Commissioned by NEXT Ensemble, Ogden Utah

World premiere 11 January  2025: NEW YEAR NEW MUSIC

Alison Olsen, flute

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KUMANO (熊野) translates to "bear field" in Japanese. This piece was conceived during my journey along the Kumano Kodō, a network of ancient pilgrimage routes in rural Japan that lead to the Three Grand Shrines of Kumano—sacred sites central to the ancient, syncretic Kumano faith. These paths have been walked for over a millennium, bearing the weight of history, spirituality, and countless footsteps. Walking this, I felt deeply connected to the sacredness of the space and the timeless echoes of devotion.

 

Pilgrimage is as much a physical journey as it is an internal one. Over the course of this multi-day trek, I wasn't planning on it, but found myself often reflecting on my grandmother. She was a person of boundless love and enthusiasm for my life, my travels, and my adventures. She loved poring over my photographs, eager to hear every detail of my experiences. This trip was one of the first major journeys I undertook after her passing, and I felt her absence keenly. Walking these ancient trails, I often thought of her, missing the conversations we would have shared and the joy she would have found in hearing about this transformative experience.

 

In the stillness and sacredness of Kumano Kodō, I found myself processing my grief in a way I hadn’t before. I reflected on who she was—the beautiful, the complicated, the joyful—and grappled with the complexity of her memory and the loss. Though she had passed years earlier, this pilgrimage allowed me to grieve for her in a new way, in the quietness and ancientness of the trail. While this piece is named after the place where these reflections occurred, it is ultimately about grief: its complexity, its depth, and the process of navigating it.

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