Wavering between shadow and light, this glimmering program celebrates nature’s transformative powers. In Dzonot, titled after Mexico’s subterranean waterways, Gabriela Ortiz adoringly captures the wildlife that thrives among the sacred chasms. Inspired by the vertical light that streaks into the abyssal dzonot and “the urgent need to preserve these ecosystems” along the Yucatán Peninsula, Ortiz creates a world of shadows under threat in 2024.

Two centuries earlier, Mendelssohn envisioned a similar play of sunlight with his score for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Bolstered by Shakespeare’s depiction of the natural world as a place of mystery, revision, and magic, Mendelssohn composed an aural light diffuser, through which feelings, attitudes, and melodies invert and scatter. As Shakespeare’s characters venture into a Grecian forest, Mendelssohn’s imaginative score blossoms and transforms. With surprising discoveries and whimsical rhythm, both pieces praise the natural world for its ability to foster other ways of thinking.

—Tess Carges