Published in University News in 2018.

St. Lawrence University’s Department of Music will host Dana Lyn and Kyle Sanna, who will perform their third album, “The Coral Suite,” at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11, in Peterson-Kermani Performance Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

The duo’s audiovisual performance explores environmental fragility through rich Irish melodies, with Lyn on the fiddle and Sanna on the guitar, combined with animated projections featuring Lyn’s artwork. “The Coral Suite” is an evocative sequence of Irish tunes that mirrors the life cycles and natural processes that occur within coral reef ecosystems. Their audiovisual poem pays tribute to the coral’s biodiversity while calling attention to the urgent need for its conservation.

According to the performers, the album is relevant and important because two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef has died due to climate change. Changing temperatures and ocean acidification causes bleaching of our corals, which means that the corals lose their vibrant color as they die, fading to a deathly white. While this problem might be happening far away from Canton, New York, Lyn and Sanna are known to traverse geographical boundaries through their music by connecting their experience as composers and improvisers in New York City’s musical community with their deep admiration for traditional Irish music.

Lyn and Sanna have been hailed as “ground-breaking” by folklorist and NEA-Award recipient Mick Moloney and “bursting with creativity” by renowned fiddler Kevil Burke. Visit their website at http://danalynkylesanna.com/.