife, rare ecology, prehistoric copper mining, maritime culture, and isolation have perpetually inspired the creation of art.

To celebrate the park's legacy and the work produced by over 35 years of artists-in-residence, the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in Houghton, Michigan, offered a double-feature event on the evening of February 15, 2025.

Doors opened at 5 o'clock in the Rozsa Art Gallery, showcasing many works from the park's artist-in-residence collection to an excited audience.
Two hours later on the stage, the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra performed a world-premiere of The land that speaks when we've ears to listen, a seven movement symphony composed by th Michigan Tech composer Libby Meyer, a past Isle Royale Artist-in-Residence.

Displays in the lobby brought some of the sights and elements of the park to the mainland, to ponder the island from afar in the middle of winter. Highlights included a life-sized cardboard cutout moose that provided photo opportunities, a real Isle Royale privy, and a 45-foot scale floor map of the park that represented a mile of terrain in each foot. The entire evening highlighted how the power of place inspires music and art that resonates within the human spirit.

Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra

The land that speaks... Watch the performance!

Composer Notes for "The Land that speaks when we've ears to listen"

The land that speaks when we've ears to listen is a work in seven movements, each describing a unique feature of Isle Royale National Park. I have for many years enjoyed hiking and paddling through and around the park and joyfully discovering its mysteries. This work represents just a few of my fondest memories.

Libby Meyer, Composer

1. Mr. Moose

One of the most wonderful experiences on Isle Royale is to bump unexpectedly into a moose (from a safe distance, of course!). I imagine Mr. Moose as a noble creature wandering Isle Royale in search of love and adventure.

2. Paw Prints

I see a pawprint and wonder about the wolf that created it. What was she thinking? Was she hunting, exploring or simply enjoying the day? I imagine her sometimes alone and sometimes joined by her pack. Melodies appear and disappear sometimes in complete statements, sometimes as fragments. With each melodic statement, there are subtle changes; a rhythmic change here, a note shifts there, sometimes with a different harmony. Unpredictable, like the movements of the wolf that left that paw print.

3. McCargoe Cove

After a very long, exhausting hike, I end up at McCargoe Cove, one of the loveliest places on the Island. In the morning the water is calm, and I can hear the loons calling to each other from across the harbor. There is a dock where I sit drinking coffee, listening. This is my happy place, and I return here in my memories in the dead of winter.

4. Maurauding Mosquitoes

We've all experienced this. The buzzing and chaos of a swarm of mosquitos circling and biting. They are a constant in early to mid-summer, and while not pleasant, do add an extra layer of "adventure" to a long hike.

5. Dancing Dragonflies

I'm generally a pacifist about most things except when it comes to mosquitos (and blackflies). I smash them with reckless abandon, so I was pleased to read that dragonflies are one of the most successful hunters in the animal kingdom. With the ability to hover, fly backward and home in on their target, they have roughly a 98% success rate in catching their prey. This movement is about dragonflies from the perspective of those mosquitos.

6. Hushful and Still Closer Comes the Red Fox

Hushful and still closer comes the red fox
and chickadee, the turning of thistle
and thorn-- I reach up into memory
tidally locked and phasing like moon glow
overhead, or down into the greenstone
billions of years beneath the trillium.
I've scant to say that's not already sung
by the wind in the balsam and cedar,
or the stones at the bend of the river.
The steady beat of our own wolfish hearts.
The chorus that is starshine in our eyes.
The land that speaks when we've ears to listen
©2025 M. Bartley Seigel, Upper Peninsula Poet Laureate, adapted from his "Isle Royale Reflections"

7. Northern Lights

Northern lights waltz across the sky providing a spectacular, luminous performance for those of us lucky enough to be awake. Their joyful aerial dance appears and disappears in an instant leaving me with a lingering sense of wonder.

Instrumentation

Piccolo
2 Flutes
2 Clarinets in Bb
Bass Clarinet in Bb
Tenor Saxophone
2 Bassoons
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
4 Horns in F
3 Trumpets in Bb
2 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion (6 players, instruments shared):

Bass Drum, Cowbell, Crash Cymbal, Crotales, Floor Toms (4), Glockenspiel, Gong, Guiro, Maracas, Marimba, Ratchet, Slapstick, Snare Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Vibraphone, Wind Chimes, Woodblock, Xylophone

Piano
Soprano Solo
Tenor Solo
Strings

Performance Note

Duration: c. 30 minutes
There should be little or no pause between movements 1-3 and movements 4-7. There can be a slight break between movement 3 and 4. Soloists for movement 6 should enter as the movement begins and exit as the movement ends leaving no breaks.