We watch as the world’s fate is decided at Glasgow. Will we find a pathway to a survivable future?
I claim no special expertise in these matters. I know enough science to trust scientists in general, and enough about data to tell the difference between an honest and a misleading graph. I’m a musician, not a climatologist.
Are you following the Conference? Perhaps the endless minutiae of policy negotiations and the deadly consequences of a few decimal points here or there are wearing you down.
Allow me to offer you a place of repose.
Register at Music4ClimateJustice to get a little balm for your soul, while reminding yourself of the things that make our dear beloved stupid human species worth saving in the first place.
Let’s think about what we want to save.
What we need to save if we are to think of ourselves as worth saving at all.
Music 4 Climate Justice is offering almost five hours of music every day between now and the end of COP-26, streaming pre-recorded music videos from Glasgow. There is music from all over, in hundreds of different styles, from countless countries, in scores of languages.
I’ve been working on assembling this extraordinary musical menu for...well, for years.
Every musician in our program also has spoken words for the policy-makers, for the politicians, for the world: Climate Change Is Real, It’s Dangerous, Action Is Long Past Due — spoken in many languages, in many ways.
Take 90 seconds to get a taste of what’s coming between today and November 12.
Today’s musical program is listed below. The previous days’ offerings are available for your enjoyment at the site.
Thursday, November 11.
Starting time 7:00 PM GMT.
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0:00:00 — 0:30:00: Segment 1
Bruce Bears — “Bruce currently plays keyboards with two time Grammy Award nominee Duke Robillard and the Duke Robillard Band, and can be heard on Duke's Grammy nominated albums Guitar Groov-a-rama and Stomp! The Blues Tonight as well as many of Duke's other albums. He has been touring internationally for 20 years, and formed the original Toni Lynn Washington Band in 1998.
“Bruce has performed with raw bluesman "Big Jack" Johnson, Blues Icon “Little” Milton Campbell, Susan Tedeschi and Jay Geils, Chicago Bluesman Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, singer-songwriter Mark Erelli, gospel star Mavis Staples, masterful songwriter and soulful singer Martin Sexton, and many others. His skills as a keyboardist and musician are as diverse as they are in demand.”
Indian Whistlers Association —
- The Indian Whistlers’ Association (IWA), founded on Sept. 19th, 2004 by Mr. Rigveda Deshpandey (The Maverick Whistler), is the world’s first truly Indian and the largest whistling fraternity. It is India’s 1st and only school, dedicated to promoting Musical Whistling as a performing art and has done more than 300 shows all over India since 2004. We have many awards and accolades to our credit as well.
- Proud to have whistling members-both male and female, from the age group of 10 years to 70 years from all walks of life.
- Our whistlers are capable of whistling not just film songs but also classical (Western & Indian), devotional, patriotic and other diverse range of compositions.
- IWA shows have provided a unique and unforgettable experience to its audiences all over India.
Jonathan Dimond — “Jonathan Dimond has seen composition as an essential element of his musical development from a young age. He formed and led ensembles whose goal was to create and perform contemporary music that incorporated jazz, improvisation and composition in an original manner. His performances and recordings with the Brisbane-based ensembles Artisans Workshop, Loops, and Contemporary Focus, for which Dimond wrote extensively, illustrate this focus.”
Triarky — “Triarky is the new ensemble created by Boston phenoms violinist Mimi Rabson and tubist David Harris, joined by groovemeister drummer Phil Neighbors. Rabson and Harris have merged decades of performance and composition credits to form a power trio as no one else could conceive. Influences for their original compositions include the likes of Hendrix, Nirvana, the Skatalites, MEtallica, Mahvishnu Orchestra, and James Brown. Equally at home on the stage or in a club, Triarky defies definition and labels. The trio’s massive music vocabulary is garnered from the members’ extensive experiences in world music, funk, rock and jazz. The resultant synergy fills the room with electricity, at once familiar and new.”
