On October 22, 2020, Boca Raton Pen Woman composer Sheila Firestone presented an interactive music workshop in Zoom, co-sponsored by the Delray Beach Public Library.
The program featured Sheila’s award-winning composition for string quintet with piano, titled The Forest Primeval. An original video accompanied the music, and participants were invited to react to the music and video by writing poetry/prose, sketching pictures, or using body movements.
Sheila explained that her motivation for composing The Forest Primeval was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, Evangeline, and the tragic history that inspired the poet.
The Forest Primeval was awarded first place in the National League of American Pen Women Biennial Music Competition 2020-2021.
Sheila Firestone is an award-winning composer of the opera, Miriam and the Women of the Desert and other musical works. She currently serves as an officer and music chair in the Boca Raton Branch of the National League of American Pen Women.
The Forest Primeval musical program and video can be viewed on Youtube. Conversations with Sheila Firestone and the workshop participants are included. https://youtu.be/gTDUUQrzJqU
To learn more about Sheila Firestone and her musical composition work, visit her website at www.sheilafirestone.com.