‘Climate Notes’: Where science meets symphony at UCLA

The inaugural performance of "Climate Notes" on April 27 at 4 p.m. in Schoenberg Hall is more than a concert; it's a vital intersection of music, science and advocacy, encouraging everyone to listen closely - and to act urgently.

The groundbreaking biennial collaboration between UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music and campus climate science students marks a new artistic initiative made possible through the generosity of Suzanne Weiss Morgen in memory of her father, the late meteorologist Henry "Hank" Weiss.

A group of student composers from UCLA's music program were charged with creating original pieces inspired by diverse aspects of climate science. The premiere of their works will be accompanied by a unique panel discussion featuring composers and climate researchers.

Ian Krouse, professor and co-chair of the division of composition and theory at the school of music, said that the project began with a simple but powerful idea: blending the rigorous data of climate science with the emotional immediacy of music.

"It mimics the professional world, where composers respond to real-world commissions," Krouse said. "This collaboration helps scientists and artists share insights in ways they rarely experience."

Connecting disciplines

Austin Ali, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in composition in the department of music, is an artist with a passion for space and planetary science. Katie Osborn, a fourth-year graduate student in environmental engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, is an environmental scientist with a passion for music. Osborn uses satellite imagery to assess changes and the environmental impacts of bar-built estuaries along the California coast - dynamic ecosystems where fresh water and seawater meet and are visible from space.

Together, they created "A Cosmic Perspective," a piece that evolved over multiple conversations about the data Osborn uses to track how bar-built estuaries are impacted by things like heavy rains and wildfires.

Their collaboration serves as an ideological estuary itself, blending Ali's musical interpretation with Osborn's scientific research.

"Music communicates through emotion; it's a shortcut right to the soul where we can actually motivate people to take action," Ali said. "In our piece, we're talking about the interconnectedness of a river and an ocean and the atmosphere. But there's also interconnectedness between all these incredible disciplines."

Osborn echoed this sentiment, highlighting the profound impact of merging quantitative data with qualitative human experiences.

"It's easy to get lost in the data," she noted. "Or, from an outside perspective, feel disconnected or unsure of how to interpret it. But, once you can connect it back to your own experiences, you can see how it all fits into your own life. It's not just connecting the sciences back to the people through these real-life experiences. It's also reconnecting scientists with their work and the deeper meaning."

For the piece, Ali developed techniques for brass instruments to mimic the sounds of ocean waves and imagine the sounds of data traveling from satellites to earthbound computers. Their collaboration culminated in a trip with the performers to the Malibu estuary, where they got up close with water and wildlife and experienced all the tactile sensations. This day in the sand and sea had a big impact on the musicians, Ali said, one that will impact the performance. The Good Time Brass quintet, made up of current and former UCLA students, will perform his work as a live score to a short film created by Osborn and Ali.

Inspiring urgency

Sara Graves, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in atmospheric and oceanic science who studies California's future hydrologic cycle, underscored the significance of the "Climate Notes" project. She collaborated with composer John Hollywood on a piece incorporating spoken word.

Graves called the dialogue the students had with the composers invigorating, offering scientists a rare expressive outlet.

"It's been such a difficult time to be a climate scientist," she said. "Traditional scientific frameworks rarely allow us to express the outrage or emotion we feel. This collaboration is a great opportunity to finally put it all out there."

All of this is precisely in keeping with the spirit that Weiss Morgen, a graduate of the school of music, was hoping would emerge through the "Climate Notes" grant.

Weiss Morgen's inspiration for the project was her father, Henry "Hank" Weiss, who served in the army during World War II. After earning high scores on meteorology in an aptitude test, he was sent to Greenland, where he trained and served in weather intelligence. At the end of the war, he attended UCLA - one of the few schools at the time with a degree program in meteorology. He graduated in the second class and worked as a meteorologist for a number of years. He later had a long career at different companies and government agencies working in the aerospace industry.

"He was a scientist, but he also had this whole other side; he loved music; he was very creative and would make art with pastels, ink and charcoal," Weiss Morgen said. "In a way, this is coming full circle. I would love to see this project expand and take advantage of the talent and creativity of UCLA students to help educate the public. A lot of people do not want to sit in a lecture hall, but we can bring issues and information to people by way of music and theater and the arts."

Composer and third-year graduate student Morgan Kelly Moss, whose work for "Climate Notes" engages with the sobering reality of climate tipping points, described her artistic process for the project as an emotional response to the harsh truths of climate science. Moss' piece, "Tipping Points," for string quartet and electronics, portrays accelerating feedback loops, symbolizing the domino effect of melting permafrost, the death of coral reefs and other critical climate issues at stake as soon as the 2030s if the Earth heats 1.5C (2.7F) above preindustrial temperatures.

"The music is meant to reflect how these tipping points feed into each other," Moss explained. "I hope listeners leave the performance deeply moved - and maybe even a little shaken."

Her fellow composer Ali sees "Climate Notes" as an opportunity to take these strong emotions and use them to create an ongoing call to action, not only for audiences but for continued interdisciplinary collaborations.

"This project is about perspective," Ali reflected.

The title of his piece is inspired by "the cosmic perspective," a phrase coined by famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, which is the idea of our planet as a single, interconnected entity, a perspective that began to emerge as technology and space travel advanced to the point that humans all over the world could see images of the Earth in its entirety.

"We're all part of the same story, scientists and artists alike," Ali said. "And it's time to recognize our shared responsibility."

Tags: music | climate change | climate | earth sciences | Earth Month