A Map to the
Next World
(Commission & World Premiere)

Friday, March 14, 2025 | 7:30 PM
Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, Boston

The Program

Scott Perkins:
A Map to the Next World
Noah Horn, Music Director

A Map to the Next World is an ambitious, new, concert-length work about caring for our fragile and precious planet. Composer Scott Perkins takes us on a journey from creation, to destruction, to reconciliation and renewal through a nine-part choir, strings, percussion, and celesta. Drawing upon Indigenous American folklore and using words by seven celebrated poets, environmentalists, activists, and anthropologists—Tamiko Beyer, Rachel Carson, Harold Courlander, Joy Harjo, Rachel Morgan, Jay Parini, and Judith Wright—A Map to the Next World helps to guide us in our continued search for new paths as custodians of the earth.

What’s Interesting About This Concert

  • Travel Through Creation Myths & Environmental Warnings: This concert is a musical journey that explores creation stories and the environmental damage we've caused. It starts with a Hopi myth about finding a new world, then uses poems to depict the beauty and peril facing nature.

  • Hear the Voices of Nature & Activists: The music incorporates poems by environmentalists and activists like Rachel Carson (Silent Spring) and Judith Wright. It uses the beauty and plight of birds as a symbol for the larger environmental struggle.

  • Hope for Change & A Call to Action: The concert explores the destruction we've caused but also ends with a message of hope and finding a new path. It uses the Hopi myth again, highlighting the importance of creating our own map for a better future.

  • Approx. 1 hour and 15 mins

  • The Broadway Garage is located at 7 Felton Street, between Broadway and Cambridge Streets. Patrons tell the attendant that they are attending a Sanders Theatre event. They receive a swipe ticket which they will use to get back into the garage after the show, and which they will use to exit. The distance is 0.2 miles or a 5 minute walk to Sanders Theatre.

    More information can be found HERE.

    • Approx. 6 minute walk from Harvard Square on the MBTA Red Line

    • Nearby bus lines: 1, 66, 68, 69, 86

  • Wear what makes you feel comfortable!