Music in Mahler's footsteps
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Each summer, Orchestra for the Earth travels by land to the Alpine landscapes where Gustav Mahler found inspiration and composed many of his greatest works.
It was on the first of these journeys, in 2017, that we met Marina Mahler, the composer's granddaughter, in Steinbach am Attersee, where Mahler wrote his Second and Third Symphonies. What we discovered was a shared passion: for Mahler's music, for inspiring young people, and for protecting the natural world that meant so much to him. When the orchestra was formally founded the following year, Marina became our Founding Patron, and her friendship and vision have accompanied us ever since.
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Since 2017, OE has performed in the three places where Mahler built composing huts, as well as other lakes, towns and mountain communities connected with his life and with the wider musical world of the Alps. Concerts in chapels, art galleries, halls and open-air settings sit alongside workshops with local children, conservation work and long-standing community partnerships.
The result is more than a concert tour. It is a living encounter between music and place: a chance to hear Mahler amid the forests, water and mountain air that formed the heart of his creative world, and to play our own part in keeping his spirit alive, protecting the landscape he loved, and passing both on to another generation.
Read John Warner’s reflections on the Alpine Tours.
Watch
A glimpse of our 2021 tour, featuring Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony in a visceral arrangement for septet.
Gustav Mahler's Field of Flowers
The Alpine Tours have grown into a lasting partnership with the landscapes that shaped Mahler’s music.
After hearing OE perform in Steinbach am Attersee, local landowners were moved to donate two meadows near Mahler's composing hut for conservation in his name. Working with Naturpark Attersee–Traunsee, OE helped establish Gustav Mahler’s Field of Flowers, which opened to the public in 2019.
The meadow is home to native Alpine species including orchids, gentians and mountain clover. Visitors can explore the landscape and learn more about the delicate ecosystems it sustains. It is both a living tribute to Mahler’s love of nature and a practical contribution to protecting the world that inspired him.
Music for the next generation
Each year, OE musicians and local educators work with children in the towns along the tour. Workshops begin by listening outdoors—to birds, water, wind and the changing sounds of the landscape—before children respond through singing, movement, improvisation and their own musical ideas.
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These ideas are shaped into a short performance for families and the local community, often followed by the planting of a tree or another practical activity connected with the local landscape. The project helps children discover that music begins with listening, and that the natural world can be both a source of creativity and something worth caring for.​​
Touring sustainably
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The journey is part of every Alpine Tour. OE travels to, from and around the Alps and other parts of Europe by land, using trains and coaches rather than flying. It takes more planning and is not always the cheapest option, but it dramatically reduces the tour’s carbon emissions while keeping us connected to the landscapes and communities through which we travel.​
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We usually perform with an ensemble of between seven and twenty-five musicians. These forces suit the intimacy of the repertoire and allow us to reach smaller regional venues that could not accommodate a full symphony orchestra. When larger forces are needed, we seek opportunities to work with local musicians and orchestras, creating artistic exchange while limiting unnecessary international travel.
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We also use local technicians, equipment and production support wherever possible. Routes are planned to avoid unnecessary journeys, and we aim to spend meaningful time in each place rather than passing through for a single performance. Concerts are often combined with workshops, conservation activity and community events, allowing one visit to support several strands of work.
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Travelling in this way changes more than the tour’s environmental impact. Musicians share the journey, experience the gradual movement between places and have time to build relationships with one another and with local partners. The result is a form of touring in which the route, the setting and the music become part of the same story.
