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Alaska Live.

I'm your Alaska Live host, Lori Neufeld.

I'd like to welcome the Circumpolar North Music Series guests here for Frozen Frequencies, the fiber of music.

On stage right now, we have Dr.

Sean Dowgray, drums, and Eric Siberger, violin.

And they are ready to go.

Sean can't even get to the mic right now.

For those tuned in on KUAC, he's got a huge bass drum on, so we are going to hear the first piece.

Take it away.

[instrumental music] Outstanding.

I think that is the first time I have ever heard a duo of bass drum and violin.

That's unique, Sean.

Yeah, it's a great piece that both Eric and I learned about pretty recently.

And it's the third movement of a three-part piece, and so the bacchanal is the last and most exciting.

And each piece or each movement has a different percussion setup, so that one's the most transportable, with the rope slung bass drum.

The other ones are marimba, gongs, cymbals, all the other percussion stuff.

OK.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this one was exciting.

And even though it's the end of a piece, it's the beginning of our program for this evening.

Wow.

And so who's the composer on that, did you say?

Jeffrey Cotton is the composer.

And he's a very contemporary composer, lived into this century.

2013.

Yeah, we actually lost him too soon.

Yeah.

And so, yeah.

But he's written a lot of music, and some of it is more familiar, and then some of it is more exploratory, like this duo here, but still very energetic and a lot of fun.

And I saw it, and I immediately thought this would be a great piece for Eric and I to play.

Eric toured with the Alaska Chamber Orchestra in the fall, where I met him, when I was the timpanist for that, and he was playing the Dvorak violin concerto.

And I was like, wow.

Instantly thought of him for this piece, wicked violin part.

And here we are.

I was going to say, Sean Dowgray, we are so lucky here in Fairbanks and interior Alaska to have you with your energy and connections to this new series that you've put together last few years, the Circumpolar North Music Series.

And you have found some really culturally significant pieces and guests and just very unique.

So you said that you met Eric last fall, but you've met a lot of other people through this music series.

And so, it's really cool that you're getting them here to Fairbanks, to UAF.

And that's what we want to do.

We want to bring these new and unique-- each concert is very much its own thing, and it's very unique.

And I can't take all the credit for this one.

As you'll learn more from Joshua and Eric and Dr.

Yue Sun here, this is a multifaceted thing that's happening this week.

And so I've been in collaboration with Dr.

Sun's International Chamber Music Alaska, and so we're doing this together with the Circumpolar Music Series.

And then Joshua and Eric, as we'll learn, have been out and about with their instruments outside, playing.

Well, should we do-- how many pieces do we have planned?

About four or so?

Or how many is it that-- Something like that.

I mean, we could definitely-- We should definitely-- Let Eric say Yes, absolutely.

--a couple of things and introduce these beautiful instruments.

Yeah.

Eric Siberger, so good to have you back.

I'm about to call you an honorary Fairbanks, because last time you were here was just last fall.

And you were here with the Arctic Chamber Orchestra.

Good to have you back.

Thank you.

It's always a pleasure to be back in Fairbanks.

And last time, you got to play at Harp, and that was pretty impressive, I would say.

That was the Aurora Research Station out there.

And this time, you've played on the Glacier is what I understand.

Yeah, we were just at the Castner Glacier.

And actually, we didn't even have time to go back and change at all.

So what you're seeing is actually what I was wearing to the Glacier at this very moment.

The boots and everything, radio folks.

Yeah, that's awesome.

And all from Fairbanks, actually.

I got these all here.

And I got to say, it kept me warm.

Perfect.

So, yeah.

So the idea was to part of the Circumpolar North Music Series was to go out and play at the Castner Glacier.

Well, it was actually a collaboration.

So as he mentioned earlier, between all the different-- Dr.

Yue Sun and with Sean, we were actually experimenting with the idea, initially, as a catalyst, what about bringing music to New places that it can't be heard normally?

Like with acoustic instruments, I play on a violin, often from 1757.

It's very old, and it was at an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum.

