I hope you enjoyed our performance this last Saturday, it was absolutely magical to have our musicians back on the stage performing for you all. If you didn’t get the chance to attend don’t worry, our next performance is November 21st at 7 pm! Make sure to mark it in your calendars so you don’t forget! To answer my question from last week, the title of our first concert was A Return to Life. Though things aren’t the way they were last season, some things never change, such as our love for our community and the music we are able to put out for you. Make sure to pick up your tickets for the next performance, we hope you see you there! ... See more

TheComposerStudio.com presents All That I Am, Endures Nine Nocturnes for solo piano William Neil, composer-pianist TheComposerStudio.Com presents The release of All That I Am, Endures: a recording of Nine Nocturnes for solo piano performed by composer-pianist William Neil Introducing Nine Nocturnes.... ... See more

"Back from the Badlands Broadcast" Please join me, William Neil, your host for the next Symphony Sunday program tomorrow, October 4th from 9AM to 12PM (4PM CET) I will share some of my experiences while I was an artist-in-residence in the Badlands National Park in September, all in the spirit of great orchestra music inspired by nature! WDRT in Viroqua, WI 91.9 FM, wdrt.org online. ... See more

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A Cloudless Sky (All over the sky a sacred voice is calling)

“Every composition is a crisis in my life.” Elliott Carter So, true and here is my “situation room” to prove it. One more day in the park…and I woke early this AM and sketched the ending that I believe is right! ... See more

Deep Listening.

Yesterday I had an opportunity to present virtually, my talk, Deep Listening in Nature to a class of 4th and 5th graders at the Kadoka Elementary School. I was able to share recordings I had made over the past two weeks out in the park: Vulpes, Western Meadowlark, Killdeer, Prairie Dogs, a Rattlesnake. The fun part was allowing them to listen with their headphones on and tell me what combination of creatures they were listening to and what directions the sounds where moving. When I asked them to share some of their stories about sound in nature, RATTLESNAKES were number one!! I will say one postive thing about teaching children on zoom: you can see their faces close up and read their reactions and there level of attention very well! ... See more

The Mystic Chords of Memory. Geology just might be the cure for mysticism. I now look at found rocks not only as possible mystic tokens but ciphers in the code language of the record of time, time broken into a million bits. Geologists and paleontologists spend their lives decoding these ciphers. The Badlands in this respect is an open book with so many layers exposed. There are so many worlds represented here. Gigantic frozen mud castles made of a zillion tons of volcanic ash, table top grass landscapes and rolling river valleys all merge. Translated to music: the structure of the sound, how it lays out in space is just as important as the sound it makes! ... See more

The buffalo in the park are growing in numbers. The NPS cull them and distribute them to other parks and grasslands to strengthen herds. You often see old bulls roaming on their own like this one. Now there are two contrasting landscapes. Prairie farmers learned that fences and profits went hand and hand. You can only harvest what you can protect. But those land locked cattle ate everything in sight. Yes, massive buffalo herds trampled forbes in their path as well, but they only came seasonally allowing vegetation to restore itself. ... See more

Quiet places in nature: the antithesis of modern, post-industrial life clamor. Nature has a quiet time when the day or night is at its pivot point or weather is calm. Add to that a naturally sheltered area like Deer Haven in the Badlands National Park, then you have the prospective opportunity for what I call deep listening in nature. Deer Haven is an elevated area nestled in the Brule Formation of the Badlands with groves of juniper trees. It was about forty-five minutes by foot with the last quarter mile ascending through rough terrain. Finally, at the top in the grove of junipers, it was cool and quiet and ambient sound barely registered on my db meter. After a short rest, I headed back to the trailhead. Then out of the placid stillness burst the loud rattling sound of a Prairie Rattlesnake. I moonwalked to safety-so I thought. Ed, the Park Ranger reminded me that freezing is the better option, because if the creature was behind you…! I relived the jolt of fear that surged through me at that moment for the entire trek back. Yes, quiet places in nature… ... See more

Ed, a Park Ranger and Geologist, drove me out on Conato Road that cuts through the Buffalo Gap Grassland south of the Badlands National Park and showed me the old ghost town of Conato. There was even a trace of the old railroad that ran through the town. In the 1860’s the rails drew farmers, ranchers, cowboys, buffalo hunters and others. It changed the landscape. Cattle, in contrast to, Bison, graze a wider array of plant species demolishing forbes and seeds alike which really made homesteading a challenge. Based on the depression era vehicles out there, looks like the Great Depression brought an end to this town when many South Dakotans abandoned farms and homes to move into towns and cities to find work.

Yes indeed, Navajo Wind Chant: Remember what you have seen because everything forgotten returns to the circling winds. ... See more