PERFORMING ARTS
Performance artists are using their means of expression to talk about climate change. Composers, musicians, dancers, actors, and others all have used their work to explore the changing climate and its impact on the world around us.
- The astonishing Italian composer, Ludovico Einaudi flew to the Artic to play his Elegy for the Artic on the ice.
- George Shea, whose play Dr. Keeling’s Curve, starring Mike Farrell, opened in 2018 in Santa Monica; and Bess Wohl whose Continuity premiered in 2019 in New York.
- Coldplay decided before Thanksgiving, 2019, not to tour its latest album, Everyday Life, citing environmental concerns. Chris Martin said, on behalf of the band, “The hardest thing is the flying side of things. Our dream is to have a show with no single-use plastic, to have it largely solar-powered.”
- Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson and Billie Eilish are among the artists who have made efforts to lessen the substantial carbon footprint that touring creates, from using biodiesel fuel in their buses and other vehicles to banning plastic from the venues in which they play. In partnership with the nonprofit environmental organization Reverb, over the past 15 years Matthews and his group — who were named a Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations for their efforts — have recycled 338,000 gallons of waste, composted 138,000 pounds of food, supported 2,100 family farms and clocked 24,500 volunteer hours.
- Bay Area dance choreographer, K. T. Nelson, is fighting climate change with dance.
- The New York Times published a top ten list of pop climate change songs after looking at lyrics from all artists in the last two years of Billboard charts, finding 192 references to climate change.
- And, in February, 2022 Rain and Zoe will open about two Washington State teenagers embarking on a motorcycle journey to join a group of oil protestors on the East Coast. Written by Crystal Skillman, with original music by Bobby Cronin. directed by Hersh Ellis, it is produced by Drew & Dane.
- #
- a
- b
- c
- d
- e
- f
- g
- h
- i
- j
- k
- l
- m
- n
- o
- p
- q
- r
- s
- t
- u
- v
- w
- x
- y
- z
Showing:
Show all posts
- By Corey HagelbergGary, Indiana, community members, urban gardeners, historians, and theater professionals recently joined in the “Resilient Midtown Tour” of Gary as a kick-off to the “Climate Season,” opening a full run of theater productions and community events focused on climate change.
10 Musicians Taking on the Climate Crisis
By The Climate Reality ProjectBe it Nina Simone and James Brown for civil rights, Joni Mitchell and Marvin Gaye for the environment, or Jackson Browne and Buffalo Springfield for nuclear...2019 was the year climate change charted
By Eleanor CumminsHow musicians from Billie Eilish to Lana Del Rey are grappling with climate change
A Composer Shifts Her Focus to Climate, With Help From Children
By David AllenJulia Wolfe, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and co-founder of Bang on a Can, has a way with words.A musical interpretation of climate change pays tribute to Beethoven
By YCC TeamComposer Ludwig van Beethoven was passionate about nature. In his sixth symphony, instruments mimic birds, a babbling brook, and a raging storm. So when the Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned composer Iman Habibi to write a piece for Beethoven’s 250th birthday, in 2020, Habibi considered what Beethoven would have written about if he were alive today.Artist’s Fantastical Paper Installations Are a ‘Love Song’ to Earth’s Biodiversity
By Kimberley MokNature is all about relationships: the interconnected links between the animate and inanimate, and how they harmonize beautifully into an emergent whole that might not be immediately apparent to us humans, as the complexities of the world sometimes escape the grasp of our relatively short-sighted understanding.