And you don't bring that outside to a glacier.

Oh, what?

There's a reason it's lasted a few hundred years.

Nobody's been hiking around with it in Alaska Wildes.

However, as you'll hear from my friend Joshua Nakazawa, who, really, is the catalyst for this quartet, the first of its kind, made out of flax fiber.

Flax fiber?

It's a sustainable material from Belgium, and it allows you to play in-- well, the Luthier did tell me up to negative 50.

I questioned, but at that point, it's not so much of a concern for the instruments, as much as it is for us.

So yeah, it was the idea.

We played it in several different locations, like by a waterfall in Hawaii recently.

It can be played on the beach.

It allows you to bring music outdoors for extended periods of time.

Without going out of tune, and, yeah.

Without a lot of the issues of also just cracking, falling apart.

I mean, a lot of things can happen to glue, when you have really crazy conditions.

Especially if you have glue from the 16th century, like your violin.

Yeah, a lot of different parts.

But another aspect to it is they're just more durable.

So if you're outside and for whatever reason, some water drips, or there's something else that happens, it's going to be able to take a lot more.

So they're really wonderful to play on.

Very often, people talk about carbon fiber for outdoor playing, but this has a more natural sound.

It's a different material.

It's also sustainable.

And playing it in the Glaciers, it's like seeing frozen time and place.

And you look up, and you're like, wait, this was around 11,000 years ago, that this glacier and what I'm looking at, that's a moment frozen in time from back then.

It puts things in perspective.

Was it snowing out there, when you were there?

Because it was snowing quite hard in town earlier.

Yeah, we went to check it out, and then we did the recording really early this morning.

Woke up at 4:30, went out there and recorded, and it was really quite amazing because there was no snow when we first went in.

And we were going out, there was a bit more.

And then as we were driving down even more.

So the weather out here is just-- you never know what to expect, but it was beautiful.

And the first time I've also seen that kind of light, where everything kind of fades into each other.

So there's things out here that I just don't see anywhere else.

And the difference between the light in fall, when you're here last, and the light now that it's a very early spring, and we're getting these late season snowstorms, it's completely different.

And so you get to experience in Alaska, like you say, frozen in time, that last time, and now, this time.

And so you did some videography out there, too, I take it?

Yeah, so we're going to have some very interesting things to share.

Yeah.

Well, that's wonderful, which this the next piece, featuring-- I would like to actually feature my friend, Josh.

And he can actually talk a bit more about the flax fiber instruments.

That would be great.

Yeah, let's bring up Joshua Nakazawa.

Thank you for-- Hi, thanks for having me.

Hello.

Welcome to KUAC's Alaska Live.

And is this your first trip to Alaska?

Yes, this is my first time in Alaska ever, and I am loving it.

It is just extraordinary here-- extraordinary community, extraordinary environment, everything.

And how did Sean-- how did Sean run into your work?

You're from Hawaii, right?

Yeah, I'm from Hawaii.

I played with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra over there, and I have a company, Mana Music, where you do a lot of different events.

A lot of them are outdoor.

And so you might see why I was like, OK, as Eric explained earlier, it's difficult to take a older instrument outside.

And so I was looking for a solution and found Tim During.

it's his name, who is the Luthier from Belgium, an incredible, incredible Luthier, who's not only made instruments out of flax fiber, but many other materials as well.

But this one is, for sure, a winner.

Joshua, in my mind, when I was thinking about, oh, they've got plant fiber instruments, it was a bit more like wood and leaves and fibers from-- so it was a bit-- it was a little more nature into.

But these are beautiful and crafted by Luthier, you say?

Yeah, I guess when most people think of flax, they think of the seed or linen or something.

And the color is very unique, when it comes out on to the instrument.

Well, it's flax seed color.

Yeah, and flax is, I guess, from what Tim explained to me is that Belgium, many of the businesses there have a very long history in the flax industry as well.

It's in their culture.

And so he wanted to honor Belgium by making his cellos and violins out of flax.

