Image courtesy the program directors.

Dominating the Banff skyline is the boreal forest—ringing the world in the largest connected intelligent organism on the planet. Taking inspiration from Eduardo Kohn’s provocative book, “How Forests Think,” Liza Lim explores the idea of the communal intelligence of forests and the way that illuminates human interactions in a chaotic world in her stunning eponymous setting of Kohn’s ideas for ensemble with sheng solo.  The virtuoso Wu Wei joins as soloist.

Daring musical textures probe important questions of identity and politics in George Lewis’s Will to Adorn, a musical essay inspired by writer and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, whose description of “decorating a decoration” prompted Lewis’s exuberant musical embellishments.  The sonic and cultural richness of this program is completed by a new work by EVO faculty member and iconic saxophonist, Matana Roberts.