Oscillations: 100 Years and Forever (2018)

Oscillations: 100 Years and Forever, written to commemorate the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s centennial, explores the evolution of Los Angeles over the past one hundred years, our place on the planet and in the universe, and the nature of time itself. On a human scale, a century is a huge span — a lifetime, an Era. Geologically, it’s a slice of an epoch. Cosmically, one hundred years is a blip, a heartbeat, the blink of an eye. These different scales of time coexist in Oscillations as the work cycles infinitely. 

Choir and percussion conjure primordial Earth and outer space. The libretto, by Sarah LaBrie, poetically interprets an ancient definition of time, and the video design, by Hana S. Kim and Keith Skretch, orients us, using historical maps and images of Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill, now home to the LA Phil's Walt Disney Concert Hall, interwoven with celestial and earthly imagery. 

Oscillations: 100 Years and Forever is a reflection on our moment in time and space and an invitation to contemplate the larger picture.