And we're thankful to-- so grateful to have them.

They were on loan from the University of Ghent, who helped sponsor this.

And when we started our collaboration, he really wanted to honor Hawaii, because we not only used them for events there, but we also use them for fundraisers for the Coral Reef Alliance.

So they go to-- some of the proceeds help go towards environmental restoration, and particularly for the Coral Reef Alliance or coral.org.

And so as you can see here in the back, it's just all gold leaf inlay.

There's this coral.

This was a surprise, by the way.

I didn't know this was going to happen.

When you-- oh, the back of the cello is covered in this coral reef-- Scene, yeah.

--scene of gold inlay, and it's just gorgeous and catches the light.

Even in here, it catches the light.

And outdoors, I bet it's just-- Yeah, it's beautiful out.

It's beautiful whenever it catches the light.

And also on all of the other instruments, there are inlays that honor Native Hawaiian culture as well.

The canoe plants, that were essential to the growth of the Hawaiian natives, when they first came to the island.

So we have taro leaf on one.

We have ohi'a lehua, and we have the last Viola, which we don't have with us today, but we have two violins, is like a lei that incorporates both Hawaiian and Belgium flowers together.

And these are the instruments you played out on the Castner Glacier today.

And they're quite versatile, I take it.

They are very versatile.

This one, actually, has an XLR input in the bottom.

Oh, nice.

Ooh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, very, very convenient.

And they are-- virtually, you could play them for any genre.

We've been playing them with across many different genres.

But I am going to play a little Bach for you today.

Wonderful.

I played this in the Glacier, just moments ago.

Only this time, my fingers aren't frozen, which is nice.

It was cold out today.

I have to say, for somebody who just came over from Hawaii, probably quite a bit colder than-- yeah.

Yeah, just a little bit.

Yeah.

OK.

So this is the prelude-- this is the prelude of the first suite.

Excellent.

[instrumental music] [applause] Joshua Nakazawa.

So gorgeous.

I was running around before the show started, getting soundcheck done, and I just had to take a moment and listen to some of your videos from the Mana String Quartet, because it was so calming.

And I remembered what Zuill Bailey had shared a few weeks ago about how everything just falls away when you're listening to the cello and to stringed instruments and to music.

It just takes away those anxious feelings, and you can't help but relax and enjoy life more than you're enjoying it for just a second ago, you know?

And you bring that to us.

Oh, thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

And that cello sounds just gorgeous, too, the one that's made out of flax fiber.

Yes, I'm very happy with how it sounds, and it projects.

It's very, very-- it goes all the way to the end of the room.

And so, yeah, I'm really happy with the way this sounds.

And thank you for all your kind words.

Absolutely, our quartet that we founded in Hawaii together plays-- You and Eric Siberger founded it?

Yes.

Yeah.

It's a crazy story, actually.

We were touring.

Well, so Eric Siberger has the Hawaii International Music Festival, which is a festival that plays music in Hawaii and does many things in Hawaii, actually.

But we were touring.

In this particular instance, we were touring Bandoneon Music.

And it was right before the pandemic happened.

And we ended up-- well, essentially, what happened was, his concerts started dropping off when the pandemic hit.

And I said, oh, I've got a couple more concerts that I need violin on.

Would you stay?

In Hawaii?

In Hawaii.

And we thought that it was only going to be a few weeks, where a few weeks ended up being about six months, that we quarantined together during the pandemic.

Yeah, so the four of us ended up-- it was actually-- it was a blessing in disguise.

I don't know what I'd been able to do without their company.

But we were able to record some music of Queen Lili'uokalani, which was the last queen of the monarchy there, and that her music is very, very soothing, embodies the Hawaiian culture.

Is that the video that you have on your website, too?

What's your website again?

manamusichawaii.com manamusic.com.

Yes.

Yeah, really recommend, if you need a break from your busy life.

To go there and watch that video in particular, too, it is really wonderful.

And you shot that during the pandemic.

It was all outside.

Yeah, so there are a couple videos up there, a lot of outdoor in Hawaii, in the elements.

