Candlelit concert for Earth Hour
St Giles Church, Camberwell, SE5 8RB
Saturday 22 March
8.30–9.30pm
MAHLER: Rückert-Lieder
MAHLER: Adagietto from Symphony No. 5
R. STRAUSS: An Alpine Symphony (finale)
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Conductor: John Warner
Mezzo-soprano: Ellen Pearson
OFE Chamber Ensemble
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Experience an Earth Hour like no other with a spellbinding candlelit concert. We are joining WWF's global 'lights-out' under the magnificent backlit East Window of St Giles Church, designed by South London hero and pioneering environmental campaigner, John Ruskin. Share his love of nature and the Alps through a gorgeous programme of music by Mahler and Richard Strauss, who also took inspiration from the mountains, interwoven with insights from Ruskin's works given by Andrew Hill, Financial Times journalist and author of 'Ruskinland: How John Ruskin Shapes Our World'.
With thanks to our sponsors, The Camberwell Society and The Herne Hill Society.
Tickets for trees
For every ticket sold to an OFE concert, we plant a tree with the Eden: People + Planet. This is not about offsetting our emissions or environmental footprint. It's simply about adding to the good our performances achieve.
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Eden+ collaborates directly with local communities to recreate healthy forest systems in countries where deforestation has caused extensive damage to natural ecosystems and exacerbated extreme poverty among forest-dependent human communities. These new forest systems purify water sources, control flooding and erosion, replenish soil with nutrients needed for farming, and restore wildlife habitats.
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Past Highlights
REGENT'S PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL
Every summer OFE performs open-air in the stunning setting of the Regent's Park Music Festival, working with the Royal Parks on a series of concerts highlighting the importance of urban green spaces for wildlife, as well as the health and wellbeing of city-dwellers. The Patron of the Festival is Sir Karl Jenkins.
EARTH HOUR
OFE gives an annual candlelit charity concert with WWF to mark Earth Hour, a global 'lights-out' event for climate awareness. The concert combines music inspired by nature with spoken word delivered by a leader from the environmental movement, making for a uniquely powerful, accessible and memorable way to experience Earth Hour.
ROYAL OPERA HOUSE
Working with the Opera Story, OFE presented 'Dewi in the Deep' at the Royal Opera House in 2024. This magical children's opera follows young Dewi and her pet tortoise Tortellini on an adventure about nature and climate change with a brilliant score by Joaquim Badia and Lucie Treacher. Check out the audiobook version!
KEELE ARTS FESTIVAL
The orchestra has performed a number of times at the Keele Arts Festival, one of the highlight's being a performance under Luke Jerram's mesmerising 'Gaia' artwork. The concert included a panel with leading scientists, covering music, climate, the universe and the future of the planet we all call home.
TREES OF MUSIC
For a unique collaboration between OFE and the London Mozart Players, the two orchestras recorded a new piece by Misha Mullov-Abbado to raise funds for Trees of Music. This reforestation project has a special musical focus: developing sustainable forestry for the Pernambuco tree, favoured for centuries for making bows for string instruments.
COP 26
When the UK hosted the COP26 international climate summit in 2021, OFE was invited to give a special concert to mark the start of summit. As a pioneer of low-carbon touring, especially by train, OFE was perfectly placed to advocate for this, performing for the politicians, diplomats and other delegates who had chosen to travel to the UK by land.
CHANGE FESTIVAL
In 2021, OFE featured at Warwick’s CHANGE Festival, which uses the arts to inspire action on climate and the environment. The event was aimed at young children, interweaving music with a specially commissioned film narrated by Indonesian artist and author Innosanto Nagara, based on his children’s book ‘Oh, the things we’re for!’
"SINGER FOR THE EARTH"
In 2021, OFE was the subject of a documentary by Dutch directer Frank Scheffer. Filmed during their Alpine Tour, the film explores how Mahler's music, not least in the great song-symphony The Song of the Earth, is taking on an urgent new meaning in the context of the current climate and environmental crises.
A THEME FOR TERRA CARTA
OFE was honoured to be invited by HRH The Prince of Wales to record a theme for his Terra Carta, the charter at the heart of his Sustainable Markets Initiative. The theme, composed by Sarah Class, was played to His Royal Highness at the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, November 2021.
MILTON KEYNES INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
In 2021, OFE was hosted at the Milton Keynes International Festival for their first live performances since the COVID-19 pandemic, performing on a spectacular open-air stage. The concert was to raise funds and awareness for the campaign Trees of Music.
Waterloo Festival
For their first concert with live audience since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, OFE was hosted by the Waterloo Festival for an evening exploring Bach and his relationship with the natural world. Award-winning author Horatio Clare read extracts from his book on Bach, illustrated by musical performances by a group of OFE musicians playing on period instruments.
EARTH OVERSHOOT DAY
OFE partnered with renewable energy firm Good Energy to make a film to mark Earth Overshoot Day, the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. Filmed on-site at Delabole Wind Farm, the film attracted wide media attention, including Sky News and Classic FM.
COVID: VIRTUAL CONCERTS
While in lockdown, OFE created several ground-breaking online performances, including concerts for Earth Hour, the Concertgebouw's Mahler Festival and performances of Mahler's monumental Second and Eighth symphonies. These videos raised funds for environmental charities and attracting tens of thousands of views around the world.
EDEN PROJECT ARTS WEEKEND
In 2019, the Eden Project invited OFE to curate and perform a weekend of music and activities for young families in the magical setting of their Mediterranean Biome. The weekend included a specially composed piece for narrator and orchestra, and DIY musical instrument-making workshops for the children.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ENERGY SUMMIT
OFE was invited to headline the opening ceremony for the 2019 International Student Energy Summit at the Royal Geographical Society. The summit brought together hundreds of students from around the world, working with leading experts from the Grantham Institute on the future of renewable energy.
UK HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
One of OFE's first concerts was at the UK Houses of Parliament, hosted by the APPG Polar Regions in front of an audience of MPs, Lords, senior scientists, diplomats and business leaders. Music was interwoven with readings from the final diary of Robert Falcon Scott and a talk by Prof. Martin Siegert about climate change on the Antarctic continent.
