From 1973 until 1989, Charlie Morrow and New Wilderness Foundation produced outdoor, site specific events with broadcasts designed to celebrate nature as a common elements in all human societies and all art. In the late 1970’s, I participated in one of his solstice celebrations, an ocarina festival in Riverside Park. My memory is dim but a group of more than one hundred people stood in Riverside Park near the boat basin and blew on ocarinas, which are small clay whistles. It was magical. This experience was much in my mind when I went to the first Stoopendous planning meeting.

Charlie Morrow (b 1942 Newark, New Jersey, USA), is a conceptualist and maple syrup maker whose music work ranges over many styles and forms, from events for media and public spaces to commercial soundtracks, new media productions. museum installations and programming for broadcast and festivals. Assembling expert project groups, Morrow employs a collaborative style that fuses arts, artists, and environment; technological expertise creates the basis for a significant portion of his work, much of which utilizes a combination of the newest and very old technologies. He is president and creative director of Charles Morrow Productions, LLC

Morrow’s later projects included broad participation by artists around New York and around the world. At first these events consisted of artists celebrating in New York with satellite connections to artists celebrating in international locations.

21 June 1973 – Got up early, with the smell of moisture and the likelihood of rain. Grey fog-clad clover is luminous and the sparrows are chirping. It is June 21, 1973 in Central Park fog. Musician, Carol Weber and I walk into the park, having announced our intention to celebrate the first moments of summer for the media.

We invited New Yorkers to join in from their rooftops. The results were so startling that we keep going for so many years, culminating in world broadcasts on radio, then TV. New York City Parks animated with our performances until 1989.

One sun celebration followed another: the sun in the Rockies, the sun on the Pacific, the sun in Lapland, the sun at the United Nations a solar energy event SUNDAY with Robert Redford & Leonard Crowfoot – what a combination, and (as an influence only) the ending of Black Orpheus, the children dancing as the sun rises. Bob Sullivan says “Nature is Robust and Dynamic, Humans are fragile.

For almost two years, NWPB gave a series of designed event concerts with diverse guest artists: poets, dancers, native Americans. From this grew public events, publications, broadcasts, festivals and especially the love of the summer solstice. They were characterized by strong performance art elements and conceptual design by the participating artists. These event concerts stimulated a wide range of activities and developed a community of artists who would participate a wide range of activities.