The West Coast Premiere of Michael Daugherty’s Blue Electra

Michael Daugherty, GRAMMY® Award winner and longtime composer-in-residence of Pacific Symphony, composed a vivid story that captures the thrill of flight and the daring bravery of the first woman to ever fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Blue Electra was commissioned by global sensation Anne Akiko Meyers, the “Wonder Woman of Commissioning” (The Strad). She premiered the violin concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra in November 2022 and her performance with Pacific Symphony (March 26-28, 2026) will be the West Coast Premiere of Blue Electra.

Blue Electra is inspired by Amelia Earhart, the aviation pioneer who disappeared without a trace during an attempt to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. She was just 39 years old when her plane vanished. Since this tragedy, Earhart has become a global cultural figure, honored through films, music, documentaries, and books. The list of Earhart’s achievements extends beyond flight – she was also an advocate for women’s rights, an aviation professor at Purdue University, and a best-selling author who wrote both books and poems. She also was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel,  and she helped found the Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots that provided networking, mentoring, and flight scholarship opportunities to female pilots. Anne Akiko Meyers said, “You can’t help but think of what she went through in her very short time on earth. To fly as a female at that time in history in those tiny planes— she was the epitome of courage.”

Michael Daugherty’s Blue Electra illustrates that courage through potent reflection and musical rumination. This violin concerto is dramatic and a little jazzy at times, with the solo violin gliding between soft, introspective passages and fast-paced virtuosic marathons that showcase Meyer’s extraordinary control of her instrument. The composer provides the following note on the piece: 

Blue Electra (2022) for solo violin and orchestra was commissioned by and written for violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, who premiered the violin concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda at The Kennedy Center on November 10, 2022.

Blue Electra is inspired by the sensational life and mysterious disappearance of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), who vanished without a trace when she was flying her “Electra” airplane over the Pacific Ocean. Celebrated around the world as “Queen of the Air,” she was also an advocate for women’s rights, an aviation professor at Purdue University, and the author of three books and numerous poems.

The concerto is in four movements:

The first movement “Courage (1928)” is a musical reflection on a poem written by Amelia Earhart before her first transatlantic flight across the Atlantic:

Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace,
The soul that knows it not, knows no release
From little things;

Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings.

After her pioneering flight as the first woman to fly nonstop solo across the Atlantic,  Amelia Earhart received the Legion of Honor from the French Government. In the second movement “Paris (1932)”, I imagine Earhart as a guest of honor celebrating at a high society “Hot Jazz” soirée in Paris.

The third movement “From an Airplane (1921)” is a musical rumination on a poem written by a young Amelia Earhart dreaming of the day she will be in the pilot seat of an airplane as it spirals through the clouds:

Even the watchful, purple hills
That hold the lake
Could not see so well as I
The stain of evening
Creeping from its heart
Nor the round, yellow eyes of the hamlet
Growing filmy with mists.

The fourth movement “Last Flight (1937)” refers to Amelia Earhart’s attempt to fly around the world in her “Electra” airplane. Running out of fuel on the last leg of her flight, Earhart and her plane disappeared somewhere over the Pacific never to be found.

-Michael Daugherty (2022)

Each movement was carefully crafted to paint the picture of Amelia Earhart’s brave journey. The first movement is full of open-hearted lyricism, while the second movement transforms into a smooth and classy virtuosic theme which Meyers breezes through with a wonderfully polished tone. The third movement returns to a poetic spirit, with a reflective mood that seamlessly shifts between dreamy and passionate. Lastly, the fourth movement is delicate and restrained, perfectly portraying the unknown ending of Earhart’s journey. The piece is performed with sensitivity and introspection: a crucial aspect that keeps the audience captivated in the iconic story of Amelia Earhart.

Hear Anne Akiko Meyers perform Blue Electra with Carl St.Clair and Pacific Symphony March 26th-March 28th, 2026. Get tickets.