Leading & responding to the climate emergency in the creative sector
EMMA
JOHNSON MBE
MUSICIAN, COMPOSER & LECTURER
Emma Johnson MBE is one of the world’s foremost clarinettists. A bestselling recording artist, former BBC Young Musician of the Year, lecturer and composer, Emma’s latest work, ‘The Tree of Life’, is inspired by the global climate emergency.
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“ Music can be quite an abstract art, but you can tell some truth through its artifice. There’s no reason why we can’t use it to help promote awareness of issues, especially climate change, which I think should really be at the forefront of everybody’s mind.”
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he all-female Orchestra for Environment premiered
‘The Tree of Life’ at Lamberhurst
Music Festival in May 2023. Accompanied by birds singing outside the St Mary’s Church venue and performed just as the English countryside bursts into bloom, ‘The Tree
Emma’s outstanding of Life’s’ four movements
ended poignantly with the recorded call of now-extinct bird. “It really was a dream come true to be able to perform it,” says Emma Johnson. “I’m very grateful to the organisers and Marc Lodge. He was interested in focusing on women in music this year in the Festival, partly because as in many spheres it’s still not an equal playing field, particularly in composition. “Until very recently it’s been
taken for granted that women didn’t compose. You saw so few of us and our names barely appeared on programmes, which is crazy. It’s only in the last ten maybe five years that there has been more acceptance of women and an attempt to really put them forward.”
contributions to music have been recognised with multiple awards, including an MBE. She also became the first female alumna to have a portrait unveiled at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Emma wrote ‘The Tree of Life’ during the Covid pandemic lockdown period. With live public events cancelled, this was an opportunity for Emma to explore her ideas about the natural world and the global environmental crisis. “It felt very luxurious to have the time to express something in music and take a political stance,” says Emma.
“Music can be quite an abstract
art, but you can tell some truth through its artifice. There’s no reason why we can’t use it to help promote awareness of issues, especially climate change, which I think should really be at the forefront of everybody’s mind. I would love to see more leadership from government on all levels to help us find solutions. “I think the solution lies where more people band together and
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