We are thrilled to be joined by two renowned artists, composers Majel Connery and Anthony Plog, to discuss their experiences creating music inspired by the natural world. Connery’s The Rivers are our Brothers will be performed on Saturday, April 26th by GRAMMY-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer; and Plog’s God’s First Temples will be premiered by the Rowan University Wind Ensemble on Sunday, April 27th. All are welcome to this free, open conversation! For reservations, please visit the Rowan University Box Office.

Guest Artist biographies:

Majel Connery is a composer, vocalist and roving musicologist combining the beauty of Classical music with the power of modern technology. Her voice has been called "superb" by the New York Times and her compositions "thoroughly Schubertian" by the Wall Street Journal. Connery’s environmental compositions have been performed around the world, including her own recent premiere of Elderflora at Seattle Symphony/Octave 9, and the 2023-24 tour of “The Rivers are our Brothers” by Grammy-winning choir Chanticleer. An educator working at the intersection of arts and scholarship, Connery has created incubator classrooms and productions with artists like Caroline Shaw and Ken Ueno on campuses like Stanford, UC Berkeley, Wellesley, and Princeton. In radio, Connery hosts the NPR/CapRadio podcast A Music of Their Own and Reverberations with New Amsterdam Records. She holds a PhD in musicology from the University of Chicago and an A.B. in music from Princeton.

Anthony Plog has had a rich and varied international career in music—as a composer of operas, symphonic music, and chamber works; as an orchestral musician, soloist, and recording artist; and as a brass teacher and coach at some of the great music conservatories internationally and now online to students around the world. His works have been performed in over 30 countries, and he has been the recipient of numerous grants and commissions. After beginning his career writing extensively for brass, he now works in many different musical forms. He has composed three children’s operas, the first of which (How the Trumpet Got Its Toot) was premiered by the Utah Opera and Symphony. Plog completed a major tragic opera (Spirits) based on a Holocaust theme and recently finished a new opera about a drone operator suffering a nervous breakdown (The Sacrifice). Other new works include an oratorio about the first major environmental battle in the United States (God’s First Temples), and a cantata using the stories of women who have recovered from sex trafficking, prostitution, and drug abuse (Magdalene). Hear Plog in deep conversation with other professional musicians by listening to his podcast, Anthony Plog On Music.

TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, PLEASE RESERVE A FREE TICKET BY VISITING THE BOX OFFICE WEBSITE: CLICK HERE