That particular one, I think, you might be referring to-- yeah, that was on the Big Island, where Eric holds his festival.

He'll be holding it again this year.

And what was that called?

We called it The Mansion, but it was called the Paki House, and it just overlooks this gorgeous sunset.

We just got so lucky that day.

It wasn't even planned.

It was an impromptu video shoot, and it just turned out absolutely incredibly.

We had a lot of professionals that were just at our fingertips randomly.

And you've been using these flax fiber instruments on all of those?

When did you get these instruments?

The cello came first, but then the violins came a little bit after that.

So let's say it was not-- gosh, I want to say within the year.

I would say like, maybe, five months ago?

You just got it?

Yeah, they're brand new.

And in fact, they're not even in production yet.

They're so new.

The cello goes into production at the end of the month.

Yeah.

And so we have them on loan, and in return, I was like, I promise I'm going to do cool things with them to help you.

And this was one of the really amazing things that-- he really wanted to help bring the instrument to new places, really break the boundaries of where the performance space can be.

Isn't it exciting that we can play outside in a stream or in a glacier cave?

Right by a waterfall, where you're getting splashed with water, and it's not affecting the-- yeah.

Well, I got to tell you, when I was in that cave earlier, it took me someplace else.

And I don't know how many of you have been in that cave yet-- In the Castner Glacier, yeah.

--the Castner Glacier, but the roof of the cave has these convex, almost wave-like shapes to them, and all the crystals forming, and knowing that it's so old.

And it's just resurfacing now.

I felt when I was playing in there, it brought me to a place where everything-- even though it's just still looks-- it's like it's moving.

And there's so much motion, just in the imagination, when you're looking around.

And yeah, it's a really special way for it to bring your mindset, right before you play anything in there.

And I think that if your interpretation of literally playing anything in a concert, in a regular concert space, or in an intimate space like this, you're going to feel something one way.

And then as a performer, you'll feel something another way.

And the performance itself, no matter what you play in there, is going to be different.

It just would not have been possible to go play regular stringed instruments as well before, when you had just your really nice concert instruments that are-- like Eric said, his is from the 16th century.

I mean, you would not take that to the Castner Glacier and play that, or you would not play that by a Hawaiian waterfall.

Because like you said, the glue, and the sun is shining on it, or the cold is getting to it, and you're going in and out of tune.

Exactly, which makes it-- it's like, how can I preserve my quality of sound and be able to have the vocabulary that I have with these older instruments, or at least close to it with another instrument that I feel really comfortable with so that I can bring into these spaces.

Yeah.

And I think this is a really, really great way to do that.

I bet it's a game changer for you too, because you play so many events.

It looks like on your website, that you play weddings, and you're doing lessons.

And are you going to start teaching on an instrument like this, too?

Yes.

So I have a series on online teaching series, Zero to Bach in Four Months, where we just teach-- Zero to Bach in four months, is that possible?

Yes, it is.

I've had students complete it with flying colors.

It's on cello.vhx.tv.

And it's like spoonfeeds every step of the way, do-it-yourself all the way up to learning Bach within that period of time, if you do it every day.

Get to do it every day.

It's got to be practiced.

You got to be disciplined about it.

Yeah, got to start a habit.

Yeah.

But, yeah, I mean, we do a lot of different events, and we do a lot of different performances.

How did you meet Sean Dowgray from here in Fairbanks?

Eric is really the glue with a lot of different projects, and I would say that it's the interest-- and I think it's all of our interests in bringing new music, new places, and having different communities, meet each other, and feel the expression that we feel together.

It's just the drive that we all have for that brought us together.

And I'm just so grateful to be here, so thank you again for having me.

And I'm really excited to play some pieces that were inspired by Native Alaskan culture.

And I just got to be able to play with an ensemble that I've never played with before and all brand new people.

And that makes it really exciting for me to be able to express music with a whole new culture, about a whole new culture, and with a whole new faculty here at the university.

That is what's so cool about this Circumpolar North Music Series.

