Grammy-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis is in residency at her alma mater, Interlochen Center for the Arts, working with composer Reena Esmail and students at the Academy on a commissioned project known as Terra Infirma.
Five years in the making, Terra Infirma, is designed to allow students to bring a large-scale multimedia performance with a commissioned work to life while spotlighting the music of Reena Esmail. Funded by the Allen B. Cutting Foundation, the work is a concerto for harp, percussion and string orchestra with multimedia elements that highlights environmental issues — something that both Kondonassis and Esmail have personal ties to.
Kondonassis is the founder and director of Earth at Heart, a nonprofit organization dedicated to deepening environmental awareness through the arts.
Esmail has long been interested in environmentalist advocacy through music, such as her compositions "Earth Speaks" and "Malhaar: A Requiem for Water." Terra Infirma is inspired by her recent experiences with the Los Angeles fires earlier this year.
"[Esmail] is kind of my musical soulmate. We have just been so up close and personal, and [the project] has taken so many twists and turns and evolved in half a dozen different directions," said Kondonassis. "And I think you can only do that with someone you resonate with very deeply on both a musical and a personal level. We've just literally become best friends through all of this."
The Interlochen Arts Academy Choir and Chamber Singers will perform "Curiosity" from Esmail's "Earth Speaks" with Kondonassis on Friday, October 17 at 7 p.m. at Corson Auditorium. Esmail originally wrote this piece for choir and piano, but reworked it into a version for choir and harp with the help of Kondonassis's book The Composer's Guide to Writing Well for the Modern Harp.
"This experience with Reena was really a first for me because this is the first big-scale project I have done with a composer since that book was out," said Kondonassis. "And I know for a fact that Reena read it cover-to-cover because she's constantly quoting it, and we laugh about it."
The world premiere of Terra Infirma featuring Yolanda Kondonassis will be held on Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at Corson Auditorium.
