Librettist: Yvonne Gray
Choreography: Amy O’Brien
Photography: Nicki Gwynn-Jones
Projections:
Benjamin Robinson Rachel Schutz, soprano
Omar Najmi, tenor
Ithaca College Treble Chorale, Sean Linfors, conductor
Tegan Faran, violin; Ho-Yin Kwok, violin; Kyle Armbrust, viola; Greg Hesselink, cello; Tristen Jarvis, double bass

Stella Maris, Stella Caeli, Sterna Paradisaea (2025) is a 30-minute semi-staged cantata for soprano and tenor soli, treble chorus and string quintet. This production is directed by Ben Robinson and incorporates choreography by Amy O'Brien and projections of photography by Orkney-based artist Nicki Gywnn- Jones.

The text by Orkney poet Yvonne Gray celebrates the Arctic tern, an adept but now threatened survivor in a changing world. The year of the tern is presented as two seasons summer in the south; summer in the north - as the birds span the earth, flying over 60,000 miles from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic Ocean to their breeding grounds on land in the sub-Arctic and back. The form of the eleven-movement work is symmetrical, featuring accompanied Latin chants at the beginning and end, with alternating choruses and arias which incorporate, at times, phonetic representations of bird calls. In the central movement, a solo tern sings “the sky harps in our feathers - a morning song!” In "Come, Come! Remembered Songs!" the bird chorus sings of the growing light in the north and the urge to return for the breeding season. In “Totus pulcher Es” (You are entirely beautiful) and in “They travel from seas of ice”, soprano and tenor soloists (birders) reflect on what they know of the birds, awe and concern mingled. The harmonic language of the music is largely tonal, incorporating modes and other scales, and the music makes full use of text painting opportunities, “crissing” and “crossing” and “soaring”. The year’s cycle ends with silence – the "dread" – that falls when the flock is poised to take off on its return journey south after the chicks have fledged. That pause might invite questions. What lies ahead – for bird and for human – and how well will we adapt? The final chant and chorus express hope and a plea to look at and listen closely to the world around us.

–SM & YG