Climate: Emergency (Daniel Kidane, Clarice Assad, Lei Liang, Evelien van den Broek) | Ep.9

Composers Daniel Kidane, Clarice Assad, Lei Liang and Evelien van den Broek share their music and thoughts exploring the climate emergency in music. What does it mean to be a composer in times of a climate crisis? How does our awareness of the crisis enter our work, and how do we find meaning in our work in these times?

From exploring cultural belonging and understanding our place on this planet through myth to the imperative of artists to be good storytellers, we listen to field recordings of extinct species and vanishing rainforests and music that reflects and inspires. Join our CEO Susanna Eastburn MBE and composer Des Oliver for a unique insight into composing.

This episode features a reading of John Agard’s poem Inheritance (© John Agard 2015 and reproduced by kind permission of John Agard c/o Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency Ltd)

Our recommendation at the end is for Music Declares Emergency (https://musicdeclares.net/)

In this episode, you listened to the following music and sounds:

Daniel Kidane

• Ruin (2020), the second movement from Song of the Prophets, a commission and collaboration between Christian Aid UK and Chineke! Orchestra

Clarice Assad

• Lemuria (2018), commissioned and performed by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble as part of The Sound of Nature (2018-19 season)

Lei Liang

• Lake (1999/2013), performed by The Awea Duo and available on Bridge Records
• A Thousand Mountains, A Million Streams (2018), performed by Boston Modern Orchestra Project and available on BMOP/sound. Published by Schott Music, and winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 2020

Evelien van den Broek

• Endlings (2020), the album version of Biophonica, a stage work exploring biodiversity loss with Mark Nieuwenhuis, available on Bandcamp
• Ecognosis (2021), created for an installation by BetweenTwoHands

This podcast was produced by Michael Umney (Resonance FM) and mixed by Chris Bartholomew, with the theme tune composed by Rob Bentall.

Our heartfelt thanks to the record labels, performers, composers and organisations who allowed us to include excerpts of these recordings on the podcast.