NEW FIVE MINUTES for Earth Single, Arturo Sandoval's Wildflower (Yolanda's Song)

Full Length Music Video
Read the Wildflower Blog
Watch the Music Video Trailer
Watch a Live Performance
Watch A Conversation with Arturo Sandoval and Yolanda Kondonassis 

FIVE MINUTES for Earth is a project that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it. In 2020, I asked each of the composers featured in this collection if they would consider contributing a work for solo harp of approximately five minutes in length that expresses a powerful experience inspired by Earth in one of its many conditions or atmospheres. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of their immediate responses and set about assembling this labor-of-love project.

The endeavor quickly expanded to include a live, multi-media concert, a unique video for each track, a separate published collection of Earth-inspired solos for younger harpists, and most importantly, the opportunity for harpists all over the world to perform these innovative, Earth-inspired works for solo harp by some of today’s most lauded composers; in doing so, every verified performance of any of the works from the FIVE MINUTES for Earth collection, anywhere in the world, will result in a monetary contribution to a recognized earth conservation organization, sponsored by my non-profit organization, Earth at Heart®.

FIVE MINUTES for Earth is also a metaphor for the urgent and compressed timeframe that remains for our global community to embrace and implement solutions to our fast-growing environmental crisis. 

What is at stake ... is only everything we have.

-Yolanda Kondonassis

Top Row (L-R): Chen Yi, Nathaniel Heyder, Aaron Jay Kernis, Patrick Harlin
Second Row: Arturo Sandoval, Keith Fitch, Reena Esmail, Stephen Hartke
Third Row: Zhou Long, Michael Daugherty, Takuma Itoh, Gary Schocker
Fourth Row: Philip Maneval, Jocelyn Chambers, Daniel Dorff, Máximo Diego Pujol

Q: This was quite a massive project – commissioning and recording 15 new works by some of today’s most well-known composers in a single year. Can you tell us about your inspiration for the undertaking?

YK: I think a lot of us – and certainly performing artists – found ourselves with some unexpected time for reflection during the pandemic. We’ve had such a convergence of crises in recent years – public health, social, racial, geopolitical. Even with all that, there is no issue more urgent, more rapidly escalating, more far-reaching, or more dire than our climate crisis. We see it every day in the changes to our weather patterns, our eco-systems, and our transforming landscapes. That said, our environment never seems to get the sustained attention, passion, belief, or urgency of most of the other crises we face. It’s the great big, giant can we keep kicking down the road. I’ve been involved in earth conservation for over 20 years, and I‘ve been lucky enough to have had quite a few opportunities to weave together my passions, but when the idea for this project hit me, it seemed like a perfect way to combine a number of missions - most importantly, the opportunity to draw attention to earth conservation and climate change through the language of music.

Q: What other specific missions were you targeting with this project?

YK: A number of years ago, I founded a non-profit organization called Earth at Heart, whose mission is to inspire earth conservation awareness, reflection, and action through the artistic experience, which can sometimes be more impactful than the delivery of data and straight information. While this project is driven by that concept, which many of my projects are, I’d have to say this one is even more personal. When I first reached out to the composers featured in this collection and asked if they would be willing to contribute an earth-inspired, five-minute work for solo harp, I was completely overwhelmed by the generosity of immediate responses. All of the unique and vivid sonic realms that these composers created within a single theme are nothing short of amazing. These fifteen works, each with an evocative title, give musical insight into an almost magical spectrum of experience, which I hope might help my listeners pause and appreciate both the breathtaking beauty of our planet and the grave challenges ahead in saving it. Beyond that, the idea for the project was a rather simple “pay-it- forward” concept. Each of the composers generously contributed their work to the project without fee, and once the works are released on recording and premiered, they will belong to the world of harpists to perform. In addition to the incredible wealth of new harp solos that these composers have created, every verified performance, by any harpist, anywhere in the world, will result in a contribution to a worthy earth conservation organization, sponsored by Earth at Heart. I hope to expand the project to include other instruments in the future. It’s a way for performers to donate through the gift of their performance, even when discretionary income for giving may be limited or impossible.

Q: You recently wrote a book for composers on writing for the harp – The Composer’s Guide to Writing Well for the Modern Harp. Did that play into the project at all?

YK: It did, actually. It was a nice bit of synergy in that I was able to offer composers a resource. Very often, even seasoned composers are a bit intimidated by the harp since it is so technically and mechanically complex. There is also a huge array of special effects possible on the harp and I was thrilled to be able to organize them for the book in advance of this project. The FIVE MINUTES collection is a wonderful showcase of contemporary techniques, not to mention all the immensely creative thematic material and beautifully idiomatic writing.

Q: Can you tell us a little more about the music in the FIVE MINUTES collection?

YK: I just feel so honored to have been given the opportunity to help bring these works into the world and each composer has such a vivid, unique language. I think one would be hard-pressed to find a collection of music more varied than this, but what I truly love is the way in which the inspiration of Earth was such a unifying element. While the works run the gamut from lyrical and reflective to powerful, haunting, and even spikey, each has a thread in common with another. Assembling the sequence of tracks on the album was an incredibly interesting process – connecting the segments by both commonalities and contrasts to create a cohesive journey. I guess I’m old-school in that I love the process of creating a complete album-listening experience and I love listening to other artists’ music that way as well. The combination of specifically curated music in an intentionally designed sequence gives me a more personal window into an artist’s world than just listening to a track here and a track there.

Q: In some of your prior interviews, you talk about the metaphorical relationship between the harp and the female experience. You draw that same relationship in your liner notes as it relates to the harp as a metaphor for earth. Can you talk about that a bit?

YK: Long ago when I chose to make the harp my life’s work, I was, unbelievably, completely unaware of some of the stereotypes, connotations, and for lack of a better word, “baggage” that came with the instrument. I was a kid from Oklahoma who thought the harp was cool and got hooked once I began to discover repertoire like Ginastera’s Harp Concerto. I wasn’t into angels - and am certainly not one myself - and never even pondered the idea that transcending the stereotypes of the harp itself would be one of the major early challenges in building my solo career. So - as I learned along the way, minds can be a hard thing to change, but good repertoire helps, which explains why commissioning new works has been a cornerstone of my career. That said, people most often expect the harp to be ever-beautiful, soothing, sweet, and charming. And sometimes it is. But like women, the harp can be many other things as well. The harp is capable of tremendously powerful, articulate textures and when approached artfully, these sounds can not only coexist in the harp’s palette, but complete the idiom’s color wheel. The spectrum of musical experience is wide, and while it is – of course – full of beauty and joy, it’s also a vehicle for expression of all kinds – pain, anger, longing, isolation, darkness, the works. I find that Mother Earth is often framed in a similar way as the harp and presents the same dichotomy of terms - majestic but fragile, feminine yet fiercely powerful, strikingly diverse but glorified primarily for only its most classically beautiful facets, and while appreciated to an extent – often taken for granted. These parallels make the harp a perfect storyteller in the tale of Earth. In capturing the acoustic of the harp on this album, my producer and I made the choice to capture the sound of the harp as it truly is – boldly resonant, at times raw, prickly when appropriate, and as colorful, varied, dramatic, and immediate as possible. I have made over 20 solo recordings, and I would have to say that this might be the first one where I just completely let the music guide the sound, rather than serving the ever-present quest of sonic beauty at all costs. Maybe it comes with age, but it feels like a healthy turning point – both for me as an artist, and for the harp. It’s time to roar [laughter].