Trees speak. Water sings. A storm gathers. And somewhere beyond it, the air clears.

Inspired by the abundant nature and breathtaking landscapes that surround Olympia, CONNECT listens to the living world through trees, water, weather, memory, and renewal. This is not nature as background scenery. This is nature as presence, as motion, as something that speaks when we slow down enough to hear it.
Iman Habibi’s Jeder Baum spricht, or Every Tree Speaks, opens the concert in conversation with Beethoven. Written as a response to Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the work listens to the natural world through a present-day lens, where beauty and fragility exist side by side. The piece’s direct connection to Beethoven makes its place beside the Pastoral Symphony feel less like a pairing and more like a conversation across centuries.

Then, water takes center stage. In Tan Dun’s words, “Water is an element you can’t block. You can block land...but water has no such frontiers.” In the Water Concerto, percussionist Svet Stoyanov turns that idea into something you can see and hear. Bowls, basins, splashes, ripples, and touch become sound, creating music that feels heard and seen at the same time.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” brings the concert home. Birds call. A brook moves. Dancers gather. A storm breaks open the sky. Then comes the calm after, full of gratitude and release. After Habibi and Tan Dun ask us to listen again, Beethoven reminds us why the natural world has always called us back.

CONNECT is a poetic, sensory concert about the landscapes around us, the elements that move through every border, and the quiet renewal that begins when we pay attention.