Tucson orchestra takes on climate change in first concert of the year

OK, so he probably wasn’t thinking so much about Mother Nature and climate control and humanity’s impact on Earth’s very survival when he wrote “The Four Seasons” nearly 300 years ago.

But this weekend, True Concord Voices & Orchestra is connecting those dots with a new work the professional ensemble commissioned that tackles climate change head on.

True Concord, in its first concert of 2022 after postponing for a year its 2022 Tucson Desert Song Festival events in January, is performing the world premiere of Jake Runestad’s Earth Symphony (“Choral”) that it commissioned through the Dorothy Dyer Vanek Fund for Excellence. Vanek, a longtime benefactor for the choir who died in 2020, established the fund with a $500,000 donation in 2017 to cover the cost of commissioning new works and recordings.

In addition to commissioning Runestad, True Concord also brought in poet Todd Boss, who has worked with Runestad, to write texts that trace the origins and dangers of climate change.

“What’s unique about the texts is that Todd wrote it from the perspective of Mother Earth,” said True Concord Music Director Eric Holtan. “This is Mother Earth talking and she is talking to us.”