Advocacy through artistry

In 2021, soprano Renée Fleming—one of those rare artists who needs absolutely no introduction—released the album Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene. Featuring both Romantic era works and new compositions by Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw and Kevin Puts, Voice of Nature would go on to win Fleming her fifth Grammy Award in 2023.

And in January of 2025, Fleming will bring a concert inspired by this album to Macky Auditorium. Fleming, who has frequently lent her voice to causes in which she believes, ventures further into the realm of advocacy through artistry with this album and ensuing concert project. Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene focuses on the environment and climate change. (The Anthropocene is a name proposed by scientists for our current geological epoch, one whose beginning is marked by the first instances of significant human impact on the planet.)  

“The music on the album begins in a time almost two centuries ago when people had a profound connection to the beauty of nature,” said Fleming of Voice of Nature. “Now we have reached a moment when we see all too clearly the effects of our own activity and the fragility of our environment.”

This is an eclectic concert, featuring music by composers from Nico Muhly and Kevin Puts to George Frideric Handel and Giacomo Puccini—even Richard Rodgers and Björk! The concert will also feature a film specially created for this project by the National Geographic Society which further highlights the beauty and fragility of our planet, its climate and the creatures we share it with.

While there is certainly a tone of somberness in the serious message that underlies this concert, the music and film also serve to deliver a substantial dose of hope. The words of American poet Dorianne Laux’s Evening—set to music by Kevin Puts—illustrate well this juxtaposition of apprehension and hope: “We know the land / is disappearing beneath / the sea, islands swallowed / like prehistoric fish. / We know we are doomed, / done for, damned, and still / the light reaches us, falls / on our shoulders even now, / even here where the moon is / hidden from us, even though / the stars are so far away.”

Renée Fleming performs on the Artist Series at Macky Auditorium, on Jan. 31, 2025.