Artists are creating interactive music videos to show the effects of climate change
By AJ DellingerMusic can affect us in visceral ways. For three to four minutes at a time, a song can transport you to a new place or get you wrapped up in an experience that you might otherwise never have or a situation you may never have experienced. And, well, there is no situation that deserves more our of attention than climate change.As concert tours heat the planet, artists try to cut carbon emissions
By Ta'Leah Van SistineThousands of fans, many holding stainless-steel pint cups, sticker-covered water bottles and aluminum cans, cheered as Jack Johnson took the stage Friday night. Before he began his set at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., the grounds were bustling as crowds formed around a stand selling tote bags, reusable utensils and “climate offset” stickers among the usual concert merchandise.Beyoncé – I Was Here (United Nations World Humanitarian Day Performance Video)
Beyoncé - I Was Here (United Nations World Humanitarian Day Performance Video)Bo Burnham is not joking about the climate apocalypse
By Kate YoderA few minutes into Bo Burnham’s Netflix special, Inside, filmed in a single room in his house over the course of the pandemic, the comedian launches into his second number, concerning the purpose of comedy itself. “The world is changing,” Burnham croons at his keyboard. “The planet’s heating up. What the f*** is going on?” The song turns into a retrospective of the last year — the protests, the drought. “The more I look, the more I see nothing to joke about,” he goes on.Climate Change Burns Its Way Up the Pop Charts
By Kendra Pierre-LouisThis year, I came up with the idea to analyze the frequency of climate change references in American popular music. Culture can be a bellwether, both signaling where we are heading and, occasionally, helping to steer society’s course. And while, anecdotally, it seemed that climate change has been appearing more frequently in music, I wanted to put numbers to it.Coldplay Puts Touring on Hold, Citing Environmental Concerns
By Stewart ClarkeColdplay frontman Chris Martin has said the band will not go on tour, including to support their new album, for environmental reasons. Martin told the BBC that the group is taking time off from the road to figure out how to make touring sustainable.COLDPLAY TO USE OXFORD OFFSETTING PRINCIPLES FOR UNAVOIDABLE TOUR EMISSIONS
Global British band Coldplay have pledged to drawdown any unavoidable emissions of their upcoming tour according to the Oxford Principles for Net-Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting. Coldplay said: “We pledge to make our upcoming Music Of The Spheres Tour as sustainable and low-carbon as possible, guided by three key principles: Reduce, Reinvent, Restore.”Comedians will share climate knowledge with their jokes
By YCC TeamClimate change is serious … so serious that it needs to be joked about, says Kenice Mobley. She’s the comedy projects coordinator at the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University. “When it comes to communicating about hard topics, I think there’s this impulse to do like meaty, hard, dramatic work,” Mobley says.Composing Climate Change: The Radical Legacy of Black Musicians
By Jaelani Turner-WilliamsWhite musicians are often credited for their activism. But Black artists were using music as a means of protesting climate injustice long before.Face the Music: GoldenOak makes beautiful music about the horror of climate change
By Aimsel PontiGoldenOak released its second album, “Room to Grow” on June 24, and it’s already in the running for one of my favorite local albums of 2021. They’ve hit their stride in every way possible: lyrically, vocally and musically.GoldenOak is the Portland-based indie-folk and Americana act featuring siblings Zak Kendall (guitar, vocals) and Lena Kendall (vocals, clarinet), along with Mike Knowles on electric and upright bass and drummer Jackson Cromwell. “Room to Grow” is their second full-length album.From Billie Eilish to Coldplay: Here’s how musicians are confronting the climate crisis
By Shannon McDonaghEurope is in the process of welcoming the return of live music with open arms. Millions of people are making plans to attend their first live concerts and festivals in over a year. It’s a joyful time to anticipate the rush hearing your favourite artists grace the stage once more. That being said - the pressure is on for musicians and wider industry figures to lessen the environmental impact that constant touring and merchandising holds.Global Citizen Live: Lizzo lets us know pop and protest still go together
By Rob LeDonneThe last time I was in Central Park, I got soaked to my underwear.It was during the Homecoming NYC Concert, a Clive-Davis produced bonanza to celebrate the return of normalcy post-Covid whose line-up included Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon. A couple of hours in, the whole shebang was called off due to “inclement weather”, a contender for understatement of the century.
