John Wichert presented “On the Shore of Pangea: A Sedona Suite,” a juxtaposition of 19 of his instrumental compositions that capture the evolution of Sedona during the last 280 million years, at the Sedona Public Library on Wednesday, Aug. 9.

Wichert’s goal was that listeners will walk away with a refreshed sense of wonder about the area’s landscape, and perhaps with a bit of the same sense of rejuvenation he has felt in his own life. 

Wichert is returning to his first love of music after a successful medical career as an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Michigan State University.

“My first choice was to be a rock ’n’ roll star like everybody in the ’60s,” Wichert said. “I wanted to be a music major in college, but I did not pass my clarinet audition to get in the music school … I became a biology major and asked myself, ‘What am I going to do with this?’‘Oh, let’s apply to medical school’ … But I’ve done music my entire life. My father, who the suite is dedicated to, had a saying: ‘Always walk around with a song in your head and laughter in your heart.’”

After moving to the Sedona area, Wichert, who is president of the nonprofit Big Park Regional Coordinating Council, became fascinated with the mysteries of deep geologic time and the evolution of the landscape after reading Wayne Ranney’s “Sedona Through Time: Geology of the Red Rocks.”

“I was surprised to learn around 280 million years ago that this area has sat on the shore of the super-continent, Pangea, and the singular ocean Panthalassa,” Wichert said. “That’s unexpected for us, sitting in the high desert.”

Using his music, Wichert asked viewers to imagine hiking along the ancient shoreline before taking them on a journey through the next 280 million years, touching on the area’s geology, flora and fauna, culture, outdoor recreation opportunities and spiritual economy.

To give a musical impression of Sedona’s stratigraphy, Wichert layered 10 audio tracks representing the different rock layers throughout the suite, using different instruments for each. The suite was accompanied by a “Fantasia”-style film that incorporated both stock footage and videos that Wichert himself filmed while working in Hawaii and along the Oregon coastline.

For the suite’s climactic arrival at House Mountain, a shield volcano located about six miles southwest of Sedona that began erupting around 15 million years ago, he used Youtube videos to depict its former lava flows in action.

For another movement of the suite capturing the sculpting power of erosion by wind and rain,

Wichert shot a video of one of last year’s monsoon storms wrapping itself around Bell Rock. The movement is scored for flute, piano and classical guitar.

“I waited till the lightning subsided and I went walking,” Wichert said. “I got fabulous video of water flowing down channels. The thing that blew me away was I didn’t realize the water turns red. I was shocked and took note of that in the video, the color of the water, because that’s how it erodes away and someday [Bell Rock will] be gone because the wind and the rains will keep eroding it and it will keep changing.”

“[This] is a fusion suite, where it’s all different styles of music,” Wichert added. “Some of it may sound classical, but there’s a fair amount of orchestral stuff. For Oak Creek Canyon, I did a classical guitar and oboe duet for that. A variety of pieces — I have a jazz-type piece, and various artists have been inspirations. Even the type of drumming on the [House Mountain] piece is inspired by The National. I like a lot of indie music, too, [the] kids got me into that.” 

Beyond Sedona’s landscapes, Wichert said he finds himself inspired by local culture and how it has evolved. He is currently working on his next project, titled “Na Diné: A First People’s Suite,” which is a year away from completion.

“I am going to make a film of that, too. But I want to assemble [it] before I present it to the Navajo,” Wichert said. “[But] it’s pretty sympathetic.”

“On the Shore of Pangea: A Sedona Suite” can be heard online at soundcloud. com/user-725683525 or by searching for “John Wichert.”