Without you, dear Ocean, there would be no life on this planet, including our own.

— Meira Warshauer

The American Prize Charles Ives Award in Chamber Music contest honors the composer’s extraordinary legacy, especially of song, while recognizing and rewarding the finest composers of chamber music in the U.S.

Scored for two pianos, Warshauer’s Ocean Calling trilogy — Waves and Currents, From the Depths and The Giant Blue — speaks to the vast majesty of the aquatic world and the many challenges that face it.

“I am thrilled and grateful to receive this award on behalf of Ocean Calling, which is dedicated to bringing attention to the magnificence and majesty of the Ocean and its essential role in supporting life on Earth,” says Warshauer. “Without you, dear Ocean, there would be no life on this planet, including our own.”

A plea for our planet

As a child growing up near Wrightsville Beach, NC, Warshauer says the ocean was her first love.

When a BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, causing one of the largest oil spills in the history of marine life, she was “devastated” by its impact on the surrounding ecosystem and the death of the sea creatures living in the Gulf of Mexico. The composer decided her next work should be devoted to the ocean.

“Called our ‘life-support’ system, the ocean covers 72% of the planet’s surface and provides half the oxygen we breathe and many other resources, while regulating our climate with currents traversing thousands of miles. As I learn of large-scale contaminations, over-fishing, acidification, death of coral reefs and rising temperatures linked to the urgent Climate Crisis, I fear we take the ocean’s gifts for granted, unaware that our survival is linked to the ocean’s health,” says Warshauer.

She was inspired to create a reconnection to the love of this vast resource while reminding listeners of our responsibility to protect its natural wonder and vitality.

An exploration of sound

Ocean Calling: I. Wave and Currents, the first in the Ocean series, explores the joy of swimming in the ocean, its currents and swirling energy. Performed by former piano faculty Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rackers, the work premiered in 2012 at the University of South Carolina’s Freeman Concert Series.

The composer dives under the ocean’s waves in the second of the series of compositions. In Ocean Calling II: From the Depths, Warshauer goes under the lid of the piano using harmonic glissandi — plucking or strumming strings and striking the strings with the side of glass — to capture the sounds of the ocean’s magnitude and the creatures who reside in the deep abyss of the sea.  

The magnificent Giant Blue Whale, believed to be Earth’s largest creature, is the focus of the final composition of the trilogy. Ocean Calling III: The Giant Blue uses pulsating chords along with sustained bowed tones using horsehair woven underneath the piano’s strings to simulate the songs of a giant blue whale.

A lasting tribute

The World Premiere of the complete Ocean Calling trilogy of works for two pianos was performed in 2022 by USC faculty member Phillip Bush and guest artist Elizabeth Loparits as part of the acclaimed Southern Exposure New Music Series. Artwork created by Bonnie Monteleone, Executive Director of Plastic Ocean Project, was displayed in the school’s library during the performance to emphasize the challenge and urgent need to clean up the ocean. The exhibit was sponsored by the Luise E. Peake Colloquium Series.

Warshauer's music is published by Hildegard, Lauren Keiser Music, World Music Press and Kol Meira Publications.

Visit Meira Warshauer at meirawarshauer.com.