How Can You Own The Sky?

A Program Symphony Honoring Native Wisdom

Commissioned by the Rogue Valley Symphony for the occasion of their 50th anniversary season
Cover art: She Who Watches by Chava Florendo

Left to right: composer Ethan Gans-Morse, poet Tiziana DellaRovere, Takelma elder Agnes Baker Pilgrim, collaborator/performer Brent Florendo, and music director Martin Majkut at the world premiere

For their 2018 anniversary season, the Rogue Valley Symphony commissioned Anima Mundi Productions' resident composer Ethan Gans-Morse and resident poet Tiziana DellaRovere to create an original program symphony in collaboration with Wasco/Warm Springs musician Brent Florendo, who was at that time a professor of Native American Studies and Native Nations Liaison for Southern Oregon University.

The piece explores the Native American legacy of Southern Oregon, the region's own Trail of Tears, and a path toward healing and renewed wisdom and environmental stewardship. It has subsequently been performed by the Walla Walla Symphony and the Siletz Bay Festival Orchestra.

Watch: An 8-minute mini-documentary about the creation of the piece

How Can You Own The Sky? is a metaphor for the healing of the earth, celebrating core ideas that are universal to all indigenous people. It is that rare and special piece that works on all levels, socially, culturally, and artistically, because it’s the fruit of a two-year trust relationship that composer Ethan Gans-Morse and poet Tiziana DellaRovere developed with me and with the larger Native Community.

I believe in this piece and I want it to reach as wide an audience as possible, both Native and non-Native, because it is a model for what can be accomplished when arts organizations bring together high-calibre artists dedicated to the social mission of making a better world.

My hope is that by performing this piece, other symphonies will open the door to new relationships with their local indigenous people.

Brent Florendo
Native singer, drummer, narrator, and collaborator

“How Can You Own The Sky? provides emotional catharsis on par with the great masterworks of the past. The dramatic score is brought to life through first-class orchestration and connects seamlessly with the poetry. Both the musicians and the audience were deeply touched by the experience.”.

Martin Majkut
Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony

“Two years in the making, the music of “How Can You Own the Sky?” is the fruit of an extraordinary collaboration aimed at bridging two cultures, addressing horrific events of the past and contributing to the process of healing and understanding.”

Eliot Sekler
Oregon Coast Today