We know that the climate crisis threatens all life on Earth with dislocation and destruction. How can an individual or a community cope with such knowledge? How can we summon the will to constructive action at this late date? My second violin concerto, composed for Elissa Cassini, explores climate grief and despair, but also reason for hope and a call to climate action.

The concerto is rooted in climate science, thanks to the participation of ClimateMusic Project, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting people to climate science and action through the emotional power of music. CMP connected Elissa and me with climate scientists who helped us understand the cascades of phenomena that lead to planetary warming and its consequences, as well as cascades of technological and behavioral change that push back against the current. The image of cascades appealed to my musical imagination, and the related ideas of vicious circles and virtuous circles came to inspire the form of the work.

Learning about climate grief convinced me that human psychology is key to our survival: the resilience to face the unimaginable. In this concerto, the soloist is a protagonist witnessing and participating in the vicious circles of climate change; processing existential fear; and renewing her spirit and partaking in the virtuous circles that may yet stave off the worst. In a sense, the entire drama unfolds in the mind and heart of the protagonist.

I dedicate the concerto, in hope, to humanity’s best qualities, our ingenuity and compassion for each other and for our one planet home.

Released January 25th 2025.