Science and Music Meet in the World Premiere of Cocoon

A unique septet of instruments will come together for the world premiere of a piece entitled Cocoon by acclaimed Chicago-based composer James Stephenson on Friday, July 19th at 7:30 pm at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara as part of its 72nd anniversary Summer School and Festival. Attendees are also invited to attend a pre-concert lecture on the work from 6:45 pm to 7:15 pm.

Science and music will meet in the composition, which is based on Mr. Stephenson’s experience as an artist in residence at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), an environmental science research center affiliated with UC Santa Barbara. His residency was also supported by the Music Academy and The Squire Foundation. The composer is an alumnus of the Music Academy, which he attended in both 1988 and 1991 as a trumpet fellow, and he recently joined the Academy at the 2018 Summer School and Festival as a composer-in-residence.

Clarinet, oboe, piano, violin, harp, trombone, and a Persian percussion instrument called the tombak are an unusual mix of instruments to be playing together, but the ensemble they will create in Cocoon reflects what Mr. Stephenson learned at NCEAS, itself a place where unusual combinations of scientists convene and collaborate on complex questions about the natural world.