This week I had the pleasure of joining Boston Lyric Opera at the Boston Public Library on their Nature’s Voice performance with pianist Brendon Shapiro, baritone Zizhao Wang and speaker Brett Hodgdon. Nature has inspired generations of composers to write songs celebrating its wonder, lamenting its decline, and playfully imitating its creatures great and small. In honor of Earth Day, Boston Lyric Opera musicians present a lively concert and conversation exploring how composers and performers translate their experiences of nature into song. From the serene beauty of flowers and the wondrous behavior of insects, to tragic natural disasters like fires and floods, this program uses the power of music to engage our complex emotions about the Earth, inspiring us to action through a lens of beauty and possibility.
The next morning, Brendon Shapiro and I performed a selection of the same repertoire at the Stone Living Lab’s Nature-Based Coastal Resilience in Urban Settings 2025 Conference at UMass Boston. It was very cool to share a space with so many dedicated innovators fighting to protect and fortify our environment.