It's never the same, but it's always very unique, and like I said, culturally significant at the beginning of the show.

And like I said, it's mingling these cultures and music and in sound and experience.

It's really cool.

What are we going to hear next?

I don't know if you noticed, Sean, no?

We're going to have Yue come and play.

Dr.

Yue Sun?

Yue Sun.

Ah.

Oh, Yue, it's so nice to have you here at Alaska Live.

Again, thank you so much for being a part of the Circumpolar North Music Series.

And I know that you have been teaching in many realms of culture, not just classical, but you've been going into all kinds of different music.

Yeah, well, speaking of that, yes, I have been trying to explore a lot of Alaska Native music as well, since I also teach that class, as you all know that.

And also, today, in the Glacier, actually, it was last-minute decision stuff from yesterday or two days ago, that I decided to play a Chinese tone in the Glacier instead of a piece that I had in mind before.

Oh, wonderful.

Yeah.

I think I heard you talking about maybe playing that here?

Not sure.

Maybe.

I have a-- I have a couple different Chinese pieces that I want to share.

I was thinking if I play it here, then maybe I'll give you another Chinese piece another chance.

Ever evolving.

Yeah, they're all beautiful.

And I just-- I wanted to take every chance that I can share with the audience.

What are you playing here today?

The piece I want to play is the one that I just played a couple hours ago.

It's called [chinese] in Chinese, but I think if you translate it into English, probably pastoral song.

It's also about environment.

So I felt it's perfect for that moment.

Also, whenever I play the piece-- I mean, I grew up with this piece, so I've been singing with the piece very little, and it's deeply in my heart.

And it connects me very much.

And whenever I play, the piece reminds me of where I come from and reminds me where is home, reminds me-- reminds me how to get connect with people, and also makes me feel home wherever I'm playing that piece.

So yeah, here is the pastoral song, a Chinese folk tune.

And you're also playing on one of these wonderful flax fiber stringed instruments?

It's the violin that has been provided for you from Joshua and the Luthier that he-- Right.

Yes, from Tim.

And it was-- well, before I played the piece, it was really interesting.

Maybe I can share a little bit history of how I get to know those instruments and get to know those two gentlemen.

Yeah, after you play, it would be beautiful to hear about that.

Sure.

[instrumental music] Dr.

Yue Sun, that was just gorgeous.

And I feel like-- I've never been to China, but I feel like I was transported there.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

That's great.

Yeah.

And that piece, was that old piece, a new piece, or-- I would say, well, compared to the geisha, it's a very new baby piece, but exist for a couple.

I mean, maybe about 60 years or something.

It was composed by-- I wouldn't say modern composer, but it's maybe in the 20th century.

But it's actually also-- it has some folk elements from China, and from Mongolia, actually.

It's about big mountain and ships and cows and-- cow?

Animals and the nature, yeah, and about home.

So I thought it was perfect for the Glacier and for the instrument, too.

Yeah.

And you played that piece on this new to you, flax fiber violin.

How does it compare to what you're used to-- what you're used to playing?

Yeah, so I think very differently.

But also, they share a lot of similarity as well, in the meantime.

Differently, we can all see that the shape is a little different.

It looks a little smaller to me.

It looks very small, yeah.

So I actually feel more comfortable, the sizes.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Yes.

And then personally, I feel like the fingerboard and the neck, it's a little bit thicker than the instrument I used to play, the acoustic instrument.

And also, the shoulder rest that has to come with a very special design.

So I'm sure that if we have more time, Eric and Josh can talk about this a little bit more.

And the sound is very different than the violin I used to play.

I mean, I think in a certain degree, it sounded-- it has certain very special character within it, I would say.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's something that I don't think, at least, my instrument has.

So they're very different, but they're both a beautiful instrument to play on.

And I was very fortunate to play on this-- How many days have you been able to practice on this?

A day or two?

Right.

Yeah, because they are-- yeah, I just had a chance to meet both Josh and Eric this week, actually.

