Listening to the future: “The [uncertain] Four Seasons” explores the impact of climate change

Cover image: The orchestra and poetry contributors take a bow. Credit: D’Ann Lesch

By Mia Timlin

On Saturday, Sept. 30, The O’Shaughnessy hosted the global orchestra experience that strives to provide a tangible example of the future effects of global warming by re-composing Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” The performance was conducted by project leader Emily Isaacson and featured GRAMMY-nominated violinist Jesse Irons, who was accompanied by the Minnesota Opera Orchestra. Just as each of Vivaldi’s four concertos was accompanied by sonnets that allowed audiences to understand exactly what the music was meant to communicate, St. Catherine students Ivana Makor, Naomi Stewart, Sofia Vanderlan and Zuha Zubair wrote and performed poetry to go along with the new, altered “Four Seasons.”

Ivana Makor reads poetry while the orchestra plays. Credit: D’Ann Lesch

The changes made to the “Four Seasons” score are the work of data scientists, composers, developers, musicians and ultimately AI. To set out the seasons of the past next to the seasons coming should climate change continue on its current course, “The [uncertain] Four Seasons” uses The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) to look at predictions for soil moisture content, precipitation sum, sea surface temperature and air temperature as they are impacted by CO2 emissions. Along with number predictions on people made vulnerable from rising sea levels and species collapse, Vivaldi’s music is paired with an algorithm that changes and distorts it based on the data from CMIP5. 

There is also more than one possible result, with geospatial mapping variations allowing for a different sound depending on what region the data being used is coming from. For some listeners, the depiction of the birds in the spring could sound unrestful or panicked, while for others the birds may be reduced just to silence. Some regions may hear a differing intensity of Vivaldi’s winter storms or rainfalls. In others rivers have dried up or quit running — it all depends on what the data predicts. These region-based changes mean that those present in the O’Shag last Saturday weren’t just getting an idea of what climate change means for the world as a whole, but for their own home. This, coupled with the locality of the orchestra musicians and poets, made the experience one that was totally unique to Minnesota.

The Metro Food Justice Network talks with audience members in the lobby. Credit: D’Ann Lesch

Ivana Makor ‘26 (Nursing), one of the students who provided original poetry for the event, says she was excited to be writing about autumn, her favorite season. “Getting to describe the fun events and changing scenery that the season brings was my favorite part of the experience,” she says. 

It is the lightness of parts of the poetry like Makor’s imagery of fall and the warmth of Vivaldi’s original composition layered in between the new “worst-case scenario” renditions that are meant to make the performance so disturbing. This is the goal, to let the starkness of the two comparisons startle you into concern, and hopefully, action. 

Action is, overall, the main goal of the performance. The project’s website states that the aim is to “get more countries to sign the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature,” which works toward reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and promoting sustainable development. The initiative is recognized by heads of state from 96 different countries and frequently releases information on the race to fight climate change.

Makor says that the road to ending climate change requires unification — which is exactly what “The [uncertain] Four Seasons” project is attempting to do by traveling around the world and showing people exactly how scary the future could sound. The music may be beautiful, but the underlying tone is very much not, and impossible to ignore. 

“Art is one means of expressing oneself, whether it is singing, writing, dancing, or paintings,” says Makor, commenting on why the medium of art is so powerful when it comes to spreading messages with the magnitude and urgency of something like climate change. “They all present a powerful message to society by promoting a cause or message. I believe that the role of art when advocating for change can unify a group of people who share artistic interests.”