Orchestra for the Earth creates exceptional performances that bring people closer to music, to one another and to the natural world.
How OE began
Orchestra for the Earth grew out of a journey. In 2017, a group of young professional musicians travelled by land to the Austrian Alps to perform Mahler in the places where he composed: beside the lakes, meadows and mountains that shaped his music. What began as a single tour became an orchestra, founded in 2018, and the journey became an annual tradition.
Those first concerts left something behind. In Steinbach am Attersee, local landowners who heard the orchestra play were moved to donate a meadow near Mahler's composing hut, creating the Gustav Mahler Field of Flowers, a nature reserve that opened in 2019 and is supported by our concerts to this day. In 2025, that spirit of connection between music and the living world was recognised with the Mahler Foundation's inaugural Mahler Award, presented to our Founder, John Warner, at Het Concertgebouw's Mahler Festival in Amsterdam.
Today OE performs across the UK and Europe—in concert halls, gardens, schools and landscapes—always with the same conviction: that music can change how people listen to the world.
What began as a journey has become a way of working. Everything we do grows from three simple ideas.
Listen
Music begins with attention. In our concerts and workshops, audiences encounter familiar masterpieces, rarely heard works and new music in ways that sharpen the senses and open the imagination.
For children, this might begin with a listening walk through a park. For an audience, it might mean hearing Mahler beside the lake where he composed, or experiencing a candlelit piece of music theatre during Earth Hour.
Earth Hour
OE’s candlelit Earth Hour concerts invite audiences to listen differently, experiencing music without distraction and reflecting on our relationship with the natural world.
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Pictured: OE performing Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale for Earth Hour 2026, narrated by Tony Hawks and featuring dancer Tabitha O'Sullivan.
Connect
Music can reveal relationships that facts alone cannot: between sound and landscape, memory and place, human creativity and the living world.
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We work with artists, scientists, conservationists, communities and cultural organisations to create experiences in which those connections can be heard and felt.
The Wild Swans at the Eden Project
Through family performances and workshops, OE brings children closer to music, creativity and the living world. Created for a residency at the Eden Project and performed inside its Mediterranean Biome, The Wild Swans combines storytelling, live music and imagination to inspire curiosity about nature.
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Pictured: OE horn player Helen Kuby engaging with a young participant during a workshop at the Eden project
Act
Lasting change begins when people care. Our work invites audiences to carry something beyond the performance: greater curiosity, a stronger sense of connection and the confidence that their choices matter.
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We also put our values into practice through low-carbon touring, environmental partnerships, education and direct support for conservation.
Music and conservation in Austria
During our Alpine Tours, OE combines concerts with education and conservation. After workshops with local children in Austria, we take part in conservation activities, such as tree-planting, as a lasting symbol of our connection with the landscapes that inspire our music.
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Pictured: Children from the local primary school in Steinbach am Attersee, close to Mahler's composing hut, plant a tree at the end of a music and nature workshop with OE.
Our partners
We collaborate with cultural, environmental and community organisations in the UK and across the world.
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