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Voices of the Land

Christina Rusnak composer

Juventas New Music Ensemble
Oliver Caplan artistic director

Release Date: September 8, 2023
Catalog #: NV6553
Format: Digital & Physical
21st Century
Orchestral
Large Ensemble

VOICES OF THE LAND from composer Christina Rusnak guides listeners on a journey through America, celebrating its landscape and its people. Featuring the Juventas New Music Ensemble, the pieces on this album explore the emotions and experiences of settlers, miners, and indigenous people as they navigated the challenges, triumphs, and indignities of early American history. Drawing inspiration from the Homestead Act and the Klondike Gold Rush to the John Day River and Pine Meadow Ranch, Rusnak’s music weaves together the rhythms and sounds of nature with the stories of the nation’s early inhabitants. This album is in keeping with Rusnak’s other work as a composer, focusing on the intersection of place, nature, culture, history, and art. A powerful tribute to the land and the people who shaped it, VOICES OF THE LAND invites listeners to reflect on the complex history of America.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Coal Creek Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Celine Ferro, bass clarinet; Ryan Shannon, violin; Mina Lavcheva, violin; Jonathan Hess, marimba 7:02
02 FREE LAND: I. Homeland Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Sho Kato, flute; Robinson Pyle, trumpet; Ryan Shannon, violin and vocals; Thomas Barth, cello; Thomas Schmidt, marimba and percussion; Jonathan Hess, percussion 5:02
03 FREE LAND: II. Two Seasons Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Sho Kato, flute; Robinson Pyle, trumpet; Ryan Shannon, violin and vocals; Thomas Barth, cello; Thomas Schmidt, marimba and percussion; Jonathan Hess, percussion 6:06
04 FREE LAND: III. Harvest Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Sho Kato, flute; Robinson Pyle, trumpet; Ryan Shannon, violin and vocals; Thomas Barth, cello; Thomas Schmidt, marimba and percussion; Jonathan Hess, percussion 3:54
05 The Way Through Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Celine Ferro, clarinet; Ryan Shannon, violin; Thomas Barth, cello; Tom Schmidt, marimba 9:04
06 Canyon Voices Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Sho Kato, flute; Celine Ferro, clarinet; Ryan Shannon, violin; Thomas Barth, cello; Tom Schmidt, percussion; Jonathan Hess, marimba and percussion 7:25
07 Oregon Trail: I. Me-a pa-te Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Sho Kato, flute; Celine Ferro, clarinet; Ryan Shannon, violin; Thomas Barth, cello; Tom Schmidt, percussion 6:11
08 Oregon Trail: II. Mudza Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Sho Kato, flute; Celine Ferro, clarinet; Ryan Shannon, violin; Thomas Barth, cello; Tom Schmidt, percussion 6:34
09 Oregon Trail: III. Hyas Tyee Təmwata Christina Rusnak Juventas New Music Ensemble | Oliver Caplan, artistic director; Sho Kato, flute; Celine Ferro, clarinet; Ryan Shannon, violin; Thomas Barth, cello; Tom Schmidt, percussion 7:09
10 Pine Meadow Christina Rusnak Brian Gardiner, percussion; Will Reno, percussion; Nick Rose, percussion; Wanyue Ye, percussion 6:10

Tracks 1-9
Recorded February 25, 2023 at Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport MA
Recording Session Producer Brad Michel
Recording Session Engineer Luke Damrosch

Track 10
Recorded August 24, 2022 at Dead Aunt Thelma’s Studio in Portland OR
Recording Session Producer and Engineer, Editing, Mixing Sasha Muller

Editing, Mixing & Mastering Brad Michel

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
Production Manager Martina Watzková

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Chelsea Kornago

Artist Information

Christina Rusnak

Christina Rusnak

Composer

Inspired by concepts of place and the human experience, composer Christina Rusnak works at the intersection of nature, culture, history, landscape, and art to integrate context into her music from the world around her. Rusnak composes for diverse instrumentations with lyrical lines, and organic rhythms and textures. Her pieces range from elementary to professional levels and includes chamber ensemble, orchestra, wind band, choral and solo works, as well as flex band pieces, jazz, electro-acoustic works, and film. 

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Group photo of Juventas New Music ensemble, with members holding their instruments.

Juventas New Music Ensemble

Ensemble

Juventas New Music Ensemble is a contemporary chamber group with a special focus on emerging voices. Juventas shares classical music as a vibrant, living art form. They bring audiences music from a diverse array of composers that live in today’s world and respond to our time. Since its founding in 2005, Juventas has performed the music of more than 300 living composers. The ensemble has earned a reputation as a curator with a keen eye for new talent. It opens doors for composers with top-notch professional performances that present their work in the best possible light.

