Catalogue

Summary:

EVERYTHING CHANGED ON JANUARY 7, 2025

Anne Akiko Meyers
I never imagined we would evacuate our home in the Palisades—a place alive with laughter, music, and the joyful chaos of my husband, our two young daughters, and crazy rescue dog—never to return.
So many dear friends lost everything: cherished family heirlooms, photographs, instruments, and music libraries that had taken a lifetime to build—all vanished in moments. That evening, from our hotel window, I watched the fires rage through the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains and sobbed, completely helpless.
Yet from the ash and destruction, something profoundly beautiful emerged—much like the glowing fairy at the end of Fantasia, rising from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
I commissioned Eric Whitacre to write a new work for violin and orchestra, and as the world changed, so did his composition. Little did I know that The Pacific Has No Memory would be born from these epic tragedies. This music has become salve for the soul—a warm, healing embrace for my broken heart. Tender and profound, it radiates love, hope, and renewal.
I am eternally grateful to Eric Whitacre for creating this musical prayer and to the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for breathing life into it together. This recording is dedicated to all who were affected by the Los Angeles fires, and to the brave first responders who risked everything to save lives.

Eric Whitacre
Los Angeles was my home for 25 years. In 2024 I moved to Antwerp with my family, but as fate would have it, we flew to L.A. for a visit on January 8th, 2025. The sky over the Palisades was already smudged black, homes and histories evaporating into the quiet air.
Over that week we had our own scares with evacuations, felt the fear and surreal dread that was everywhere in the city. We spent time with friends, hearing their hushed stories of how they had lost everything. I will never forget the look in their eyes — shocked, untethered. I think there is something truly unique about losing one’s world to a fire: it burns everything, completely and utterly. There is literally nothing left to mourn.
The Pacific Has No Memory takes its title from a line in one of my favorite films, The Shawshank Redemption. In it, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) dreams of a life near the ocean where his past is a memory of a memory, distant and liquid – a place where the blue of the Pacific will give him a chance to start new, reborn. I hope the same for all who lost so much in those terrible fires.

Eric Whitacre: The Pacific Has No Memory (excerpt)
World Premiere performance: Carnegie Hall, New York 17 May, 2025

Tracklist:

ERIC WHITACRE (b. 1970)

1. The Pacific Has No Memory (7:40)

Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

World Premiere performance, Carnegie Hall, New York 17 May, 2025.
This recording, SUNY Purchase 19 May, 2025

Eric Whitacre’s The Pacific Has No Memoryis a co-commission with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,
Colorado Music Festival, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Anne Akiko Meyers

Executive Producer: Anne Akiko Meyers
Producer: David Frost
Recording Engineer: Jennifer Nulsen • Assistant Engineer: Mie White
Editing and Mixing: David Frost
Atmos Mixer and Mastering Engineer: Silas Brown
Photos: Dina Douglass, Marc Royce
Design: Sean Marlowe
Published by Boosey & Hawkes Publishing Ltd.