Bandra Community Project — This group of youngsters learned music when their father — the caretaker of an office building used by a music educator — requested that his sons be trained. Now, almost a decade later, these four young men are in demand all over India for their high-energy rhythmic music: funky, fun, and creative!
Paulo Millet & Chiara Negro — These Italian folk musicians perform a duet with hurdy-gurdy and harmonica, along with a beautiful poem.
0:30:00 — 1:00:00: Segment 2
The Lonely Boys — Lonely Boys are from the remote Arnhemland community of Ngukurr, 700 km south-east of Darwin. They are a six-piece guitar inspired punk rock band who have been playing in local and surrounding communities for over ten years.
Nikolai Salcedo — is a musician, composer, visual artist, actor and storyteller from Trinidad and Tobago. His work is known for it's integrity, honesty and dramatic flare. His band is still well known in Trinbagonian circles for its passionate and moving performances as well as Nickolai’s theatrical approach to performance. The music combined Middle Eastern melodies, urban Hip Hop beats, Reggae bass riffs or even Heavy Metal chord changes all dancing on a solid bed of Calypso rhythms provided by Nickolai’s percussive style of guitar playing.
Joel Harrison Big Band — “Guitarist, composer, arranger, lyricist, writer, educator, and vocalist Joel Harrison has “created a new blueprint for jazz” (New Orleans Times-Picayune). A Guggenheim Fellow (2010) whose compositions have been commissioned by Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, New Music USA, the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, Harrison is a two-time winner of the Jazz Composers Alliance Composition Competition and has appeared repeatedly on DownBeat Magazine’s “Rising Star” poll.”
Kemur Jalil — Indonesian singer and instrumentalist, whose music is introduced and contextualized by ethnomusicologist Palmer Keen.
Sally & Ben Taylor — An original song from the daughter and son of James Taylor & Carly Simon.
1:00:00 — 1:30:00: Segment 3
Interview
Lola Perrin & ClimateKeys — “Lola Perrin is a self-taught composer and a classically trained pianist who started lessons aged four. She has performed her own works in the UK, Europe and USA, including works for two, four & six pianos at Lang Lang Inspires (Southbank Centre), work for two pianos (Women of the World), Sheffield Festival of Debate, specially written scores for silent films (including BFI, Barbican Cinema, Bristol Watershed,) and a lecture-performance at ‘Women in the Arts’ University of Missouri. She toured ‘Music from our Times’ (Piano Suite XI 2019) throughout north of England and to Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. She focusses much compositional work on environmental issues; eg turned to witnesses of climate change, recording web interviews with 24 international activists for ‘Now You See It: for piano and an orchestra of words’ (2015). In ‘Piano Suite IX: Significantus for piano, guest speaker and a conversation with the audience’ (2016), she turns to us, asking audiences to converse about climate change issues during the performance, inviting scores of expert speakers to join her in concert.”
1:30:00 — 2:00:00: Segment 4
Interview
The ClimateMusic Project — “Combining the talents and expertise of world class scientists, composers, musicians, artists, and technology visionaries, we enable the creation and staging of science-guided music and visual experiences to inspire people to engage actively on the issue of climate change.
Across diverse communities, climate awareness and action may take different forms depending on the available time and resources. That’s where music fits in—music is a universal language that defies language barriers, socioeconomic disparities, and cultural differences. Through music, we’re able to bring communities together and celebrate our rich diversity.”
Short pieces by:
Krishna Raaj
Beatrice Anderson
Marcia Deihl
2:00:00 — 2:30:00: Segment 5
Garrett Snedeker — “Garrett Snedeker is a 2019-2020 Fulbright Scholar pursuing a Master of Music in Piano Performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK. Garrett received his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance/Pedagogy at Washington State University, where he was recognized as a 2019 Outstanding Senior and Top Ten Senior in the Performing Arts. Garrett studied piano with Douglas Finch and Peter Tuite at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and with Dr. Jeff Savage at WSU. He is currently teaching in Kansas City, MO.”
