Watch the YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhlEgql4yA

Brian Mangrum, horn
Alexander Ramazanov, trumpet
Cameron Kerl, trombone
Caitlin Mehrtens, harp
Graeme Francis, percussion
Jacob Schafer, violin
Cindy Ahn, violin
Sergein Yap, viola
Chris Ellis, cello
Max Winningham, double bass
Craig Hauschildt, conductor

Recorded in Cole Hall at Stephen F. Austin State University, March 8, 2024. Music recorded by Byron Reinhardt, Katharyn Phillips, Sophia Nunez, and Sound Recording Services at SFASU. Recording session assistance by Blake Buehler and JJ Bartley.

Environmental video and audio soundscapes recorded by Ben Morris using a Canon M50 and Zoom H3-VR at Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary, Boykin Springs at Angelina National Forest, Kisatchie National Forest, Big Thicket National Preserve Sundew and Turkey Creek Units, and Stephen F. Austin State University Native Plant Center.

Additional archival footage and audio:
Smokey Bear PSAs from the U.S. Forest Service, released via the Internet Archive (archive.org) 
Selected bird calls from the Cornell Macaulay Library (https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/)
Historical logging footage from Texas Archive of the Moving Image (https://texasarchive.org/) 
Historical photographs from the East Texas Digital Archives at Stephen F. Austin State University (https://digital.sfasu.edu/) 
Pond5 and Adobe Stock

This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the states arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Additional support from the Texas Commission on the Arts, The Nature Conservancy in Texas, Stephen F. Austin State University Cole Fine Arts Faculty Excellence and School of Music Professional Development Grants, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the City of Houston.

Featuring Shawn Benedict and Pedro Hernandez of the Nature Conservancy’s Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary.

Special Thanks to Jenny Sanders and the Texas Longleaf Team, MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston), and Nathan Nabb and Dean Gary Wurtz at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Arts and Culture Texas Feature: http://artsandculturetx.com/fire-music-loop38-makes-an-impact-with-new-music-for-our-times/

Longleaf

"My eyes... were sightless, gazing on eternity, fixed on ultimacy, and when that is the case there is no reason to do anything, even to change the focus of one's eyes... It is the malady cosmopsis, the cosmic view, that afflicted me. When one has it, one is frozen like the bullfrog when the hunter's light strikes him full in the eyes, only with cosmopsis there is no hunter, and no quick hand to terminate the moment - there's only the light" 
(John Barth)

Ben Morris is a composer whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. He is Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University.