Carnival of the Nearly Extinct Animals will be a kaleidoscopic, aural presentation celebrating a menagerie of animals (including coral) faced with the dismaying possibility of being the very last of their kind; some have already ceased to exist except in memory. Leading with a powerful message, the work will also serve to delight, educate, and empower the audiences who meet it.
OVERVIEW
Within its 14 movements, the audience will meet 13 species: their songs and environments translated by the orchestra, from the "tin trumpet" call of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and unearthly glissando of the Blue Whale to the fuzzy, frenetic hum of Honey Bees.
Structured as a sister piece to Saint-Saëns' iconic work, the length and number of movements are identical, and paired movement subject matter allows for myriad ways of programming this new work alongside its namesake as well as independently.
The piece will be written with all ages in mind so that the work can easily be programmed on subscription concerts and children's concerts alike, as well as with youth orchestras (the leaders of tomorrow are in youth orchestra today!) during its premiere season and long afterward.
An informational page containing more details on these endangered species and their recorded sounds will be on this website throughout the work's premiere season. Audiences will be able to learn more about the magic of these animals long after experiencing them–and in some cases, meeting them for the first time–on this aural canvas.
DETAILS
DETAILS
INSTRUMENTATION
Available in both:
2222/2221/timp.+ 4 perc./harp/strings
and as a reduction matching the original Saint-Saëns orchestration
Includes optional narrator part, written by my long-time collaborator, poet Jessica Lynn Suchon.
INSTRUMENTATION
CONSORTIUM FEE
Organizations with budgets <$1M: $1,500
Organizations with budgets $1M-$10M: $3,500
Organizations with budgets >$10M: $7,000
Individuals wishing to be personal commissioners: inquire
Premiere rights, special considerations: inquire
Commissioners to be listed in the score by tier and the order in which they joined the consortium.
LENGTH + TIMELINE
Length: ~25 minutes (same length as the original)
Movements: 14
Premiere Season: 2025/26
Commissioner Exclusivity: through 2027/28
Score + Parts: available from August 1st, 2025
Length + Timeline
consortium fee
move
ments
VII. Coral
When conditions such as the temperature change, corals expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, responsible for their colour. A spike of 1–2°C in ocean temperatures sustained over several weeks can lead to bleaching, turning corals white. If corals are bleached for prolonged periods, they eventually die. Coral bleaching events often lead to the death of large amounts of corals. The bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in 2016-17 killed around 50% of its corals. Coral reefs are estimated to directly support over 500 million people worldwide, who rely on the ecosystem they support for daily subsistence, mostly in poor countries. A 2015 study projected that the climate-related loss of reef ecosystem services will cost US $500 billion per year or more by 2100.
VIII. the blue Whales
The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, weighing as much as 200 tons (approximately 33 elephants). The blue whale has a heart the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. They are the loudest animals on Earth, with their calls reaching 188 decibels. (a jet reaches 140 ).. Their low frequency whistle can be heard for hundreds of miles. During the 20th century, the blue whale was an important whaling target and the ~10,000-25,000 that exist today are just 3-11% of their population as of 1911.
IX. The Ivory-Billed Wood PeckerS
Destruction of the woodpecker's mature or old-growth forest habitat caused populations to decline, and by the 1880s the species was rare. Forest destruction accelerated during the World War I and II war efforts, destroying much of its habitat. The last universally accepted sighting of an American ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in 1944.
X. the Passenger Pigeons
In May 1850, a 20-year-old Potawatomi tribal leader named Simon Pokagon was camping at the headwaters of Michigan’s Manistee River during trapping season when a far-off gurgling sound startled him. It seemed as if “an army of horses laden with sleigh bells was advancing through the deep forests towards me,” he later wrote. “As I listened more intently, I concluded that instead of the tramping of horses it was distant thunder; and yet the morning was clear, calm, and beautiful.” The mysterious sound came “nearer and nearer,” until Pokagon deduced its source: “While I gazed in wonder and astonishment, I beheld moving toward me in an unbroken front millions of pigeons, the first I had seen that season.” Wild flocks of up to a billion passenger pigeons would darken the sky above you as they flew by. Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died in 1914 at the age of 29.
I. The tigers
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 100,000 tigers in the world. Today, this number is estimated to have dwindled to around 3,300 due to poaching and a steady decrease in forests/forest cover in their natural habitats.