How Operas Are Going Green
By Rebecca SchmidThe coronavirus pandemic has challenged day-to-day norms in the opera industry. But while addressing those challenges, some houses have found new ways to tackle another crisis with potentially broader implications: climate change.
Indie musician Squirrel Flower’s new album reckons with extreme weather
By YCC TeamThe album’s lyrical images of floods and storms explore broader themes of fear and helplessnessLend Us Your Ears, and Don’t Forget Your Farm Boots
By Julia JacobsSeeing a play at Willow Wisp Organic Farm in Damascus, Pa., has a simple but highly recommended dress code: sturdy shoes.
Little Amal, a Syrian Refugee Puppet, to Grace COP26 from November 9 to 11
By IANSLittle Amal, a 3.5m puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee, will visit the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) from November 9 to 11. This follows her completion of 'The Walk', a four-month travelling festival of art and hope over 8,000 km from the Syrian border to Manchester.Mercy, Mercy Me
By Peter DykstraWritten at some point in 1970 and released the following year, Mercy Mercy Me's litany of environmental woes a half century ago deserve another look.Music of the Spheres World Tour: Sustainability
We are making our Music Of The Spheres Tour as sustainable and low-carbon as possible, guided by three key principles:Music’s biggest stars to unite for worldwide concert aimed at climate change, poverty and vaccine equity
By Jenna Romaine“We must rectify the damage done and hold world leaders and businesses accountable for ensuring that the entire world recovers from this pandemic together,” the CEO of Global Citizen said.NFTs Are Shaking Up the Art World. They May Be Warming the Planet, Too.
By Hiroko TabuchiWhen Chris Precht, an Austrian architect and artist, first learned about nonfungible tokens, the digital collectibles taking the art world by storm, he was so enthralled, he said, he “felt like a little kid again.”
On ‘ForeverAndEverNoMore,’ Brian Eno Sings for the End of the World
By Jon ParelesWhen you’re expecting extinction, it makes sense to record the threnody in advance. That’s what Brian Eno has done on “ForeverAndEverNoMore”: a mournful, contemplative album that stares down humanity’s self-immolation in what he calls “the climate emergency.”Palisades Virtuosi to Present GLOBAL WARNING – A Concert Devoted To Climate Concerns
By Chloe RabinowitzThe critically-acclaimed Palisades Virtuosi flute, clarinet and piano trio will be in concert on Sunday, March 27 @ 3:00 PM, performing Global Warning - A Concert Devoted to Climate Concerns at Hackensack Performing Arts Center (HACPAC), 102 State St. in Hackensack, NJ. Proof of vaccination will be required for admission to this live event and mask wearing by all audience members will be required.Patti Smith, Michael Stipe Set for ‘World Environment Day’ Livestream
By Jon BlisteinPatti Smith, Dave Matthews, and Michael Stipe are among the artists set to take part in the World Environment Day livestream concert happening on June 4th at 3 p.m. ET. The virtual concert was organized by Pathway to Paris, 350.org, and the United Nations Environment Program North America Region, and it will be available to watch on each organization’s Facebook page.
