ELDERFLORA

if trees could talk, This is the tale they’d tell.

Elderflora is a song cycle on the life of a tree from birth to death and a metaphor for human experience. Through the inner life of a tree, Elderflora helps us better understand ourselves. Inspired by the Native American belief that we must relate to the environment as our kin, Elderflora harnesses the human capacity to personify the world to make us better citizens of nature.

Musical demos:

“Trees are a lot like people, and this is their superpower.” says Connery. “They have skin. They can bruise, and bleed. They’re also giants among us doing supernatural stuff. “I want us to see trees for what they are — both familiar, and utterly out of this world.” Each song is rich in scientific detail, using music to create technicolor portraits of the tree at significant moments in its life.

Written for voice + synthesizer (Connery) and electric cello (Felix Fan), Elderflora weaves Classical influence with electronic soundscapes. It tours fall 2024 with optional images by American photographer Noah Kalina.

About the composer:

Majel Connery is a composer, performer, podcaster and musicologist. Her music has been called “superb” by the New York Times and “thoroughly Schubertian” by the Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on Radiolab, Kennedy Center Live, and New Sounds radio.

The Rivers are our Brothers, Connery’s song cycle on ecological responsibility, was commissioned by Musica Sierra and is being toured by Grammy-winning choir Chanticleer. This fall, Connery toured Rivers as a duo with electric cellist Felix Fan in the Southwest, in Italy, and returns in the spring to Ohio and California with Australian duo Bowerbird.

Connery is the host and producer of A Music of Their Own, an interview podcast on NPR about women in the music industry. She appears frequently as a solo artist, and with NYC-based art-rock band, Sky Creature.