Can music be a climate storyteller?

What happens when we listen to music?

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Music has the power to evoke wonder and awe in us, and when we listen together it can emotionally connect us, according to neuroscientists.

a neuroscientist at McGill University, and author of This is Your Brain on Music, has researched what happens and says music listening triggers dopamine in the brain, calming us and lowering stress hormones.

The power of music is something I’m exploring in my climate storytelling. I’m making a radio documentary series with, Ireland about how sound and music can connect us, and awaken us, to the climate and biodiversity crises. It’s called and goes out on RTÉ lyric fm next Spring.

Through it we’ve been talking to contemporary composers in Ireland about how they are responding to what is happening around us and how the realities of climate impact, through our shared human experience, is flowing into their work. We’ve met amazing artists who, like all of us, are grappling with how to respond to the challenge, but who feel the imperative to let their work, their sounds, their music, be a witness to what is happening and to engage with it.