Eric Whitacre Composes The Pacific Has No Memory for Anne Akiko Meyers
Anne Akiko Meyers premieres Eric Whitacre’s The Pacific Has No Memory this spring, including a performance at Carnegie Hall on May 17.
This spring, GRAMMY Award–winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra premiere The Pacific Has No Memory, a new work for violin and string orchestra by acclaimed composer Eric Whitacre. The piece debuts in a series of performances across New Jersey, New York, and Colorado, including a featured concert at Carnegie Hall on May 17.
Co-commissioned by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Colorado Music Festival, The Pacific Has No Memory was composed specifically for Meyers, a passionate advocate for contemporary music. She joins Orpheus for the world premiere tour, with performances at the Morris Museum (May 16), Carnegie Hall (May 17), and the Reformed Church of Bronxville (May 18). Meyers will also perform the work at the Colorado Music Festival on July 17–18 and with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on April 11.
The Pacific Has No Memory, approximately eight minutes long, was inspired by the devastating wildfires that swept through Los Angeles and surrounding areas in January 2025. Whitacre, who now resides in Belgium, was visiting his longtime home in Los Angeles when the fires broke out. The experience left a lasting emotional impression and served as the catalyst for the new work.
Reflecting on that time, Whitacre writes:
“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.”
Anne Akiko Meyers, a resident of Pacific Palisades, was among those forced to evacuate. The fires’ personal impact, combined with their broader environmental and emotional toll, shaped the expressive world of the concerto.
Whitacre explains the work’s evocative title:
“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.”
> Further information on Work: The Pacific Has No Memory
Photo: Marc Royce