G. Randy Brown — Composer of soundscapes and environmentally-themed music based in Las Cruces, NM, USA.
Heather Dea Jennings — American composer now based in Brazil: “Possui graduação em Music Synthesis - Berklee College Of Music (1992) e mestrado em Music Composition - Wesleyan University (1997). Atualmente é professora assistente da Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Norte. Tem experiência na área de Artes, com ênfase em Composição Musical, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: música, composição musical, improvisação, tecnologia musical, música de câmara, flauta, percussão e canto.”
Daniel Greenwich & Kornelia Nemcova — “Kornélia Nemcová is a Slovak composer currently studying at TL Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Her latest focus has been on exploring structured improvisation and open scores and their role in both acoustic and electronic sound worlds. Besides that, her compositions often include non-musical parts, such as light, colours or dance elements which are as important as the music itself.
“Daniel Greenwich — A champion for universality. Interested in distilling non-canonical elements (such as irregular rhythms, contemporary compositional techniques, microtones and, of course, non-Western devices) into his own forms of expression with a focus on memorability. Would like to think of all his works as pop music in one way or another.”
2:30:00 — 3:00:00: Segment 6
William Parker — “William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City, heralded by The Village Voice as, “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time.”
In addition to recording over 150 albums, he has published six books and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists.
Parker’s current bands include the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, In Order to Survive, Raining on the Moon, Stan’s Hat Flapping in the Wind, and the Cosmic Mountain Quartet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore. Throughout his career he has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Milford Graves, and David S. Ware, among others.”
Priya Sarukkai Chabria — “Priya Sarukkai Chabria is a poet, writer and translator. Recipient of the Indian Government’s Senior Fellowship to Outstanding Artists for Literature she studied the Rasa Theory of Aesthetics and edits the website Talking Poetry . Her books include two poetry collections, Dialogue & Other Poems (2005, Sahitya Akademi) and Not Springtime Yet (2009, HarperCollins Publishers), the novel The Other Garden (1995, Rupa&Co.) and the speculative fiction Generation 14 (2009, Penguin-Zubaan).”
Cheryl Duvall, Anna Hostman, & Ella Morton — “Anna’s compositions seek out tactile encounters with the world while extending into history, memory, and landscape. Performed throughout Canada and internationally, her works have been described as “suggestive, elegant” (Andriessen) and “hauntingly beautiful.” (Barcza) Alongside pieces for the concert stage, she has composed for opera, dance, performance installation, theatre, experimental film and video and documentary.
“Harbour”, a CD of solo piano works, was recently released by Toronto pianist Cheryl Duvall on Redshift Records (Vancouver) and featured on CBC’s In Concert with Paolo Pietropaolo. Graham Rickson of the ArtsDesk calls pieces like Yellow Bird and “…the sublime Adagio miracles of refined understatement.”
Barnali Ray Shukla — “Barnali Ray Shukla is a filmmaker, poet and writer.
Starting off as a cell-biologist specializing in plant tissue culture and a topper of the Delhi University both at graduate and post graduate level, Barnali soon turned towards film-making. Over the years, she has worked with Ram Gopal Varma, Sudhir Mishra and Ekta Kapoor. Her first feature- film as a writer-director Kucch Luv Jaisaa, was released in May 2011.”
Forbes Graham — “Forbes Graham is a composer, musician, sound artist, and visual artist whose work explores themes of simultaneity, perceptibility, transformation and collage. His work "Encounters I" for trumpet, electronics, and voices premiered at Roulette in 2019. He performed with Michael Pisaro at (the) co-incidence festival in 2017 and has appeared at other music festivals including High Zero, Vision, and The Thing In The Spring. He was commissioned to write a piece for the Festival of New Trumpet, and has created work for the avant-rock ensemble Normal Love.”