Playing it cool: these artists make music with ice
By Lola Akinmade ÅkerströmBrittle bursts that mimic cymbals. Deep hollowed notes reminiscent of metal drums. These are some of the surprising sounds that Siberian percussion group Ethnobeat created from Russia’s frozen Lake Baikal in a 2012 viral video that introduced millions around the globe to ice music.Protect the Planet: Stop Streaming Songs
By Adam MetBefore you hit play on a new song, think about how many times you might listen to it. Believe it or not, this decision can have a small, but real impact on climate change — and the artist.Public Enemy – GRID ft. Cypress Hill, George Clinton
The legendary Public Enemy is back! Stream "GRID" from the new album "What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down" Now: ...Radiohead’s Thom Yorke concedes he’s a ‘hypocrite’ on climate change
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, a renowned environmental activist, on Friday admitted to being a “hypocrite” for flying around the world to promote his campaigns....Reverb
Uniting around the music we love, tackling the environmental and social issues we face, REVERB is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to empowering millions of individuals to take action toward a better future for people and the planet. We partner with Musicians, Festivals and Venues to green their concert events while engaging fans face-to-face at shows to take environmental and social action.Songs for the End of the World: Pop Music and Climate Change
By Emer McHughPopular music has, and always will be, informed by the political and social contexts from which it emerges. The struggles of the American civil...The Hot 10 Climate Songs
By Kendra Pierre-LouisAs global temperatures have climbed, so have mentions of climate change in popular songs. Here are 10 that led the way.The Weather Station: how climate grief inspired Tamara Lindeman’s pop rebirth
By Laura SnapesIn the 1970s, Tamara Lindeman’s parents moved from Toronto to a part of Ottawa so remote that “snowploughs had only started running there 10 years earlier”, says the Canadian songwriter. A national reforestation initiative prompted them to plant thousands of trees on their 25 acres. By the late 80s, Lindeman would sing in the young forest, cherishing the feeling of safety it gave herThe wolf is at the door
By Emily AtkinI started taking drum lessons this past October. I did it for two reasons: One, I love fast, percussion-heavy pop-punk music. Two, I needed an outlet during this very sad time.Theater Commentary: Who’s Agitating for a “Green New Theatre”?
By Bill MarxGiven the anemic response of America’s theater companies to the climate crisis, it is easy to become disheartened. “We’re doomed. Now what?” pointedly asks essayist Roy Scranton. In Boston, not much of significance has occurred since my 2020 column in which I lamented the continuing indifference of our stages to the accelerating danger to life on our planet. A major Boston stage, the Huntington Theatre Company, deals with global warming next season with Hurricane Diane, a comedy in which “the Greek God Dionysus returns fromThis Is What Climate Change Sounds Like
But even as polls indicate a growing acceptance of the reality of global warming, many people are still not motivated enough to act; it feels too abstract, more likely to affect others rather than themselves. Lately, to convey the urgency of climate change at a personal level, scientists have begun translating its dry data points into heart-rending melodies.This trio hopes ‘Won’t Give Up’ will become an anthem for the climate movement
By Chloe Veltman"We were standing, all three of us, on Exit Glacier, in a spot where even five, ten years ago, the glacier was a hundred feet tall," said drag queen and vocalist Pattie Gonia, who collaborated on the song with 2019 NPR Tiny Desk Contest winner Quinn Christopherson and famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The trio traveled to the site in Kenai Fjords National Park to shoot the accompanying music video. "And now it's nothing," Gonia added. "Now it's the rocks underneath."Too Darn Hot: How Summer Stages Are Threatened by Climate Change
By Michael PaulsonSmoke from a raging wildfire in California prompted the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to cancel a recent performance of “The Tempest” at its open-air theater. Record flooding in St. Louis forced the cancellation of an outdoor performance of “Legally Blonde.” And after heat and smoke at an outdoor Pearl Jam concert in France damaged the throat of its lead singer, Eddie Vedder, the band canceled several shows.Use of Old-Growth Timber Hits a Sour Note in the Music Industry
By Chris Gibson and Andrew WarrenMusicians are often concerned about environmental problems, but entangled in them through the materials used in their instruments. The guitar industry, which uses rare woods from old-growth trees, has been a canary in the coal mine — struggling with scandals over illegal logging, resource scarcity and new environmental regulations related to trade in endangered species of trees.
Virginie Kypriotis’ animated video for Foals inspires people to rise up against climate change
By Laura SnoadFollowing a yeti-like protagonist called George, the video for new track Like Lightning presents his journey from outrage at news footage of the dying planet to his role starting a global movement.Climate Change Theatre is LIT: A Study on the Performing Arts and Climate Change Engagement
By Carolyn ReevesLike many of us, I’ve spent a lot of time feeling disturbed, depressed, and defeated as the climate crisis grows. I’ve done a lot of soul searching to understand how I can transform my despair into something meaningful. Having long been fascinated and compelled by the power of art to command attention and inspire people to care about things, I wanted to study how this power could be wielded to encourage people to care about and act upon climate change.