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Notes

This piece considers the rise of a gold mining camp and the life of its people in challenging conditions along the ever-present Yukon River. The Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 brought thousands of miners and in 1901 the first gold claim was filed at Coal Creek. In 1936, an enormous gold dredge was erected chewing through 3000 cubic yards of gravel a day. It is now part of Yukon Charley National Preserve. A gravel air-strip enables bush planes to provide a thrilling visit to the camp.

— Christina Rusnak

My residency overlapped with the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act. I traveled to sites along the various emigrant trails. I felt internal conflict trying to compose about the emigrants’ new life and opportunity knowing how many lives and livelihoods were decimated by the passage of the Act.

I. HOMELAND
The first movement interweaves the essence of the American landscape and environment with the lives of the indigenous Americans.

II. TWO SEASONS
This movement tells the story of the anticipation and celebration of the passing of the Homestead Act; the impact of the railroad, the clash of built-up expectations with reality, and most importantly, the settlers’ hard work, joys, and sorrows.

III. HARVEST
The third movement is primarily a traditional dance movement reflecting the revelry; at the same time it honors and laments the people whose lives are devastated.

Lyrics (Mvmnts 2 & 3):
“I’m workin’ on the land,
I’m workin’ in the wind,
The prairie, don’t come loose,
The prairie, it owns me.”

— Christina Rusnak

North Cascades is often referred to as America’s Alps. Accessible only by boat, plane, or on foot, The Way Through refers to an ancient trail over the glacial ridge into the narrow valley, flanked by fjord-like mountains rising thousands of feet. Pictographs drawn on the canyon walls reveal the changing snow and ice levels over millennia. Miners and Homesteaders began arriving in the 1880s and tourists soon afterward. In composing the piece, I incorporated the values of the people who forged a life in this unforgiving landscape and who continue to live here. To convey the cohesion of community and landscape, I wove into my piece Will the Circle Be Unbroken composed by prolific gospel composer, Charles H. Gabriel in 1907.

— Christina Rusnak

During my first visit I literally heard voices. Two geese floated aimlessly down the John Day River. A small goose honking, pausing, then listening to its echo reverberating against the canyon walls. For thousands of years, this landscape has been inhabited. Settlers arrived and wheat farming began here in 1903. The John Day River, a National Wild and Scenic River, flows as the lower 48’s third-longest free flowing river system—the heartbeat of this landscape. Cottonwood Canyon is now Oregon’s second largest state park. What is shared over millennia are the voices that come together at the river. I consulted with members of local tribal communities to honor their presence in its history.

— Christina Rusnak

I strive to evoke the essence of the landscape along the route, divided into the Plains, the Rockies, and the Oregon Territory. The music takes the listener back to the landscape itself, and to life prior to and during the pioneers’ cross-country experience. ach movement uses the name of a local indigenous place: “Me-a-pa-te,” “Mudza,” and “Hyas Tyee Təmwata.” The Oregon Trail cemented the United States boundary with Britain and justified human sacrifice in the name of progress. Thus, the emotions of these people found their way into the music.

I. Me-a-pa-te (Scott’s Bluff) Nebraska
Me-a-pa-te translates as “hill that is hard to go around.” This movement interweaves the prairie and the lives of its inhabitants with the emigrants’ wagons rolling by.

II. Mudza (South Pass) Wyoming
A conduit of continental trade and animal migration for millenia, “Mudza” explores the experience and impact of crossing the South Pass for both the indigenous people and the settlers.

III. Hyas Tyee Təmwata
Willamette Falls, second only to Niagara Falls in volume, was the end point of the Oregon Trail. Prior to settlement, Hyas Tyee Təmwata flourished as a major fishery with a thriving society of people living in semi-permanent villages. This movement ties together the falls, its residents, and the setters’ arrival.

— Christina Rusnak

Pine Meadow Ranch operates as a working ranch and an arts, agricultural, and ecological center. As an Artist in Residence at Pine Meadow Ranch, I focused on the rhythms and timbres of a dairy farm, of rural life in a western state. The rhythms of the ranch are set into motion. Fences are constructed; barns are raised; pastures are watered. Wool is woven, cows are milked, bottles are delivered. All against the rhythm of the forest, the rivers, and the mountains.

— Christina Rusnak