3:00:00 — 3:15:00: Segment 7
Stefanie Jacob — “Stefanie Jacob, pianist, made her solo debut with the Boston Pops at age 17 and her Carnegie Recital Hall debut in 1984. An avid chamber musician, she was twice awarded second prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and was awarded Indiana University’s Leo Weiner Prize for Chamber Music. Ms. Jacob has performed as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra and the Waukesha and Manitowoc Symphonies, and has appeared as a collaborating artist on Milwaukee’s Artist Series at the Pabst and WFMT-Chicago’s nationally broadcast Dame Myra Hess Series. She has recorded for the Arundax, CRI, Fleur de Son and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music labels. A graduate of Harvard and Indiana Universities, Ms. Jacob taught at the University of Tampa from 1985 to 1987, and since then at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. The founding pianist of the Conservatory’s resident Prometheus Trio, she also performs as the Duo Coriolan with husband Scott, and as the Duo Cosi with violinist Susan Waterbury.”
Gretchen Elise — Singer-songwriter from Philadelphia, PA.
Taichiro Ei — “I compose contemporary music and electronic music. Drummer of the experimental piano trio ‘FOMULA’ ".
Phil Scarff — “Phil Scarff is pioneering the performance of North Indian classical music on soprano saxophone, exquisitely capturing the music's subtlety and depth. His performance at Tansen Samaroh, Gwalior, India, with Saskia Rao de Haas was "The highlight of the festival." [Dainik Bhaskar]. Indian classical appearances include India's famed Tansen Samaroh (Gwalior), Nehru Center, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Dadar-Matunga Cultural Centre (Mumbai), Saptak School of Music (Ahmedabad), Hirai Sangeet Mahotsav (Chandrapur), ICCR Theater and India Habitat Centre (Delhi).”
Shantanu Chauhan — Guitarist and vocalist from Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Scott Rasmussen — Rock/Americana guitarist & composer living in Amherst, MA.
Dinty Child — “Dinty Child is a longtime member of the Boston roots/folk scene. A fearless multi-instrumentalist, he can most often be seen with the band Session Americana, as well as the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, the unapologetically loud and grimy Catbirds, as sensitive sideman to any number of singer/songwriters, including Rose Cousins and Kris Delmhorst, and even fronting the twenty piece party band, the Funky White Honkies.”
Frederick K. Boyle — “FREDERICK BOYLE (BFA, MM and MDiv) studied music composition with Stephen Mosko and Morton Subotnick at California Institute of the Arts, and with Thomas McKinley and Robert Cogan at the New England Conservatory. Early in his career, Frederick worked as a freelance jazz and classical musician, taught music theory and composition at Goddard College in Vermont, and helped to developed the first computer assisted music studio at New England Conservatory in Boston. He has composed music for television, radio, and modern dance including collaborations with WGBH in Boston, KPFK in Los Angeles, the Gus Solomon Dance Company in Los Angeles, and Dance Collective in Boston. Recently, his music has been performed at NYCC concerts, the Composers Concordance in NYC, Telos Trio in Rochester, NY, and the Symphonic Society in L'Viv, Ukraine. Frederick is also an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. He retired from fulltime ministry in 2015 and now devotes his time to composing music and playing a Celtic harp.”
Brian Adler — “Brian Shankar Adler is a multidisciplinary drummer, percussionist and composer. His work transcends the terrain between genre and geographic region, asking: how can we find connection through rhythm? Adler has been described as being "a polyrhythmic force... New York City gritty yet still somehow capable of evoking the delicacy of a summer breeze..." by Brad Cohan, JazzTimes.”
3:15:00 — 3:30:00: Segment 8
Seppideh Raissadat — “Sepideh Raissadat was born in Tehran in 1980. She began studying Radif (the Repertoire of Persian classical music) at the age of 9 with the famous Persian singer Parisa and continued with Parviz Meshkatian and Mohammad Reza Lotfi. Her major soloist instrument is the Setar. Her first album was recorded when she was 18, thanks to Ostad Parviz Meshkatian.
