Galway Bay is Calling in climate crisis driven concert

Music for Galway’s Cellissimo Festival and Galway Atlantaquaria are joining together on a new musical extravaganza, Galway Bay is Calling which has been awarded funding to highlight the climate emergency.

As record breaking temperatures grip the Earth and the alarming all-world impacts of climate change are thrown into sharp focus, Galway Bay is Calling is a timely new local initiative supported by the Creative Ireland Climate Action Spark Fund. 

The collaboration aspires to facilitating better understanding of human impacts on the oceans and developing engagement tools to positively influence behaviours and attitudes to climate change. 

The Galway-based creative project will pose individual and collective responses to the climate emergency through music and performance. 

Galway Bay is Calling aims to ignite immediate and sustainable action in addressing the climate emergency at community level. 

Music for Galway, the classical music resource organisation, and Galway Atlantaquaria, Ireland’s largest native species aquarium, have secured investment through the Creative Ireland Climate Action Spark Fund to develop this initiative. 

This ambitious project will bring together marine conservationists, behavioural scientists and scores of professional and community musicians, singers, and performers from across Galway city and county in a unique creative collaboration.

On the announcement of the project funding, Music for Galway CEO Anna Lardi said “Galway Bay is Calling fits right into a central theme of Cellissimo, our international cello festival which takes place for the second time across Galway city and county from May 18 – 25 next year.”

“As well as producing an exciting, accessible international music festival, we are approaching Cellissimo as a vehicle to creatively highlight the impacts of climate change, with a particular focus on the plight of climate migrants.” 

Galway Bay is Calling will feature an exciting interactive series of ocean literacy workshops where participants will explore Galway’s coastline and marine life through beach combing and rock pooling, attending workshops, and contributing to discussion and debate on climate change. 

The group will work with scientists and researchers at Atlantic Technological University, Galway City to understand people’s behaviours and the key approaches that can influence attitude and ignite community transformation.

Dr Maria Vittoria Marra, Education and Public Engagement Officer at Galway Atlantaquaria said: “We are delighted to have this opportunity to work with Music for Galway and ATU on this social art project which aims at harnessing the power of music and performance to increase the ocean literacy of local musicians”.

“Not only with a view to strengthen their awareness of our impacts upon the ocean and its impact upon us, but also to provide them with tools and approaches to transform ocean knowledge into behaviour and action that promote ocean sustainability.”

The Galway Bay is Calling collective will then collaborate in groups with renowned Florence-based Irish cello player, singer, and composer Naomi Berrill, to articulate their experiences of the workshop and research work, exploring ideas for community responses. 

Naomi will take these inputs and write a new composition for the collective, who will rehearse their parts independently before coming together in Galway a week before Music for Galway’s Cellissimo Festival in May 2024 to rehearse collectively.

The world premiere of Galway Bay is Calling, a new composition for solo cello and a mixed bag orchestra, will be presented at the opening day of Cellissimo in Galway on Saturday May 18, 2024.