Yeah, because these instruments came all the way from Hawaii with them to here to Alaska.

Yes.

Yeah.

It was really interesting, because when Eric was here for the Arctic Chamber Orchestra Tour, I mean, I don't know if you guys know that he actually played in the Volcano.

Volcano, I'm sorry.

Volcano.

And I was like, wow, that's crazy.

You should play in Glacier.

And he's like, yeah, I'm actually playing on a Glacier.

I was like, wow, my God.

From volcanoes to glaciers.

Because we were in Alaska.

I was like, yeah, do it on the glacier.

And then, I was like, I would be happy to be part of the project, if you have any further plans and stuff like that.

And that's how we get connected, and of course, with other donors in town, that they probably will share more with you guys.

And then I connect with Dr.

Sean Dowgray.

He said, hey, do you want this really crazy but really interesting project that sounds like unrealistic, but it's actually-- we made it real now.

So we were like, just for the love of music and also collaboration, also chamber music, we just decided to do it together when they are here.

And that's how we had all those plans and how they worked in the end.

And also, Alaska Native Indigenous Music, too.

And you've been doing that for quite a while here in your own work, Yue, right?

Yeah.

Well, yeah, so I don't know if this is a new project that I'm doing.

It's called International Chamber Music Alaska.

I think not many people know about it yet, but we are growing, and I think we're spreading the idea to the community.

So the idea to play different music in different genres, with different setting, that goes to also every possible corner of Alaska, that it's built by the possibility of playing chamber music because that's all called chamber music, right?

We don't have a conductor.

We don't have one person to, say, decide one thing that we might make decisions.

As opposed to orchestral, symphonic music?

It's very different.

Yeah.

Also because-- Smaller groups.

--smaller groups.

We have more possibility to explore.

So that's one of the ideas why me and cellist Charlie Eckert-- I think people will know him, the name-- wanted to do run this International Chamber Music Alaska.

That's one of the reasons we were running it.

And we have many other stories we would like to share.

Maybe another time.

I can't wait to have the International Alaska Chamber Music on Alaska Live one of these days-- Yeah, that would be great.

--to share some of those experiences, too.

I'm so glad that you have made this a reality here for us, here at UAF and into Alaska, in general.

Absolutely.

My pleasure.

I miss my friend, and I want to make new friends.

So I usually take the chance of using music.

So, hey, you guys want to play music with me?

Just come to Alaska.

So, yeah.

So I really appreciate all the opportunities that Eric and Josh and Dr.

Sean Dowgray have made together with me as well.

This is a really awesome, and I really feel like, in the future, we can do a lot more of this.

Yes.

Yeah.

Who doesn't want to come to Alaska, right?

And I wanted to talk to Shawn for just a moment about the Craig Coray piece that We Walk to the Sun-- The sky.

Yeah, the sky.

I knew I was going to-- We'll go far.

The sun is in the sky.

Go far enough.

Right.

And you'll still be walking to the sun.

But We Walk to the Sky is a piece that you'll be sharing, not here at Alaska Live, but you'll be able to share-- Yes, so Craig Coray, in the spirit of what Dr.

Sun was talking about here, of the way in which music has connected us, and we're all meeting each other, and we're all doing these projects.

Craig is also a factor in that as well, too.

It was Yue who actually spoke to Craig first, when we were redesigning the Alaska Native Music offering in the music department.

Yue talked with Craig and worked with Craig, because he taught Alaska Native Music at UAA and designed the course.

I just picked you because you're the one that wrote it for the website.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so then I met Craig when he gave a presentation for Alaska Native Music and was like, oh, I didn't-- and I learned that he has a degree in composition, has composed a number of pieces.

And so that's the first thing I do.

I go, I want to hear all of that.

And so I was looking through his catalog and found this amazing piece for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone, and percussion, called We Walk to the Sky.

And it's one of the few pieces that he has made that doesn't directly use Alaska Native Music melodies.

So in much of his music, he's using some of those melodies and sets them to the pieces that he's writing.

