Emergent Universe Oratorio, Composer Sam Guarnaccia
Video Animation Set Design Visual Artist Cameron Davis, with Animator William Tipper
CD: I have designed, with Animator William Tipper, a 90-minute video animation as the projected stage set for the forthcoming performance of the Emergent Universe Oratorio by Albany Pro Musica Conductor Jose Daniel Flores-Caraballo at Zankel Hall, Skidmore College, July 18, 2025.
About the Oratorio: The Emergent Universe Oratorio Project, through professional choral, orchestral, dramatic narrative performance, and visual set design, seeks to bring the integrative and transformative power of the story of our Universe’s origin, evolution, and the emergence of life, to the present planetary environmental and civilizational crisis.
The Oratorio’s libretto embodies this evocative story, envisioning human life-relationships across Earth, as one among many inter-dependent and inter-responsible species; and one that supports the flourishing of all threads within the Web of Life. The arts are particularly fitting to address civilizational reinvention. Music, imagery, and story can reach deeply into our emotion(s), psyche, and imagination. Employing multiple ways of knowing opens us to critical insights and motivations as we radically reorientate ourselves to life.
About the Set Design:
The video animation uses details from over 20 paintings by Cameron Davis. Their abstractions of plant patterns with moving elements created in partnership with Animator William Tipper, suggest a living Earth and Universe: core to the Oratorio content. The video will be projected behind the orchestra, with the 150-person choir surrounding the audience from the balcony of Zankel Hall, at Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY.
The Albany Pro Musica performance will be audio and video recorded with the intention of making these materials available for dialog in educational contexts. (Video link below)
Project History:
Since 2010 the core team, Sam & Paula Guarnaccia and Cameron Davis, has been engaged with writing the story of the universe inspired by the work of Thomas Berry, in consultation with Journey of the Universe authors and film producers Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, and Author Cosmologist Brian Swimme. The Oratorio was originally performed at the Breeding Barn at Shelburne Farms, Vermont, in 2013 with 12 large scale paintings by Davis. The Oratorio with paintings went on to be performed in Philadelphia & Cleveland. There have been several iterations with many talented contributors since then. For more project history www.samguarnaccia.com
The Libretto
During the pandemic, 2020 - 2022, Sam Guarnaccia, Paula Guarnaccia, Cameron Davis and Creative Leaps International CEO, John Cimino rewrote the libretto to update the changing science and to reflect the increasing social, ecological, and civilizational urgencies.
KOSMOS Journal, The Art of Belonging, Emergent Universe Oratorio, Cultivating a Unitive Mindset, by Sam Guarnaccia, Cameron Davis, Paula Guarnaccia https://www.kosmosjournal.org/kj_article/emergent-universe-oratorio-2/
Vol. 25, Issue 1
Bios
Sam Guarnaccia, MFA, Guitar
Sam Guarnaccia is a composer, classical guitarist, scholar, and founder/director of Sam Guarnaccia Music (SGM) www.samguarnaccia.com. He studied privately at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and received a Master of Fine Arts in Guitar performance from the California Institute of the Arts. He created and, for ten years, taught and directed the guitar program of the University of Denver’s renowned Lamont School of Music. He has also taught and instituted programs at Middlebury College and the University of Vermont, as Spanish scholar, player/performer, and composer.
Paula Guarnaccia, M.Ed., Creative Partner
Paula Guarnaccia is a creative partner with Sam Guarnaccia, composer, and Cameron Davis, visual artist, for the Emergent Universe Oratorio (EUO) Project. She has provided significant intellectual and emotional content for both the EUO libretto and music. She was instrumental in the planning the three previous EUO performances in Vermont, Cleveland, and Philadelphia.
Paula’s extensive background in administration has proven invaluable for the Emergent Universe Oratorio (EUO) Project. With twenty-five years of administrative experience in both higher education and healthcare, she has had the skills needed to move the project forward. During her career, she was the Assistant Dean for Administration and Finance at the University of Vermont, College of Arts & Sciences. In addition, she was also Administrative Director for the University of Vermont College of Medicine Health Network. Currently, she is on the Board of the American Teilhard Association where she serves as Treasurer.
