Body Cosmic is composer Ellen Reid’s “meditation on the human body” as it undergoes the profound transformations inherent to creating life and giving birth. It’s also the curtain raiser at the Hollywood Bowl on September 4, when it receives its Los Angeles premiere in a program by the Los Angeles Philharmonic that also features Brahms’s Schicksalslied (“Song of Destiny”) and Mozart’s dramatic Requiem, all led by conductor James Gaffigan.
The 15-minute work was co-commissioned by the LA Philharmonic and a consortium including Carnegie Hall, The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which took it to Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in 2024, Orchestre de Paris, and the Helsinki Philharmonic.
Reid, who snagged a 2019 Pulitzer Prize for her opera p r i s m, and who lives in both New York and Los Angeles, is thrilled to have Body Cosmic played at the Bowl. The piece, in two movements and scored for full orchestra, was “more than a meditation,” she said. “The first movement, ‘Awe | she forms herself,’ is [about] the surreal experience of growing another life inside your body. It’s so mystical, yet so many people do it. There’s an otherworldly quality to it: Everything’s expanding and growing.”
The second movement, “Dissonance | her light and its shadow,” opens and closes with a solo violin, underscoring the solitary burden of carrying new life. This movement is “quite the opposite of the first,” Reid added. It explores hesitation and fear around the decision to have a child, represented in the score by eruptions in the brass and percussion sections.
Reid, 42, hasn’t worked with Gaffigan before, but said she is excited to have him conduct her music on a program with Brahms and Mozart. “It’s interesting,” she pointed out, “the conversation between new work and old work can help however the listener wants it to happen, and can be connected thematically, or not, or rhythmically, or not. As a 15-minute work, [my piece] opens up the palate to what the rest of the program will be.”
Reid noted that her process for Body Cosmic was informed by a parallel work that she was writing about her pregnancy and “around the experience of having these emotions [and] these physical sensations, thinking about themes I never thought about this way: life and death, ancestry, time, the cosmos,” she said. “For me, that’s the experience of bringing new life into the world.”
Reid is no stranger to the LA Phil, having had two prior works performed there, including her 2018 piece Oscillations: 100 Years and Forever, commissioned to commemorate the Phil’s centennial, a premiere that took place in Disney Hall’s outdoor Keck Amphitheatre and featured chorus and projections. On September 25, the composer’s Earth Between Oceans will have its world premiere at the Hall under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, marking her fourth work for the orchestra.
The composer spoke enthusiastically about her collaborations with the orchestra. “I love the LA Phil! They throw everything behind [the] pieces they commission,” she said. “All the works have been different, and I curated last year’s ‘Noon to Midnight’ series. The relationship has been expansive — not just in one lane. I like crossing lanes; it’s really creative.”
When asked how things have changed for women composers since she began her career, Reid asserted, “Things are always changing. No matter what you look like, how you identify, it’s always changing. As an artist, all you can do is look inside and make what you have to make, and hope that when it’s your time to be in the spotlight you have enough good work. Sometimes you’re in fashion, sometimes you’re out of fashion. I love making music!”