As the time grew closer to 7:30 p.m., hordes of people streamed into the auditorium at Benaroya Hall. Dressed in outfits ranging from evening gowns and heels to Patagonia jackets and Blundstones, everyone gathered to see Crescendo, a concert celebrating Washington landscapes put on by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra (NWSO) and Washington Trails Association (WTA).
NWSO is an organization committed to playing music by local composers. They also hope to connect the community with their local composers through various events like the Crescendo concert. WTA is a nonprofit that works to maintain trails throughout Washington and operates the largest locally written trail database in the state.
This partnership saw its first performance last year. NWSO initially approached WTA with the idea. Anthony Spain, music director for NWSO, felt that there was a natural connection to be made between music and nature.
“Many composers have been inspired by nature throughout basically forever, and nature has a way of creeping in and influencing their music, either consciously or subconsciously,” Spain said. “There’s something about getting outside in nature, melodies will come to a person. I find it curious how people will go hiking and they start singing. It seems to bring music out in us.”
Spain felt there was a good opportunity to use photos from WTA’s annual Northwest Exposure photo contest to bring people a piece of nature in the city. Using images from the photo contest, NWSO’s videographer Anthony Wyard worked to create a visual complement to the music that would be playing.
“It’s not just images that are randomly thrown up on the screen, but there’s a lot of thought that goes into what images, what photos go with this piece,” Spain said.
Before the concert began, many people mingled in the lobby of Benaroya Hall. Anna Roth, digital content manager for WTA, was particularly excited about this aspect of the evening.
“Offering an opportunity for people to spend time with each other is really nice,” Roth said. “It’s nice to be around folks who have those shared values.”
The evening was full of impressive musical performances. NWSO played seven pieces in total. In Vivaldi’s Spring, violin soloist Hana Gottesman was featured, along with an original video accompaniment by Wyard. Before intermission, NWSO played Mount Rainier Overture, by local composer Samuel Jones. Several photos of Mount Rainier complemented the performance.
After intermission, concertgoers got to hear a performance by the Musical Mountaineers, made up of Anastasia Allison on violin and Rose Freeman on piano. Allison and Freeman played along to a video they had filmed earlier in the year, where they hiked to the top of a mountain to play their respective instruments. The last pieces of the night were performed by NWSO, with songs accompanied by trail pictures, animals and hikers themselves.
All in all, it was an inspiring evening full of nature and song. Roth hopes that concertgoers feel that inspiration and take some action to protect the beauty featured in many of the pictures.
“I…hope that it helps inspire people to want to protect the lands that are in these pictures. Trails don’t just happen, they require a lot of advocacy to stay open and available to everybody,” Roth said. “I hope they can recognize that all the beautiful locations they see that evening are as beautiful as they are because of the hikers that came before them.”
One concertgoer, Chelsey Wheeler, felt that inspiration. She attended last year’s Crescendo concert, and decided to come back again. She works in environmental education, and detailed the inspiration she finds from nature.
“I think nature is a really great place to feel connected to something bigger than myself,” Wheeler said. “I think it’s really compelling to be personally connected and…give [others] opportunities to have those experiences.”
If you too are feeling called to get out in nature, you can submit the photos from your experiences to WTA’s photo contest in August. Maybe next year Crescendo concert attendees will see your photos while they listen to the beautiful melodies played by NWSO.
