The Prairies was commissioned and premiered by the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal) in February 2017. This 5-minute piece is also part of a collaborative composition titled De Natura Sonorum about the geographical areas of Canada in celebration of Canada’s 150’s birthday which has 5 composers each composing a movement about a different part of Canada. As a Prairie composer whose compositions are often inspired by the natural world, Sunabacka was selected to contribute the fourth movement for this project.

To compose the piece Sunabacka first took to social media asking what are the “sounds of the prairies.” Once the responses came in, she organized the responses into the four seasons, and then composed the piece to follow the sounds of the prairie seasons, beginning and ending in summer. From the delicate sounds of crickets, sparrows, and crunchy snow, to the honking of geese and a powerful thunder storm, the piece creates a soundscape of the Canadian prairies.