"Singing to Save Our Earth" brings the power of many voices and big orchestral music to a prayer that is a call to action to fight manmade environmental damage. This project combines faith and the arts to help scientists and engineers fight climate change. The words sung are those of the world's most popular faith leader, Pope Francis, but they're not written in Catholic or even Christian language, but are for people of any faith, or even none, who simply seek truth and light.
This project begins as a concert of 170-adults plus children of many cultures singing a new Earth Day Oratorio by composer James Stepleton of Pope Francis' "A Prayer for Our Earth." This 9-part, 41-minute performance touches on the beauty of creation and the horror of manmade climate degradation, building to a powerful and hopeful coda designed to inspire action to save our common home.
The world premiere concert is scheduled for April 24, 2021, Earth Day Weekend, with Maestro Mark Shapiro conducting the nonprofit Cecilia Chorus of New York in world-famous Carnegie Hall. Other concerts are under discussion.
We are also creating a multi-media performance of the musical score to be sung by children and youth choirs and orchestra in Newark, New Jersey, a city that is rising from industrial decay and related environmental issues, to be filmed for a one-hour 2021 Earth Day Special for public broadcasting. With production assistance from WNET & NJTV, New York and New Jersey's public broadcasting stations, we are currently producing a demo/proof of concept reel for major donors and PBS consideration.
This performance of multicultural choirs, orchestra, and dancers plus stunning visuals of the natural world, will be turned into a film for national, worldwide, and online viewing. It's designed to cap a day of learning about the climate crisis for schoolchildren that can be filmed and shared with schools everywhere.
"Singing to Save Our Earth" aims for nothing less than helping forestall the consequences of human greed, inaction, and willful neglect that are destroying our world.
Oratorio by James Stepleton of Pope Francis' "A Prayer for Our Earth"
Co-Executive Producers Mike Kostel & Betsy Ashton