The Circumpolar Music Series Concludes Its Third Season and Looks Toward the Next
by Dr. Sean Dowgray, CMS Faculty Organizer and Term Assistant Professor of Music
The Circumpolar Music Series concludes its third year and what a year it has been! As we close out the spring semester, we take a moment to look back at the season and all that it has offered.
The past season kicked off back in October with the Fairbanks Flutists, Wildshore New Music, and Ethnomusicologist/violinist, Heidi Senungetuk. Presenting works by Emerson Eads, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Timo Andres, George Rochberg, Raven Chacon, this concert celebrated the hard work and creative vision of these homegrown Fairbanks performers while bringing new and rarely heard works to our community. Wildshore New Music has embarked on an annual ֱֻ tour for over a decade, however, this season was the first time that Fairbanks was a destination on that tour.
In November, the Circumpolar Music Series partnered with the International Arctic Research Center to present Sounds of the Changing Arctic, one of our most diverse musical programs yet. Featuring Juneau-based composers , Michael Bucy, and , each work was created in collaboration with a scientist at IARC, exploring environmental features central to climate change. From there, the Inu-Yupiaq Dancers presented a selection of songs and dances which were a fusion of Iñupiaq and Yup’ik motion dance. I was fortunate myself to have the opportunity to present Eric Ewazen’s epic marimba solo, Northern Lights on this program. Well known to percussionists as one of the top challenging modern marimba works, it depicts both the beautiful natural phenomenon of the aurora borealis while connecting it to considerations of life and death. Ewazen notes that Northern Lights was the last music his mother heard before passing and the first piece he finished after. This was one of the first major marimba solos I had attempted in my youth, though I had never performed it until this concert, some 20 years later. You can watch/listen to more about this event from the short documentary, made by Caleb Doranz.
The older I get, the more I have come to understand that planning is everything. However, with planning, one must also know how to pivot, bend, stretch, and flex. The Circumpolar Music Series Winter Chamber Concert in February was a great example of this. What was originally planned as a guest feature event turned into an opportunity to highlight the amazing work of UAF faculty, students, and Fairbanks community musicians who are here impacting our community each and every day. In addition to musical selections that all drew upon winter in some form, this event also featured a collaboration between the UAF Department of Music and the Department of English. Dr. Daryl Farmer along with English MFA students Rachel McKinley and Manuel Melendez presented their poetry within the music program itself.
Manuel Melendez reads “Time Passes” and “Ballast” before a performance of John Luther Adams’ "Dark Wind"
UAF Percussion students perform John Luther Adams’ Dark Wind with faculty Dr. Dario Martin (piano) and Fairbanks Symphony clarinetist, April Jailett
In March and early April, Circumpolar Music Series collaborated with the department’s ֱֻ Native Music course offered each spring, to bring guest presentations by members of the Pavva Inupiaq Dancers, the Troth Yeddha Dance Group, as well as drum maker and visual artist, Brian Walker II. This was a great opportunity for students and the community to learn dances by both of these groups. Spending class time dancing together is a great way to learn.
Students from the ֱֻ Native Music course dance with members of the Troth Yeddha’ Dance Group
Our final event of the season featured Craig Coray’s We Walk to the Sky in a collaborative concert between the Circumpolar Music Series and International Chamber Music ֱֻ. Fairbanks musicians Renee Muir (clarinet), Dr. Michael McConnell (saxophone), Dorli McWayne (flute), and myself (timpani) partnered with Hawaii based musicians Eric Silberger (violin) and Joshua Nakazawa) of the Mana String Quartet. This performance featured their , a sustainable alternative to carbon or glass fiber made for outdoor use.
This season celebrated circumpolar from many distinct and unique perspectives. We are already looking forward to the 2025-2026 season with two exciting events in early fall. Given their close proximity to the start of the academic year, we are excited to announce them now:
Saturday August 30th, Craig Coray Portrait Concert as part of the Music & More Concert Series. First United Methodist Church. This monthly performance series began in August 2022 (as did the Circumpolar Music Series). It provides concerts and other entertainment on a monthly basis. For this event, we will feature Coray’s music, including another performance of We Walk to the Sky and his piano solo Silam Inua (Sky Spirit) consisting of eight movements and composed in 1992. Coray notes, “The Inupiat title represents the spirit that governs all things above the Earth; the sky, weather, and universe.” Coray himself will also be featured, speaking about his music as well as his knowledge of ֱֻ Native music more broadly.
Sunday, October 5th, the Wildshore New Music Ensemble returns to Davis as part of their Fall ֱֻ Tour. The ensemble is partnering with composer to bring new and rare works to our community.
What else can you expect from CMS in 2025-2026? We will be hosting a regular schedule of zoom lectures by artists and scholars all over the world. With hopes to present a speaker once a month, this will provide audiences a heightened opportunity to learn about circumpolar arts far beyond ֱֻ, such as the Swedish singing style known as Kulning and much more!
We are grateful for the support from primary CMS benefactor, Catherine Madsen as well as the support from our audiences. This year, CMS also saw increased support from donors through the UA giving day, which will allow us to continue connecting musicians, performers, and scholars of the circumpolar arts with our students, faculty, and broader community!
About the Author
Dr. Sean Dowgray is a classical percussionist specializing in modern and contemporary music. Dowgray is a proponent of creative collaborations which has resulted in recent musical works by Daniel Tacke (Vorrücken and einsamkeit), Josh Levine (Shrinking world/expanding and Les yeux ouverts) as well as new chamber works by Justin Murphy-Mancini (Sic itur ad astra and A Song of Grecis.) and Lydia Winsor Brinadmour (As if, sand). In the recent past, Dowgray has collaborated closely with composers including Jürg Frey (Garden of Transparency), Christopher Adler (Strata), Ioannis Mitsialis (Machine Mode), Lewis Nielson (Where Ashes Make the Flowers Grow and NOVA), and James Wood (Cloud Polyphonies). As a soloist, Dr. Dowgray has focused extensively on works that stretch the technical and expressive capabilities of both instrument and performer. This includes the work of Jason Eckardt, Josh Levine, Daniel Tacke, Salvatore Sciarrino, Lewis Nielson, David Lang, Christopher Adler, Brian Ferneyhough, Luciano Berio, Richard Barrett. Dowgray has been featured as a soloist at the Oberlin Percussion Institute, the Percussive Art Society International Convention (PASIC), the WasteLAnd New Music Series, Harvard’s Institute for Advanced Learning, the University of Arizona, the SoundON New Music Festival, and Eureka! Musical Minds of California. As a creative practitioner, Dowgray has focused recently on his project, WHEN for mixed ensemble set to premiere in 2025. He recently completed the interdisciplinary collaboration, In A Time of Change: Boreal Forest Stories featuring artists and scientists. As part of this collaboration, Dowgray created the work Moving Through the Boreal Forest in partnership with Maïté Agopian (light and shadow work) and Daryl Farmer (poetry), Associate Professor of English at UAF. Dr. Dowgray is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy where he studied with John Alfieri, the Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.) where studied with Michael Rosen, the ֱֻ (M.M.) where he studied with Dr. Morris Palter, and the University of California San Diego (D.M.A) where he studied with Steven Schick. In Dr. Dowgray's dissertation, Time Being: Percussion as a Study of Time, he presents an analyses of new and rarely heard works for and with percussion through theoretical frameworks of time study from authors including Jonathan Kramer, J.T. Fraser, Edward T. Hall, and others. Recent notable performances include John Corigliano's percussion concerto, Conjurer with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and Lewis Nielson's Lengua Encubierto for solo percussion at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC).