Lost Coast

duration: 26 minutes

instrumentation: amplified solo cello + 2222 2220 2perc strings

commissioned by LA Phil for Gabriel Cabezas

premiered May 25, 26, 27 & 28, 2023 by Gabriel Cabezas and LA Phil, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel

listen to the album version here

Program Note

Lost Coast is inspired by a five-day solo backpacking trip I took on the Lost Coast Trail, a surprisingly remote section of northern California coastline. It’s a wild and dramatic landscape of jagged precipices and stomach-turning drops overlooking ferocious, pounding surf. The area is so rugged, the Pacific Coast Highway had to be diverted 100 miles inland because the land was too riddled with cliffs to build on. Trail conditions were dubious, with washouts and sections so overgrown I had to fight my way through the coastal scrub. Some sections were so steep I had to grab hold of the coyote bush to pull myself up short slopes. In five days, I only encountered two other people on the trail.

With the climate crisis becoming an increasing part of our daily lives and little to no progress slowing the emissions of greenhouse gasses, the title Lost Coast has taken on a secondary meaning for me. The piece is a raw emotional expression of the grief, loss, rage, and fear experienced as a result of climate change—as well as the joy, beauty, and wonder I have felt in the world’s last wild places and the joy and hope in getting to work on climate solutions.

—Gabriella Smith

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