The (Uncertain) Four Seasons
COP26 Climate Conference
Glasgow, Scotland
November 2021
The Event
The (Uncertain) Four Seasons, performed by 14 orchestras from 6 continents, half of them youth orchestras, kicked off the Youth and Public Empowerment Day at the Glasgow conference. One thousand musicians performed, representing the voices of young people in the ongoing movement for climate action, and putting further pressure on world leaders to sign the Leaders' Pledge for Nature, committing to halt biodiversity loss by 2030. The orchestras, united in The Uncertain Four Seasons initiative, have performed a highly distorted sound of the Earth in 2050 due to climate change, a sound-shaped prediction of nature if world leaders and humanity as a whole do not act in time. Vivaldi's work, a reflection of unspoilt nature, has been modified in the spirit of the consequences of extreme climate change. AKQA and Jung von Matt, in collaboration with composer Hugh Crosthwaite and Monash University's Climate Change Communication Research Centre, have used climate data and artificial intelligence to re-imagine Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The (Uncertain) Four Seasons is the result of a music design system that combines music theory with computer modelling and can algorithmically generate countless local versions of Vivaldi's original composition. The algorithm modifies the musical score, taking into account predicted changes in rainfall, biodiversity, sea level rise and extreme weather events as listed in the IPCC/Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. All links with the orchestras were - appropriately for the time - made online. The reception was excellent, with 3.2 million people from over 100 countries visiting the website with our videos in one week. The following orchestras took part alongside young performers from Slovenia (in brackets are the places whose state of nature they set to music): Sydney Symphony Orchestra (Sydney, Australia), Kammerensemble Konsonanz Bremen (Bremen, Germany), Netherlands Radio Philharmonic (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Kenya National Youth Orchestra (Nairobi, Kenya), The [Uncertain] Four Seasons Orchestra (Seoul, South Korea), Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra (Saskatoon, Canada), Cape Town Philharmonic (Cape Town, South Africa), New Orchestra of Costa Rica (São José, Costa Rica), University of São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (São Paulo, Brazil), European Union Youth Orchestra (Venice, Italy), NDR Elphilharmonie Academy Orchestra (Malé, Maldives), Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho (Caracas, Venezuela) and National Network of Youth Orchestras and Choirs of Panama (Panama City, Panama).
Programme
14 orchestras from all over the world, including the Slovenian Youth Orchestra, took part in the Climate Conference, performing Vivaldi's The (Uncertain) Four Seasons, a variation of The Marshall Islands. We called on world leaders to take more decisive action.
A. Vivaldi / AKQA / H. Crosthwaite: The (Uncertain) Four Seasons
Performing Artists
The Slovenian Youth Orchestra
Violin: Maja Horvat
Cembalo: Tomaž Sevšek
Conductor: Živa Ploj Peršuh
Sound Engineer: Saško Gerkšič, Sound Design: Danilo Ženko, Lighting Designer: Jure Rubelj, Technical Manager: Matej Bobič, Stage Manager Marko Španić, Camera: Ludvik Rogan, Aljaž Žavran, Maja Modrinjak, Matej Marinček, Pia Klančar, Tea Grahek, Nejc Ketiš
Video production Studio Wolf, Directed by Marko Wolf
Produced by European Career Center for Artists - Triple Bridge, Co-produced by Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Producer:Tomo Peršuh
Venue: Cathedral Hall / Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture
Made with the kind help of HIDROTEHNIK Vodnogospodarsko podjetje d.o.o.
Special thanks to:
Mr Zoran Janković, Mayor of the Municipality of Ljubljana
G. Jure Longyka
Mr Simon Kardum
Municipality of Ljubljana
"The whole SMO collaboration with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and representatives from the global agencies Jung von Matt and AKQA was extremely exciting - to be part of something so big, to be actively involved in the whole process, to feel the power of the global, to reflect on our role and voice to showcase one of the world's most vulnerable locations, the Marshall Islands. We were all totally committed - both production-wise and, of course, execution-wise. The concerts of all the participating orchestras were recorded, ours was recorded in August at Kino Šiška Cathedral, and then broadcast at the conference in Glasgow. Soon we want to present live what the future of our Slovenian environment sounds like."
"We ran two projects with young musicians over the summer to call for better stewardship of the planet. Samo1planet is this year's project with Catalena, which took place in August at the Ljubljana Festival. The international project (Uncertainty) Four Seasons was prepared for COP26 and presented at the Glasgow conference. It is an appeal to world leaders to sign the Nature Pledge and a call to young people to become active citizens. We have also launched an interactive website where visitors can use our videos to hear about changes in the environment and compare how the planet is being affected in different locations," she said. Živa Ploj Peršuh.
"At the very beginning of the rehearsals, a glance at the score revealed something completely different from Vivaldi's original score. But as the rehearsals went on and the whole picture emerged, I caught a few moments that had a hopeful quality. In reality it was a few bars, a few seconds. I was attentive then and I was waiting impatiently for the next moment. When it happened, I came alive. Those moments in which I felt that there was still some hope were very precious. Most things sound like a caricature of what Vivaldi wrote, made up, distorted, I would say really ugly, if I may put it crudely. The intensity of the energy going on during the silence in the piece was almost even greater than during the playing. The newly written completely silent Autumn on the Marshall Islands is almost the most intense I have ever experienced. In fact, we decided that the conductor would take the original score and conduct in silence what Vivaldi had written. And what adds to that dark morbid and sad note is that I saw Zhiva's smiling face when she conducted the original Autumn, but it just doesn't sound now because it's gone, or it won't be in the Marshall Islands in 2050 if we don't commit to it. That was really emotionally very draining and I think it affected everybody, certainly it affected me." Ariel Vei Atanasovski, cellist
The project was carried out together with
