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May 15, 2026
Join us for a conversation with composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh and geologist Marcia Bjornerud, exploring the intersections of music-creation and geologic time. Inspired by Bjornerud’s book, Reading the Rocks, Nourbakhsh’s Deep Time creates orchestral soundscapes that bring salient moments from the earth’s 4.5 billion year history to the present day.
Our guest speakers will be joined by Loki Karuna (Executive Director of the American Composers Forum) and Brian Dowdy (Community Director at the American Composers Forum and MPO Artistic Director) for a panel discussion, Q&A, and casual conversation with audience members. Attendees will also get a first listen to selections from Deep Time, just a day before its premiere!
Entry is free, but reservations are required.
The world premiere of Niloufar’s piece takes place the next day:
Saturday, May 16 @ 7:30pm
O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Katherine University, St. Paul
Guest Speakers Bios
Described as “darkly lyrical” by The New York Times and “séduisante” by Le Monde, Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh is the awardee of the 2023 Chamber Music America Commissioning Grant, winner of the 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation Competition, and recipient of Opera America’s Discovery Grant. Her orchestral work Knell was performed at the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and her music has also been featured at festivals and venues including the BBC Proms, Ojai Music Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Philharmonie de Paris. A founding member and co-artistic director of the Iranian Female Composers Association, Nourbakhsh is a strong advocate of music education and equal opportunities. She currently teaches theory and composition at Longy School of Music of Bard College and Berklee College of Music, and regularly performs with her ensemble, Decipher.
Marcia Bjornerud is Professor of Geosciences and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Her research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building, and she combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She has done research in high arctic Norway (Svalbard) and Canada (Ellesmere Island) as well as mainland Norway, Italy, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region. A contributing writer to The New Yorker, Wired, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times, she is also the author of several books for popular audiences: Reading the Rocks, Geopedia, Timefulness, Geopedia and Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks. Timefulness was longlisted for the 2019 PEN/E.O.Wilson Prize for literary science writing and was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in Science and Technology. Turning to Stone received the 2025 John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing.
This activity is supported, in part, by the City of Saint Paul Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program.
