Anyone who has experienced a thunderstorm or a sunset understands that nature taps into the same primal emotions as music does. It is no coincidence that composers from Mozart to Mahler escaped their busy urban lives to compose in the surroundings of the countryside. The beauty, complexity and wonder of the natural world provided a well of inspiration and stimulation for them to write their greatest music. That’s why I believe that almost all music (not just Vivaldi’s Four Seasons) has deep links to nature.

 

This makes music the perfect tool for communicating about the most pressing issue of our time. It gives us the power to inspire strong emotions, bring people together and motivate them to act in a way newspaper articles and podcasts can’t. The solutions to climate change lie cultural change, and that is where we can make a genuine difference.

 

How to put this into practice? Collaborate. Using nature as a springboard for programming opens up a host of exciting venues, speakers and artists to work with to create the classical music events of the 21st century. We have teamed up with a range of charities—big and small, local and multinational—to use our concerts to promote their message, engaging and inspiring support from audiences they may never have reached. We have hosted scientists, authors and activists, creating tailor-made musical programmes that bring their topics to life. Ultimately, it’s about speaking to audiences’ hearts as well as their minds. Our venues have included the Eden Project’s giant greenhouses, the Houses of Parliament and Alpine mountainsides, allowing us to reach people who may otherwise not have set foot in a conventional concert hall. The scope for commissioning new music that speaks to modern audiences about their deepest loves and fears is also huge.

 

Concerts are also meeting places, forums for sharing ideas and bonding over what we have in common as human beings. This is a precious resource in an increasingly politicised, social-media-saturated world. The days of stuffy performances where audience and performer never interact are gone. Our concerts have proven to be catalysts for environmental projects, such as a new nature reserve in Austria we have set up with audience members there. The appetite for environmental action worldwide is ripe and music can prove the perfect way to trigger that into action.

 

So much of the climate crisis is related to a communication crisis: but it as much about reaching people’s emotions as it is about getting across the facts, and that is where music has a vital role to play. At OFE we hold no monopoly on this, and I am thrilled to see orchestras and musicians the world over starting to raise their voices for our shared home.