Composing Earth

“Having seen and experienced the devastation of fire in my native California — burned homes and crops, and grim fatalities — and knowing the power of composers as cultural witnesses, the second half of my life will be dedicated to impelling societal acceptance of the difficult changes needed for earth's survival. Although I have a substantial career built on harmful air travel, I can commit to dramatically changing my lifestyle. And I can compose my stories of environmental carnage and hope with the accompanying requisite high-level performers and publicity. Yet, the message increases exponentially with the quantity and variety that my talented, diverse, and deserving alumni can provide.”

— Gabriela Lena Frank

An essential component of the Academy's Climate Commitment, Composing Earth is a uniquely robust commissioning program for Academy alumni who recognize that climate change — climate disruption — is a bona fide civilizational emergency.

Scientists have long toiled to convince humankind to live within the planet's ecological means, or face a full suite of environmental, social, and economic disasters. Yet, they have not been able to sufficiently move the needle towards general cultural acceptance. There are stories to be told that would connect to science in ways that impel response, and the planet is in desperate need of its charismatic storytellers.  

These storytellers are the artists. Protests songs since the beginning of civilization have galvanized entire political movements. Vibrant and fantastical murals capture a community's spirit for racial justice, as do novels by such authors as Toni Morrison and Eduardo Galeano. Artists who witness the events of their time can not only document them vibrantly through word, music, and paint, but do so in ways that invite empathy, discussion, and action. And artists can employ their hard-won skillsets and overactive imaginations to message a future that is just and green, again and again, to hasten cultural acceptance of the hard realities facing us all. 

To that end, Composing Earth is conceived. As part of the Academy’s Alumni Support Initiative, Composing Earth also provides selected Academy alumni composers with a lengthy, accessible, and idea-generating study period, complete with a study stipend, before composing commences. 

A full two-year program, members of each season's Composing Earth cohort spend the first year in a supportive monthly discussion group with fellow alum and mentor Iman Habibi and renowned scholar/communicator of climate science (and music lover) Dr. Rob Davies.  These meetings provide an opportunity to review articles, books, documentaries, and online resources regarding the climate crisis. Additionally, mentorship by Gabriela encourages each composer to embark on artistic research to develop stories that are personal and revelatory. In this way, through the marriage of scientific knowledge and artistic imagination, a composer can become climate-aware, beginning to inform themself and stirring their creative psyche.  

Going into the second year of Composing Earth, each composer receives a paid commission, commensurate with the size of the project, to create music inspired by their study. These commissions range from solo to chamber orchestral works, with and without electronics, with and without voices. Performers paired with composers provide readings of the works in progress before their eventual premieres. With a great range of genres and instrumentations, Composing Earth will achieve a broad dissemination of these necessary stories of protecting our earth, avoiding cultural and socio-economic niches that limit exposure.  

Ultimately, while Composing Earth commissions only one work from a composer each season, the goal of this program is to help the composer find many stories that they will tell for years after as they move through their careers.

Ivette Herryman Rodríguez

Mentor

Iman Habibi

New work for voice, handsaw, crochet needle, electronics by Rachel Epperly.

New work for 2 vocalists, harmonium, violin and cello by Seare Farhat.

New work for voice and strings by Christine Hedden, to be premiered by Lindsay Straw.

New work for strings by Aakash Mittal, to be premiered by the Fry Street Quartet.

New work by Shane Cook for mezzo-soprano and violin, to be premiered by Duo Cortona.

Two new works by Adeliia Faizullina for solo violin and solo cello.

Listen to the land by Gilbert Galindo for string quartet, premiered by the Dalí Quartet on November 7, 2023 at the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts in Beaverton, OR.

Before Day by Dawn Norfleet, for violin and cello.

New work by Aeryn Santillan for two electric guitars, drum set, electric bass, and vocals, to be premiered by Massa Nera in Winter 2023.

