West Coast Sky Eternal by recent Chester signing Ellen Reid will be premiered on May 25-27 by Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.
Reid writes of the work:
West Coast Sky Eternal is a study in perspective. I wrote it during a time of personal upheaval, both positive and negative, and the piece oscillates between the rhythm of life and a global sense of beauty and balance. Starting from a wide-angle panorama, the “West Coast Sky” of the title is the expanse of a landscape viewed from miles above, flecked with distant clouds. The choppy, workaday business of living pulls our attention earthward. Each human decision is a shard that becomes a monolith, spiralling maniacally inwards until the raw joy of life and death finally have us looking upward, back to the high place, where the frenetic movements of humanity resolve into calm order once again.
— Ellen Reid 2023