Words, planets come to life in new musical concert

It only took one train ride for Jim Lahti to hear Pluto.

He couldn’t hear what the minor planet actually sounds like, but more his musical interpretation of Pluto after reading a poem from his friend, John McEveety Woodruff.

At the time, Lahti was on his way home to Kingsbridge after meeting with Woodruff, who had encouraged him to read “Of Death and Planets” and give his feedback.

“I started reading the poetry on the subway on the way back uptown and I started hearing stuff in my head,” he said. “The poetry just really hit me.”

Lahti described the poem as a “trip through the solar system” that ties together planets and the five people Woodruff has lost in his life.

“It’s very powerful poetry and very creative,” Lahti said. “I love the way he put the words together.”

From there, Lahti knew he had to do something with this, but it was going to take a while to get there when life and other commitments got in the way. He started composing the piece in 2005, completed a draft in 2006, and didn’t revise it until about 2015. 

“Normally I’ll write a medium-sized chamber piece in two or three months, tops,” Lahti said.

But this time was different.

Now Lahti will join piano trio di.vi.sion and vocalists Rufus Müller and Timothy Maureen Cole to perform “Of Death and Planets” at the Symphony Space in Manhattan on June 7.

The pieces started coming together for “Of Death and the Planets” while it was still a draft. Lahti recalls reading The Riverdale Press and seeing an event listing for a di.vi.sion concert at the Episcopal Church of the Mediator about six or seven years ago. 

Having just moved to Kingsbridge not long before, Lahti was excited he was being exposed to local classical music.

“Suddenly if I wanted to go to a good classical concert, I didn’t have to schlep downtown on the subway,” he said.

Lahti then met the trio, developed a relationship with them, and eventually asked to collaborate when “Of Death and the Planets” started coming to life as a musical piece.

The journey to adapting a poem into a musical composition is something Lahti has been committed to for years in order to nail down the piece and properly interpret Woodruff’s work.

“You have to be invested in whatever those words are saying,” he said. 

“And then as a composer, I have to be invested in what the words are saying as I’m setting them musically.”

With the concert coming up in a week, Lahti is excited about giving Woodruff’s work exposure, and also having people listen to the music that’s been playing in his head for years.

“I hear stuff in my head, and for whatever reason, it’s worth sharing,” he said. “So I write it down, and to be able to actually hear it in reality, in a room of other people who are hearing it at the same time, is just really gratifying.”

Lahti, who has a background in conducting operas, musicals, chamber music groups, and putting together musical arrangements, is no stranger to feedback from concertgoers. But when a woman approached him once to let him know that his work had made her feel hopeful after feeling depressed, Lahti was a little taken aback.

“Everything just started falling back into place, and it was like I was OK again,” the woman said to Lahti.

And even though Lahti says he tries not to take himself too seriously as an artist, he stands by the belief that art can significantly impact someone’s life.

“The whole point of art, theoretically, is to somehow touch somebody and communicate,” he said.

The biggest takeaway Lahti has from bringing “Of Death and Planets” to life is that his voice is significant for that same need to communicate.

“The way to find my voice was to write,” Lahti said. “And when I started writing, I figured out maybe not always exactly what I was saying, but how to say it, and that has been evolving, I hope, over time.”