ClimateKeys is officially launching in London tomorrow (October 25) with a gala concert of piano music interspersed with speech, as well as post-concert drinks to continue the conversation.

The new independent movement was founded by London-based composer and pianist Lola Perrin and brings together music and climate change to facilitate audience discussion.

This is part of the artistic response to climate change and the artistic support of COP23, which will take place in Bonn, Germany, from the 6th to the 17th of November 2017. 

The first concert takes place at the St Mary Magdalene Church, in London’s Munster Square. Sir Jonathon Porritt and Hannah van den Brul are among the speakers.

At the heart

The movement aims to break the climate change silence in everyday spaces and foster a grassroots cultural movement in response to climate change.

With scores of international concert pianists collaborating with climate change experts to enable people to actually have a conversation about climate change, this is a unique initiative in the world of classical music. 

It is proof that classical musicians want to participate in raising public engagement on climate change issues, and that climate change experts have a desire for opportunities to talk to communities about climate change.

This is the positive exchange of information and ideas that we so desperately need when it comes to climate change.  In order to move forward with positive global change, we need to understand what it means to ourselves and to others.

There are currently 30 concerts in 9 countries taking place in October and November, with more being planned for 2018.  These concerts will create thousands of new climate change conversations all over the world, and will serve as a symbol of placing climate change issues at the heart of our everyday activities. This is what founder Lola Perrin believes is necessary for awareness and positive response to climate change.

Positive narratives

Each ClimateKeys concert consists of a pianist playing music related to climate change (30 minutes), a short speech on a topic related to climate change (15 minutes), and then an audience conversation about climate change (20 minutes) with some more music to finish (3 minutes). 

The music is selected by the pianist according to what they deem to be climate change music, or pieces that reflect their thoughts and feelings on climate change.

The guest speakers range from NASA scientists to ecological economists to poets, and each of these experts will talk about climate change from their unique point of view and in connection to their subject of expertise. 

Most importantly, the conversation is guided by the audience with the speaker merely facilitating. This is not a Q&A session, this is a chance for people to create new stories about climate change and discuss positive responses to it.

The format of ClimateKeys allows the audience more time to talk than the speaker in order to formulate these ideas and imaginings and have a chance to voice them. We need more positive narratives about climate change, and these concerts are one way of doing just that.

This Author

Julia Marques is ClimateKeys Guest Speaker in London on Nov 11th. If you would like to contact Lola directly then please email lola@climatekeys.com. For more information, please explore the website and have a read of the Newsletter. You can also get updates by following ClimateKeys on Facebook and @climatekeys on Twitter.