Featherstep

Program Notes

Our campsite was tucked away among the winding banks of the legendary Teklanika River. Famous for stranding Christopher McCandless in March of 1992. A few miles north lay the jagged white peaks of the Alaska Range shadowed by all 20,310 feet of tallest mountain in North America. Birds were dripping from the trees, little birds, singing and flying and pouring over the limbs. There was one in particular, a juvenile Canada Jay with a pale gray mustache. He darted along the limbs of our tents, pecking and snatching at our food.

Canada Jays are intrepid birds, remembered fondly by the Alaskan natives. This piece depicts our feathered friend flying among the sloping alpine meadows and feeding on seeds and berries to sustain himself through the bleak, arctic winter.

I am grateful to those at Composing in the Wilderness, Nathan Lincoln de Custatis and Stephan Lias for providing me with such a wonderful experience traversing the Alaskan wilderness and inspiring me both as a composer and as a person. I would also like to thank members of CORVUS who premiered Featherstep at the University of Alaska, and the Denali National Park Visitors Center in July of 2023.