And this is one of the few that he hasn't done that expressly, and it's one of his later pieces.

But he often talks about how, while he's not referencing or citing a song.

Specifically, it's, perhaps, most representative of some of the stylistic and characteristic features of his experience and exposure to primarily Dena'ina song and dance, during the time when he was growing up.

His father moved from Los Angeles to rural Alaska in the '50s as a teacher.

And he unintentionally or accidentally made some of the first recordings in 1954 of Dena'ina song and dance.

And he just did it, as he was sending letters to his parents.

So he was like, mom and dad, listen to this.

Look at where I am and the music that's happening here.

And that was sort of forgotten about until he passed.

And then Craig, John's son, who's piece were playing, found these recordings and edited them and compiled them into a text called We Sing the Songs of Many Peoples.

And it is a lot of Dena'ina songs, but it's also some other Alaska Native regions, as well, too.

And some of them have transcriptions.

They did a lot of translation work that was very difficult to do, because by the time he was compiling these pieces, some of the language had been lost.

So he was working and trying to find people who could listen to these recordings and actually know what was being sung about and how to translate it.

So it's a really great book.

I strongly recommend.

And it has a CD, so you can hear there's something like 26 different songs as part of that book.

So it's really an amazing book.

And anyway, so all of this is part of our interest in presenting this chamber work.

It has not been played very often.

It was played in the Lincoln Center and I think the '80s, but we don't have a recording of it.

Unfortunately, something happened with the audio recording stuff.

So it's been given some recognition, but not in a long time.

And this force here, with all of these things happening, and I knew about this piece, I thought, this is a great piece.

This is a time.

This is the piece and the time to do it, and to have Eric and Joshua playing those violin and cello parts and fostering exactly what we're talking about, where we're playing with each other for the first time in this setting, and it's exposing all of us to new experiences, which, I think, it translates to the performance experience as well.

The audience gets to experience that.

We're excited because it's new for us, and I think that's just an exciting thing to see.

Not to mention that the piece is really interesting, unique, and beautiful.

There are some great melodies in there, very rhythmic, very polyphonic.

We have lots of different lines being played against each other, but it all still works and very powerful.

And We Walk to the Sky is a specific mountain passage that has a very steep incline so that's what they would refer to that area, as is the place where we walk to the sky.

And that's also something very fascinating about Alaska Native culture and the way they name places.

It's often what the place is doing or what the features are.

Very active.

Rather than giving it like a person's name.

More of a verb than a noun, because it's a place that's constantly changing and alive in and of itself.

So, yeah, it's a very excited to bring this piece.

Amazing.

Is there another piece that we're going to enjoy here on Alaska Live?

I think we're going to have Eric come back up.

All right, Eric Siberger handing off the bow from UA.

You have one bow and two violins.

Yeah, we're using one bow.

We have a spare bow, but this is the better of the two, so why not use it?

Yeah.

Eric Siberger, so nice to have you here as part of Alaska Live.

Thank you.

I don't want you tripping over any of the extra things that we have up here for the cellists and for the drummer and all that.

It's a lot of fun.

There's nothing like being in a live studio and enjoying every moment.

It is so true.

And so I'm going to play a piece that we just did at the Glacier.

It's kind of, for me, something that really was astounding was, you could actually hear the water, as you walked deeper into the Castner Glacier.

And there's also two voices at the beginning of this.

So it is a way to bring everyone together.

This is the Bach Andante.

["andante" playing] So beautiful.

All the guests just like to come up, so I can thank you from stage.

That would be really great.

Circumpolar North Music Series guests, thank you.

Dr.

Sean Dowgray and Eric Siberger, Dr.

Yue Sun, and Joshua Nakazawa, thank you so much for being part of today's Alaska Live.

You can find links to more episodes of Alaska Live TV and download audio podcasts of the Alaska Live radio show, online@kuac.org.

Support the Alaska Live series of live music and conversation on KUAC.

It is made possible by a grant from Design Alaska.

Design Alaska, strengthening community through support of the arts.