Confounds the Science – (Parody of) Sound of Silence – REMIX
The very first parody ever produced and released by Parody Project, and by far the most popular. Art Garfunkel played by Don Caron; Paul Simon played by Linda Gower. Watch Part 2: Confounds the Science (Sequel)Continuity: A Play in Six Takes
A sheet of ice sits in the desert of New Mexico. A mad eco-terrorist plants a bomb in order to save humankind. A beleaguered film crew tries to get in one last shot before losing the light. In Continuity, storytelling and science collide with hilarious and devastating consequences. The play asks, “How do we keep going when hope can seem as fictional as a Hollywood ending?” and also, “What’s for lunch?” This world premiere is by Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds), and helmed by the Tony-nominated director Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812).Fighting Climate Change with Dance
Bay Area dance choreographer KT Nelson’s production "Dead Reckoning" (composed by renowned former Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanrenau) demonstrates how humans are navigating blindly through environmental damage.FuelChange: A Rap Anthem
Green For All, in collaboration with Big Picture Anthems, is thrilled to announce the release of our #FuelChange Anthem - a song and music video seeking to inspire and help mobilize a movement of people and resources for zero-emission cars, trucks, and buses in neighborhoods across America.Hear Climate Data Turned into Music
In this piece climate data has been “sonified” or turned into sound. Take a listen. The pitch of the tone you hear represents CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, while the pitch and intensity of the plucked strings represent temperature averages. Notice how the the rise in CO2 drives a rise in temperature.List of songs about the environment
This list of songs about the environment includes only songs whose author has an article in Wikipedia.Long Future
Long Future is learning how to use music festivals to spark effective action for sustainability. In 1969 it was Woodstock and Save the Whales. 50 years later it's Save the climate, oceans, the biosphere...Time is running out to enliven the public into action. Long Future plans to combine the social-movement of Woodstock Festival with a simple, message-rich fiction story, like a Celestine Prophecy for Sustainability. Long Future plans to do this at Woodford Folk Festival this year and spark a blossoming of right action for sustainability. The Long Future Foundation is a unique concept, an ideation factory for sustainability that creates projects, brands and initiatives that are intimately matched to the needs of our time. Today, the overbearing need is to awaken a mass-movement for sustainability, one that is both swift and effective.Ludovico Einaudi – “Elegy for the Arctic” – Official Live
In this piece climate data has been “sonified” or turned into sound. Take a listen. The pitch of the tone you hear represents CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, while the pitch and intensity of the plucked strings represent temperature averages. Notice how the the rise in CO2 drives a rise in temperature.The musicians helping make climate change a cultural movement
By Lilian AnekwePop stars like Lil Dicky and Grimes are using their music and their huge followings to gain vital coverage of climate change. This rise in social media-driven activism shows that a tipping point has been reached in popular culture.THEATER: Dr. Keeling’s Curve’ with M*A*S*H actor Mike Farrell is literally the Sierra Club’s play to spread climate change message
By Steve ScauzilloThe Sierra Club, for the first time in its history, is staging a play to present the facts around global climate change in a way that’s accessible, educational and entertaining.Warren Zevon – Run Straight Down
"Run Straight Down" is a song from Warren Zevon's 1989 album Transverse City. In it he addresses massive pollution, wildlife extinction, fluorocarbons, and ozone holes. The song was released before CFCs were banned in 1996.Watch: How to Dance Like a Glacier
By Jeremy DeatonIn GLACIER: A Climate Change Ballet, American choreographer Diana Movius depicts the slow melt of the Arctic with stirring dance and vivid multimedia accompaniment.