It’s astounding sometimes the journey that a mere spark of an idea can launch. My Violin Concerto No. 2, “on the brink,” premiered on January 25, began simply as Elissa Cassini’s and my intention to work together, some six years ago. We were introduced by violinist/composer Ittai Shapira, for whom I had composed my first violin concerto. I was drawn to Elissa’s deeply felt way with works both old and new. We found that we shared a concern for the environment and the onrushing climate crisis, and wondered whether we could contribute somehow to climate action through music. What better vehicle than a concerto, spotlighting an individual caught up in powerful forces.
So there was the spark, and it was fanned into a flame when Elizabeth and Justus Schilchting commissioned the piece. The creative journey really began when I discovered ClimateMusic Project (CMP), a non-profit that connects audience members to climate science and action through the emotional power of music. I made a cold call, piqued their interest, and soon Elissa and I found ourselves in zoom calls with leading climate researchers eager to share insights with us and with the public. Dr. Tapio Schneider, Dr. Garrett Boudinot, and Dr. William Collins elucidated recent findings and projections, as well as technological advances that could enable an effective response. Their dialogue throughout the compositional process helped me select feedback loops in the carbon cycle that would underpin my work: vicious circles that are speeding planetary warming, and virtuous circles that are speeding decarbonization.
ClimateMusic also led me to writers like Ashlee Cunsolo Willox and Renee Lertzman, who helped me understand climate mourning, increasingly prevalent among younger generations; and the concept of “attunement,” the ability to respond to our own emotions and those of others. I began to foresee a work embodying an individual’s psychological response to catastrophic images such as we see today, and the climb out of despair to reclaim hope. At its nadir, the music would fall out of tune, and then grope its way back to clarity and agency.
Only when the big ideas were in place did I begin composing, sketching out accelerating cycles both vicious and virtuous. Musical images for vicious circles came fairly easily – like burning of fossil fuels, heat-trapping greenhouse gasses, melting ice caps, flooding tides, colossal storms. Virtuous circles were more challenging, since even in the rosiest scenario, a great deal of suffering is already locked in for coming decades. Rather than resolving the threat, my virtuous circles focus on collective action – cascades of growing popular movements, emerging economies of scale, and the interlocking innovations that lead to technological breakthroughs.
The concerto took shape over about nine months of composing and consulting with scientists and soloist, a very heady process. This concerto would become CMP’s first orchestral project, and I was happy to be their guide to this musical world.
But until an orchestra actually committed to a performance, we were all vision and no sound. I cast my net far and wide, but as often happens, it was a tried-and-true relationship that would lead to a premiere. Delta David Gier and the South Dakota Symphony (SDSO) are among my champions, having played three of my earlier works. David reacted warmly to my score and scheduled a world premiere for January 2025. Finally, we were in business, with a year to put more puzzle pieces in place.
Next came Camilla Tassi, a brilliant young projection designer I found through other relationships. CMP commissioned her to create an immersive, multilayered, multimedia experience that would play out on a scrim across the entire back of the stage, supporting the concerto’s climate narrative. CMP’s team of scientists were again enormously helpful in developing visual concepts and sourcing images.
There’s still more. In order to create public engagement around climate action, SDSO reached out to the University of South Dakota at Vermillion (USD). Building on past collaborative projects, SDSO and USD devised a day on campus for soloist, projection designer, climate scientists (by zoom), and composer (me), exchanging ideas with students and faculty in music and in their sustainability program. Many who attended those sessions then attended the performance. And sustainability students brought poster presentations of their research into the lobby of the concert venue, Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. Alongside tables for SoDak 350 and other local environmental groups, these presentations contextualized the premiere in a veritable climate fair.
Composer, violinist, scientists, climate activists and psychologists, projection designer, orchestra with its conductor and staff, university schools of music and sciences, stage crew – and at last, on January 25, an audience! To top it all off, South Dakota Public Broadcasting brought in five cameras to produce a video livestream for global reach.
The performance was so much more than what I had heard in my composer’s imagination. Elissa Cassini by now owned the concerto and embodied its vulnerability and its visceral emotion with powerful, expressive virtuosity. Camilla Tassi’s deeply psychological imagery lifted it to a mythic level. The orchestra played with total commitment. The audience seemed rapt for the 38 continuous minutes of this drama. After the work faded out, there was a deliciously long silence as the work’s impact sank in – and then a prolonged, cheering, standing ovation.
The message of climate hope that motivated all of us partners played out before over 1000 listeners – not climate activists, but the general public. We know that a majority of people in the US and globally are concerned about our rapidly changing climate, but many don’t understand the urgency of taking action, or that they have the agency to make a difference. I hope our work has inspired some to support local, state, or larger initiatives.
A composition need not carry a social message to be transformative. But this project, the most ambitious of my career to date, confirmed for me the power of artistic vision to carry projects forward and attract partners. The payoff for six years of dreaming, composing, and working toward the premiere has already been spectacular. And the journey seems far from over.
