climate change

“In a time of disinformation warfare and polarisation, where people gain power and money by spreading fear and hate and by polarising people against each other, what we need the most is love and a sense of connection,” writes composer Cecilia Damström in her column.

”Could we talk in 10 minutes, I’m just returning some backline drums from our tour?” says Charles Gil, picking up the phone on a dimly-lit November afternoon. It’s business as usual for the French producer who has lived and worked in Finland since 1995, introducing Finnish audiences in places near and far to high quality improvised music from France, Finland and beyond time and again.

The music of Cecilia Damström stems from expressiveness and the desire to make a difference. In music, the tiniest gestures can come across as political statements. At the Ung Nordisk Musik festival in Tampere in August 2020, Damström’s Requiem for our Earth puts the theme of this year’s event – Music Ecology – up front. “I was able to include an unusually large number of themes important for me in this Requiem,” says the composer.

Should musicians living in an era of climate crisis think about the ecological sustainability of their instruments? Can they afford to ignore the whole thing? Do choices matter? And where does the wood come from, anyway?

"With my teaching this summer, I have found a new and hopeful vista opening before me," writes Kaija Saariaho. This column is part of the series On my music and beyond, where composers and other music makers write about their music.

While music as a profession or hobby is not the worst imaginable environmental polluter, no-one in our time and age can afford to think they are above environmental responsibility. Musicians experience eco-anxiety especially for the amount of travel associated with their profession. What can an individual musician or music consumer do to help the environment, and is it possible to achieve change through music?

While climate change is a real concern for us all, there has not been a lot of noise about it on the music front so far. Committed climate action pioneers in Finland, however, include the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and the Flow Festival, both of which wish to set an example to other music organisations and provoke them to reflect on how to best participate in this endeavour that requires all humanity’s involvement.