II. The Bees and butterflies
In North America, you are nearly 50 percent less likely to see a bumblebee in any given area than you were prior to 1974. Research and modeling suggests that this decline is driven in large part by climate change.
III. the Polar Bears
While polar bears are only marked as a “vulnerable” species, they have become a symbol for the need for awareness of climate change, and the decline of sea ice will lead to a decline in the total population of polar bears of about 30 percent by 2050
IV. the Hawksbill Turtles
Hawksbill turtles are found throughout the tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Their diet consists mainly of sponges that live on coral reefs. Today, loss of coral reef habitat around the world is the primary threat to hawksbill turtles. Melodies foreshadowing the upcoming movement on Coral.
V. the ELEPHANT
The latest assessments highlight a broadscale decline in African elephant numbers across the continent. The number of African forest elephants fell by more than 86% over a period of 31 years, while the population of African savanna elephants decreased by at least 60% over the last 50 years, according to the assessments.
Both species suffered sharp declines since 2008 due to a significant increase in poaching, which peaked in 2011 but continues to threaten populations. The ongoing conversion of their habitats, primarily to agricultural and other land uses, is another significant threat.
VI. the Black Rhinos
Around 1900 there were probably several hundred thousand black rhinosauroliving in Africa. In the early 1990s the number dipped below 2,500, and is now up to ~4,000.
XI. the Grey Wolves
After being decimated by hunting by the 1930s, American Grey Wolf conservation efforts began in 1974 and thanks to reintroduction and protections, the population has now reached 10% of its former numbers. In October 2020, Endangered Species Act protections were removed for all gray wolves in the lower-48 states except for a small population of Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made its decision despite the fact that wolves are still functionally extinct in the vast majority of their former range across the continental U.S.
XII. the American Buffalo
Before europeans came to the United States, there were an estimated 30 to 60 million buffalo in existence. By 1802, pushed out by settlers and pioneers, they disappeared completely in Ohio. Mass destruction began in the 1830s, and our railroads were built with bison as fuel: they were killed to feed workers. In 1871, the process of tanning hides was discovered and bison could now be hunted year round. 5,000 buffalo killed every day in 1872. They were killed for their hides, which sold for $1.25 a piece…the rest of the bison was left to rot. It was said that you could walk 100 miles along the Santa Fe railroad by stepping from one bison carcass to another. By 1883, all but ~200 buffalo had been destroyed. Thanks to cultivation efforts, there are now ~500,000 in existence
XIII. the kahuli
The kāhuli snail has long been revered by Hawaiians, their ornate shells once covering the trees of Hawai‘i with so abundantly that you could hear an eerie, magical song arising from the forests—possibly made by wind swirling through their shells or the shells bumping against each other. Kāhuli tree snails were once so plentiful in Hawaii that collectors used them to make lei. This led to the initial decline of the snails, but the biggest threat now is predation from non-native species. This problem is compounded by the fact that kāhuli tree snails are slow-growing and slow to reproduce, so they can’t replenish their numbers faster than they’re being eaten. All of the 42 kāhuli species in the genus Achatinella are either federally listed as endangered or extinct. More info.
XIV. Finale
*sources include worldwildlife.org, nationalgeographic.com, audubon.org, and others. Stephanie will be working with several experts on these topics during her research process for this piece to ensure that her program notes are up-to-date, relevant, and helpful
CREATING
COMMUNITY
through this piece and project
BEFORE THE CONCERT
CARNIVAL COVER ART
Stephanie will be working with her long-term collaborator Sasha Parfenova, a visual artist who created the artworks below and above (Stephanie created the project header artwork), to create a new collage artwork inspired by the inhabitants of Carnival to be used as score cover art/concert marketing graphic/however commissioning orchestras are excited to use it.
FOR AUDIENCES ONLINE
Stephanie will working with her long-term collaborator Adam Solsburg to create:
Behind the Stage Series: 13 instagram reel/tiktok videos telling the stories and secret program notes behind the writing of each movement, posted on Stephanie’s social media accounts with commissioning orchestras tagged.
Personalized introductions: a short video of Stephanie introducing Carnival and herself to your community and online audiences, made available to orchestras for use by their marketing departments for their socials, newsletters, websites, etc.