After she finished her B.A. in Painting, she moved to Italy to pursue her artistic education. She graduated in Musicology majoring in Ethnomusicology from the University of Bologna. While in Italy, she was invited by the Vatican and different Italian TV channels and performed as a soloist with one of the oldest Italian choirs. She also performed with the most well-known Italian musicians such as Franco Battiato, Andrea Parodi, etc. Over the past few years, she has academically researched pre-Islamic ancient Persian music. Currently, her major research area is focused on Sassanid music.”
Jennifer Rueben — ...is the Cantor of Ohef Sholom Temple, in Norfolk, VA.
Sirojiddin Juraev — “Sirojiddin Juraev is a master performer on long-necked lutes from Central Asia. Born and raised near the ancient city of Khujand, in northern Tajikistan, Sirojiddin learned to play the two-stringed dutar as a child and later studied with the great Uzbek master Turgun Alimatov. As a student at the Academy of Maqom, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Sirojiddin also studied tanbur and sato (bowed tanbur) with ustaz Abduvali Abdurashidov. Sirojiddin is active as a composer and arranger, and has created a body of new virtuoso works for dutar, tanbur, and sato. He performs both as a soloist and as a member of several ensembles, including Soriana, the Aga Khan Ensemble, the Academy of Maqom, and Tajikistan’s State Shashmaqom Ensemble.”
Samuel Rulon Steward V — a composer of ambient and electronic music from Princeton, NJ.
Richard Davis — “Richard Davis has a B.M. from California State University at Northridge. He is a performer and composer in classical, jazz, popular, country, and East Indian music, and his performance credits include Phylicia Rashad, Betty Buckley, John Denver, and Illinois Jacquet. His film and television credits include Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Last Boy Scout, The Fall Guy, and others.”
Mehmet Aydin — “Mehmet Aydin is a Turkish born musician and designer based in Brooklyn, New York. His multidisciplinary approach to the arts has had him perform, compose and produce music in varied genres ranging from classical, commercial, jazz and electronic dance and ambient and music for TV and motion picture. He is a classically trained violist with studies at Juilliard, New England Conservatory and San Francisco Conservatory, completing pre college, bachelor and masters degrees. Doctorate studies at Rutgers with CJ Chang, principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Craig Mumm, Assistant Principal of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.”
Lihi Haravi — Lihi Haruvi is one of the original voices in the music scene today, drawing upon influences from her home in the Middle East and her love of the great tradition of Jazz music. Haruvi has performed on the top stages and festivals around the world including the Newport Jazz Festival, the Cork Guinness Jazz Festival, the Panama Jazz Festival, the Beantown Jazz Festival, Birdland NY, Givatayim Theatre, Jordan Hall, the Berklee Performance Center, and many more. She has performed with and studied with some of the world's greatest musicians, including Danilo Perez, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Ken Schaphorst, Joe Lovano, John Patitucci, and Terry Lyne Carrington.”
3:30:00 — 4:00:00: Segment 9
Interview with Music:
Trio Triumphatrix — Discussing this NY-based vocal group’s new project, “Astronautica, Voices of Women In Space: “
Newly commissioned by Voices of Ascension, Astronautica is a concert event of music and video by women, inspired by and based on the words of women astronauts.
Music by Kamala Sankaram, Bora Yoon, Jennifer Jolley, Renée Favand-See, RaShonda Reeves, Elaine Lachica, Jane Sheldon, Gilda Lyons.
4:00:00 — 4:30:00: Segment 10
John Cage: “Lecture On The Weather” — “John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer, music theorist, artist, and philosopher. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham.
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is often assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. The work's challenge to assumed definitions about musicianship and musical experience made it a popular and controversial topic both in musicology and the broader aesthetics of art and performance. Cage was also a pioneer of the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by objects placed between or on its strings or hammers), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces. The best known of these is Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).