Yolanda Kondonassis To Release Terra Infirma Featuring World Premiere Works By Reena Esmail

GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis will release her new album TERRA INFIRMA on April 17 through Azica Records, shortly before Earth Day. The recording will receive a CD release on May 15 and features world premiere recordings of major new works by composer Reena Esmail.

The album centers on Esmail’s Terra Infirma: Concerto for Harp, Percussion, and Orchestra, performed by Kondonassis with the Interlochen Center for the Arts Orchestra and conducted by Andrew Grams. The recording also includes violinist Vijay Gupta and the Interlochen Center for the Arts Chorus under choral director Carter Smith.

Each work on the album explores humanity’s relationship with the natural environment. Kondonassis has previously addressed environmental themes in her 2022 album Five Minutes for Earth, which featured commissions through her nonprofit organization Earth at Heart. Esmail has similarly engaged with environmental issues in works including Earth Speaks and Malhaar: A Requiem for Water.

Esmail’s harp and percussion concerto Terra Infirma was shaped by the composer’s experience during the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles. Drawing on her study of Hindustani classical music, the work incorporates elements of the raags Deepak, associated with fire, and Megh, associated with rain.

“Though the idea had been set in motion four years earlier, the timing of its creation was uncanny. I began writing this concerto in January 2025, a few days before wildfire ravaged my neighborhood of Altadena, CA,” Esmail writes in the album’s liner notes. “The piece draws on the ancient Hindustani raags of Deepak, which evokes fire, and Megh, which extinguishes it through rain.”

The concerto positions the harp as the central character in a musical narrative exploring wildfire and renewal. During performances of the piece, Kondonassis moves the harp across the stage through arrays of suspended percussion instruments, combining elements of concerto performance and theatrical staging.

“Terra Infirma sits somewhere between a harp/percussion concerto and a monodrama – Yolanda leads us through the trajectory of a wildfire, starting with the eerie moments before the first spark, and ending with the hope of new growth,” Esmail said.

Kondonassis added, “The personal and musical resonance that I feel with Reena has resulted in a work that's deeply personal, uniquely colorful, and ground-breaking in so many ways. In this work, the harp is actually a character in the musical drama onstage, and that gives me the chance to portray an enormous range of artistic emotion.”

The album also includes Esmail’s Sandhiprakash for violin and harp, adapted from a 2022 work originally written for solo cello, and Earth Speaks: Curiosity for chorus and solo harp, which uses text drawn from the list of locations visited by the Mars rover Curiosity along with haikus submitted to commemorate its launch.

The recording is part of The Terra Infirma Project, a multi-year initiative of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, where Kondonassis studied as a student. The project includes the recording, a multimedia concert video, a two-part documentary scheduled for release in August 2026, and a series of educational programs and residencies at Interlochen.

Album Information

TERRA INFIRMA
Yolanda Kondonassis, harp and percussion
Music by Reena Esmail

Featuring Vijay Gupta, violin
Interlochen Center for the Arts Orchestra and Chorus
Andrew Grams, conductor
Carter Smith, choral director

Release Date: April 17, 2026 (Digital)
CD Release: May 15, 2026 (Azica Records)