AT THE CONCERT
PHOTOBOOTH WALL
Orchestras will be able to use Sasha’s Carnival artwork to make a “Photo Booth” wall/photo backdrop for their lobbies to enhance orchestras’ social media presence via audience members tagging them in these photos, and to promote the project and its message as a whole.
PROGRAM BOOKLET
This artwork will be made available to orchestras to use as a special one-time cover art for the programs for their performances of this work if they so choose, again to enhance audience social media posting, tagging, and project message amplification as audience members take/post pictures of Sasha’s sure-to-be-stunning Carnival design while they take their seats/during intermission.
BEYOND THE CONCERT
LOOKBOOK
There will be an interactive lookbook on this website, accessible via a QR code in the program notes, that goes deeper into the grander story of these animals, process of turning these stories into music, and as Stephanie will be consulting several conservation experts during her research process for this piece, this lookbook will contain relevant, up-to-date information on the most practical ways to get involved in conservation efforts if one wishes to.
See Stephanie’s Flower Catalog Lookbook.
MEET STEPHANIE
Michigan-born, Manhattan-based American composer Stephanie Ann Boyd (b. 1990) writes melodic music about women’s memoirs and the natural world for symphonic and chamber ensembles. Her work has been performed in nearly all 50 states and has been commissioned by musicians and organizations in 37 countries. Boyd’s five ballets include works choreographed by New York City Ballet principal dancers Lauren Lovette and Ashley Bouder and include a ballet commissioned for the grand opening of the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport. Stephanie’s music has been praised as “a racing, brassy score” (New York Times), “attractive lyricism” (Gramophone), “[with] ethereal dissonances” (Boston Globe), “[music that] didn’t let itself be eclipsed” (Texas Classical Review), and “arrestingly poetic” (BMOP).
Current commissions include a concerto for Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, a new reed quintet for Akropolis, and the second book of Flower Catalog Piano Preludes.
Recent commissions and premieres include a work inspired by Betty Friedan entitled Everywoman, with Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, and 2022 Indianapolis Competition winner Sirena Huang as soloists and commissioned by the Peoria Symphony Orchestra with George Stelluto; Julia Louisa Esther: a Suffragette Symphony commissioned by the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra with Christopher Dragon, the premiere of which was the subject of a documentary on Wyoming PBS in 2022; Alleluia Olora commissioned by Astral Artists for cellist Tommy Mesa; Aurora, commissioned by the Kurganov-Finehouse Duo, and others.
Stephanie grew up as a violinist in the Ann Arbor, Michigan string world. One of the last students of renowned pedagogue John Kendall, she was a member of the Pioneer High School Symphony Orchestra, the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Blue Lake International Youth Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Boyd is a member of the Iceberg New Music composers collective. For concert premieres and red carpet appearances, she is usually dressed by MILLY creator Michelle Smith or Boston-based designer Sasha Parfenova. Stephanie intensely adores jazz big band screaming trumpets, the smell of camp fires and old cars, that moment when planes leave the ground during takeoff, and reading contemporary fiction novels (gotta stay up to date with the latest storytelling architecture innovations!) next to her fluffy black cat, Petra.
*A special note for Carnival: thanks to her parents deciding to become vegetarian when she was two months old, Stephanie has been a vegetarian her entire life! This whole idea of being incredibly sensitive to not-harming-but-helping the animal kingdom has been a core principal of Stephanie’s life/weighing on Stephanie’s heart from the very beginning.
MEET JESSICA
Jessica Lynn Suchon is a poet, librettist, and playwright located in Philadelphia, PA.
She is the author of Scavenger, winner of the YesYes Books Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest. Jessica has received honors from The Aspen Institute, the Academy of American Poets, and Best New Poets. Individual poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Willow Springs, Ninth Letter, Yemassee, and RHINO Poetry, among others. She received her MFA in poetry from Southern Illinois University.
Jessica was a 2019 Tennessee Playwrights Studio Fellow. Her full-length play Shopgirls premiered at the Darkhorse Theater Chapel in Nashville, TN. Her voice acting has been featured in the podcast Dear Murder Street as well as various advertisements and informational videos.
In her longstanding collaborative partnership with American composer and former high school classmate, Stephanie Ann Boyd, Jessica has written librettos that have premiered internationally and been featured everywhere from national newspapers to textbooks.