Two new works by Aida Shirazi, written in collaboration with librettist Wren Brian. They Need to Remember for mezzo-soprano and piano, digitally premiered by Kelly Guerra and Eric Sedgwick on September 6, 2023. Second new work for string quartet and voice, to be premiered by the Fry Street Quartet in 2024.

In the Trees, I Hear Your Name by Ben Shirley, for piano trio.

Symphony no. 1 by Nicky Sohn for the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra premiered April 12, 13, and 14 2024 at Maryland Hall, Annapolis and Strathmore, North Bethesda. Co-commissioned by GLFCAM and the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra.

New work by Rajna Swaminathan

Two new works by Akshaya Avril Tucker. Night Fire for mezzo-soprano and piano, digitally premiered by Kelly Guerra and Eric Sedgwick on December 12, 2023. Second new work for string quartet and voice, to be premiered by the Fry Street Quartet in 2024.

Acequia by Nicolas Benavides for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Symphony with conductor Edwin Outwater, premiered April 27, 2024 at Caroline C. Hume Concert Hall.

Shifting Fears by Samantha Boshnack for a thirteen-member ensemble featuring vocalist Johnaye Kendrick with strings, winds and rhythm section. To be recorded in 2024 as part of the song cycle - Uncomfortable Subjects. 

Shifting Fears conveys my desperate hope for a shared human experience, but acknowledging that we aren’t there yet. The pieces of Uncomfortable Subjects tackle the interconnected struggles and upheavals in my own life and in the world around me that are difficult but necessary to talk about.

Absurd Practices by Dustin Carlson for viola, cello and guitar, premiered by Melissa Reardon and Raman Ramakrishnan on March 6, 2023 at Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson, NY.

Defending Kalo by Michael-Thomas Foumai for violin and harp, premiered by Luci Lin and Charles Overton on November 4, 2022 at Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, Cambridge, Boston, MA.

Defending Kalo belongs to a category of work inspired by indigenous Hawaiian knowledge. The work continues my collaboration with Lucia and Charles by adding a companion work to my earlier violin and harp duo, Printing Kapa.

Offering of Water by Iman Habibi for violin and cello, premiered by Luci Lin and Leo Eguchi. Co-commissioned by Elation Pauls and GLFCAM with partial funding support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Inspired by a Zoroastrian prayer, Offering of Water is about 11 minutes in duration and in five movements, and is a reminder of our once sacred relationship with water.

Heat by Jessica Hunt for chamber orchestra, premiered by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra on February 22, 2022 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, CA.

Beyond its several aural metaphors for heat--in particular the sensations and sounds of extreme temperature exposure--it is this emotional journey of climate mourning that Heat seeks to invoke. (To continue reading the program note, click here).

Rockefeller’s Ghosts by Erika Oba for bassoon and electronics.

John D. Rockefeller was the world’s first Big Oil baron, and his legacy continues to shape and inform our current petroleum dependent society. This piece is a meditation on the hold that extractive economies and fossil fuels have upon our collective reality, and a prayer that we may imagine different and more vibrant futures for ourselves.

Three Encounters by Timothy Peterson for countertenor and piano, premiered April 28, 2024 by Jordan Jones and Timothy Peterson at the University of Southern California. Text by Shaun Tan.

Three Encounters is a song cycle for countertenor and piano that explores the perils, promises, and complexity of our relationship with nonhuman animals in urbanized environments. Each song sets to music a short story drawn from author-illustrator Shaun Tan’s collection Tales from the Inner City (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2018).

New work by Matthew Evan Taylor.

Bagatelle for Ocean by Jungyoon Wie for solo percussion, premiered by Chris Froh in August 2022.

Bagatelle for Ocean is an invitation to take a pause and listen beneath the surface. There’s too much information available to us, and we forget to be curious, patient, and empathetic. This work for solo vibraphone evokes an experience or a memory you may have had by creating a space that is fluid, resonant, and warm.