Cameron Davis, MFA Painting
University of Vermont Senior Lecturer, Emerita, Cameron Davis retired in May 2023 after 34 years of with the Department of Art & Art History, where she was also an Environmental Program affiliate and Environmental Humanities Fellow. Davis taught Painting, Drawing, Perspectives on Making, and various courses on art, ecology, and community. Davis locates her studio practice, through subject and process, within the framework of perceiving ecologically. Davis exhibits and is in collections nationally. Davis co-authored the 2022 rewrite of the Emergent Universe Oratorio Libretto. www.camerondavisstudio.com
John Cimino, Creative Leaps International
John is president and CEO of Creative Leaps International, The Learning Arts, Icarus Musicworks and Associated Solo Artists. Educated at Rensselaer Polytechnic institute (biology & physics), The State university of New York at Albany (learning theory), and the Manhattan and Julliard Schools of Music (music & voice), Cimino holds a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective and works across multiple disciplines dedicated to learning and human development. He serves as a consultant and advisor to university engaged in interdisciplinary reorganization with a primary focus on creativity, leadership, and arts-mediated approaches to pedagogy.
As a consultant and champion of the arts in business and professional life, Cimon has brought his “Concerts of Ideas” and other innovative programs into projects of the White House, the Center for Creative Leadership, the Council for Excellence in Government, the District of Columbia’s Center for excellence in Municipal Management, and the leadership training programs in dozens of Fortune 500 companies as well as numerous universities and professional organizations worldwide.
Cimino, in partnership with the team, also spent the last two years co-rewriting the Oratorio Libretto recitatives. https://creativeleaps.org/about-us/people/john-j-cimino-jr
Animator: William Tipper https://tipperink.artstation.com/
Cinematography: Ben W. Bach https://www.benwbach.com/
Photography: Lindsay Ramonjack https://raymondjack.com/
Creative Technology Consultant: Fletcher Bach https://fletcherbach.com/
Albany ProMusica
Jose Daniel Flores-Caraballo, Opalka Family Artistic Director, Albany Pro Musica
José Daniel Flores-Caraballo is a widely acclaimed conductor and musical director recognized for his artistry and integrity in stylistic performance of choral literature, his methodical and uncompromising approach to music learning, and his gifts as a patient and inspiring teacher. Dr. Flores-Caraballo brings that unique combination—along with an ambitious and energizing vision—to Albany Pro Musica (APM) as the Opalka Family Artistic Director, a role he has held since 2014. https://albanypromusica.org/about/conductor/
Orator
Rex Smith, the co-host of The Media Project on WAMC, is the former editor of the Times Union of Albany and The Record in Troy, NY. His weekly digital report, The Upstate American, is published by Substack." https://www.wamc.org/people/rex-smith
Funded in part by:
Vermont Arts Council Artist Development Grant, 2024
Thomas Berry Foundation Grant, 2024
New Perennials Project, Middlebury College, grant, 2022
University of Vermont Retired Faculty Research Award, 2023
University of Vermont Retired Faculty Research Award, 2024
Many generous individual contributions
Cameron Davis
Video clip:
Emergent Universe Oratorio, Movement #5, Life’s Emergence, Orator (words below), music by Sam Guarnaccia
Libretto: Sam & Paula Guarnaccia, Cameron Davis, John Cimino
Video clip: Design by Cameron Davis with Animator William Tipper https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/sq0u9y5q7s6pcqnnzhwb5/h?rlkey=0bqyr6w8t80keixf4vk0tps0g&dl=0
05EUO Life’s Emergence – Movement #3
Across the broad field of space and deep time,
Star systems and their planets…
Have raced through gravity’s ethereal ocean
Suspended in light and darkness.
One planet – a mix of
Churning seas, roiling magma,
And charged atmosphere –
Whispers into being
Tiny single-celled organisms…
And so—becomes a Living Earth.
As the first fragile membrane formed,
Imparting to the cell its boundary of identity, (Capra)
There arose within the cell the miracle of DNA—
Of molecular encoding—
Combining, recombining, remembering.
And out of this astounding fertility
Emerged PATTERNS of adaptation and invention,
The cell now becoming the first locus of perception, sensation, action —
Out of which arose every other living thing.
Spirals of memory are mirrored in the unfolding fern,
The spider web, the nautilus, the snail.
As these earliest forms
Made their home upon burgeoning Earth,
Some of them, responding to the energy of the Sun,
Turn toward the light —
Inaugurating the wonder of photosynthesis.
Sunlight, now food for the planet!
Algae, fungi, mosses,
Slime molds, sporophytes, the slithering fishes,
Frogs, turtles,
Every species of bird
Stretching their bright wings across the sky.
And the skinny shrew,
Small, warm blooded, among
The first of the beautiful mammals.
LIFE!
Through life Earth awakened to itself AND to the Universe.
From the Flaring Forth – to galaxies – to stars – to Living Earth,
Ahhhh ...
Because—nothing is itself without everything else. (2)