Arturo Sandoval's Wildflower (Yolanda's Song); Yolanda Kondonassis, harp

ARTURO SANDOVAL: Wildflower (Yolanda’s Song)
YOLANDA KONDONASSIS, harp
Azica ACD-71358
Worldwide Release: May 12, 2023

From the Digital Program Notes by Yolanda Kondonassis:

It is difficult to put into words what this piece meant to me at precisely the time I received it. It was the summer of 2021 and I was in the final stages of assembling my FIVE MINUTES for Earth project and preparing all the works to record in the early fall. The composition came to me as a generous gift to the FIVE MINUTES project from my treasured friend, Arturo Sandoval, under his working title Yolanda’s Harp, and I couldn’t wait to dig in. Like most of us at that point, I was suffering the effects of having been largely isolated for over a year and suppressing the fear that pre-COVID life was still a long way off. Perhaps it was just my myopic view at the time, but it seemed as though so much music, art, film, and creative work had become dark, cynical, and at best, realistic to a fault. To say Arturo’s piece was the light and breath I desperately needed would be an understatement. Playing it for even a short amount of time lifted my spirit, cleared my head, and made me feel hopeful. When Arturo and I discussed options for the final title, I expressed to him how poignant and pure the piece felt to me and that I thought it needed a title with a similar purity of spirit – with perhaps the suggestion of a throwback to simpler times. Wildflower (subtitled Yolanda’s Song) seemed to fit. In today’s complex world, there are so very few things that universally symbolize beauty and positivity, honor and respect, love and celebration, and the good in us all so broadly and cross-culturally as flowers do. This piece celebrates the idea that there are still common threads that bind us together, common truths upon which we can all agree, and a planet that sustains both our practical needs and our higher aspirations. Like flowers, we come in all colors of the rainbow and we must never forget that love, beauty, and light are still at the core of all we are, and all we should be.

We chose Mother’s Day weekend to release this single for several reasons. The title, the music, and the feeling of this piece capture the freshness of spring in a dozen ways, but more deeply than that, I had a strong reaction to this work from the very first time I dug into it. I remember saying to myself out loud, "Mom would have loved this piece so much." My mother was my first piano teacher from the age of 3 until I went away to boarding school at Interlochen Arts Academy at 14, so her musical approach is woven into my fiber. She was something of a piano-teaching guru in my hometown of Norman, Oklahoma, with as many as a hundred piano students in her private studio at any given time. While she focused primarily on the classical repertoire, her guilty pleasures were always standards from the American Songbook, Gershwin, Mancini, Bacharach, and the sentimental hits. Sometimes at the end of a long teaching day, she would sit down at the piano herself for a few moments and play something from her private collection just to unwind. My mom passed away in 2012, but she was a ferocious spirit and her presence stays with me. Somewhere along the way in the process of internalizing this beautiful work, Wildflower became hers. Even the title embodies her spirit. The closeness I feel to my own mother in this thread of common experience is not only a bridge to her legacy in me, but an inspiration to continue cultivating that same meaningful connection with my own daughter. Motherhood is a spiritual undertaking, a leap of faith, and unlike anything else in this world. As important things often do, Wildflower came to me with an unexpected, secret portal; in it there was an opening to perspective, to peace, and to gratitude - gifts that keep me afloat as I bob around in that fluid space between being a daughter and being a mother in these ever-changing times.
-Yolanda Kondonassis

Wildflower is part of the FIVE MINUTES for Earth Collection.
Learn more at https://www.EarthatHeart.org


VISIT: https://www.YolandaHarp.com
Read Yolanda’s Blog at: https://www.YolandaHarp.com/blog
WATCH Yolanda’s LIVE performance of Wildflower at:
   • Lyon & Healy Harptacular: Yolanda Kon...  

LISTEN:
Amazon Music: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T74NBNY?...
Apple Music:   / album  .
iTunes:   / album  .
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3tB9D9...

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#Mother’sDay #Moms #Harp #SaveThePlanet #Earth #EarthConservation #ComposerCommission #ClassicalMusic #YolandaKondonassis