Earth Protectors
Pianist Francesca Khalifa and composer Brian Field presented Earth Protectors on May 27th, 2023 at the Greenwich House Music School Recital Hall in Manhattan, NY. The event aimed at bringing the artistic and scientific community together with the public to reflect on the danger human and non-human life is running as a consequence of global warming.
Program of the event
One Ocean (12 min. circa)
a film by Anne de Carbuccia
Three Passions for Our Tortured Planet (12 min. circa)
a suite by composer Brian Field
...fire...
...glaciers...
...winds...
Francesca Khalifa, piano
Intermission (10 min. circa)
Panel discussion: Global Warming and Climate Awareness (30 min. circa)
Moderator: George Grella
Panelists: Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel (Union of Concerned Scientists), Dr. Andrew Kruczkiewicz (Columbia's Earth Institute), Brian Field, Francesca Khalifa
ABOUT THE ARTISTS AND THE SCIENTISTS
Anne de Carbuccia is an artist and filmmaker from Corsica, France.She has traveled to the world’s most remote locations to artistically document endangered environments, species and cultures. The focus of her work is to move past the human-centered era of today.
She has established the One Planet One Future Foundation in the US and in Italy. Its mission is to raise awareness on climate breakdown and the dangers of the Anthropocene and to inspire individual and collective action through art, films and exhibitions. Through the Foundation’s educational program Anne speaks at universities and institutions around the world. She has also been a featured speaker at the United Nations World Oceans Day conference and participates in mentorship programs for several institutions such as the Guggenheim and IOC-UNESCO, which appointed her role model for the Ocean Decade and member of the Group of Experts on Ocean Literacy.
Brian Field’s music is an eclectic fusion of lyricism and driving rhythm that brings together elements of
post-romanticism, minimalism and jazz that Gramophone notes “has a winning melodic flow and
harmonic translucency,” and Fanfare comments “stretches tonality to and beyond its limits, but always in
a soaring, lyrical manner.”
He has received a host of awards, including a McKnight Foundation Fellowship, the Benenti Foundation
recording prize; First Prize, Briar Cliff Choral Music Competition; and First Prize, Victor Herbert ASCAP
Young Composers’ Contest among dozens of others.
Mr. Field began his musical endeavors at age eight with the study of piano, and began his first serious
compositional efforts at sixteen, earning his undergraduate degree in music and English literature from
Connecticut College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. At Connecticut, he
studied composition with Noel Zahler, piano with the Polish pedagogue Zosia Jacynowicz, organ with
John Anthony, and harpsichord/figured-bass realization with Linda Skernick.
Devoting himself to composition, Mr. Field continued his musical studies at the Juilliard School in New
York City where he was awarded his Master of Music degree. At Juilliard he was a student of Milton
Babbitt. From Juilliard, Mr. Field attended Columbia University, earning his Doctorate. At Columbia, he
was a President’s Fellow and studied composition with George Edwards and Mario Davidovsky.
Mr. Field’s compositions include music for television and stage; solo acoustic, chamber, ballet, choral,
vocal, electroacoustic and orchestral works. His compositions have been performed extensively
throughout the United States and internationally.
passionsforourtorturedplanet.org
George Grella is a writer, editor, and musician. He writes regularly for the Financial Times, The Wire, the New York Classical Review, the Red Hook Star-Revue, Bandcamp, the New York City Jazz Record, and other publications. He is a contributor to the Grove Dictionary of American Music and the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, and is the author of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew in the Bloomsbury 33-1/3 series. Since 2013, he has been the music editor of The Brooklyn Rail.
While a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City, she witnessed declining sea ice
aboard an icebreaker in the Arctic. This harbinger of the future that most living in lower latitudes had not
seen, including herself until that expedition, created a sense of a new high priority. She became a
research scientist and University faculty member. Ultimately that early notion in her career had to be
acted upon in a full-time basis. She seized an opportunity to join the Union of Concerned Scientists, a
member supported nonprofit that uses science to address global problems to improve people’s lives in a
safer and healthier world. She helped grow a team to share the latest findings by the science community
and to conduct original policy relevant research. These projects were embarked upon to help accelerate
discussions among decisionmakers about the opportunities, challenges, and justice implications of local
and global solutions to drastically slow the pace of climate change and significantly increase community
resilience to changes already baked in. A widely quoted expert on climate change, Ekwurzel has
appeared on national and international television, radio, print and online.
The Italian- Egyptian pianist Francesca Khalifa was the winner of the Ferrara International Piano Festival in 2014, awarded by renowned pianist and musicologist Paul Badura-Skoda. Highlights of recent seasons include concerts as soloist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica Pozzoli, the OSJ Chamber orchestra, the Amadeus Orchestra and solo appearances at Steinway Hall New York City, Harbin Concert Hall (China) and Oficina del Historiador (Cuba).
Active soloist and chamber musician, Khalifa has performed extensively in Europe and in the United States.
Khalifa is a recipient of the New York City Artist Corps Grant 2021 and was the top prize winner in the Schio International Piano Competition Alink-Argerich Foundation, the Premio Loreto Lancia International Piano Competition, the N. van Westerhout International Piano Competition.
Khalifa's mentors are the Cuban pianist and pedagogue German Diez (1924-2014) and pianist Ena Bronstein-Barton, both former pupils of great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau. Her research on German Diez is at the base of a documentary Piano Lessons, which received the official endorsement of the American Liszt Society. The movie has also been officially selected for the Silicon Beach Film Festival 2021 (US) and the XXXIX Turin Film Festival 2021 (IT) and is now available on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi Tv.
Khalifa’s first album Elevation was released in July2022 for Sheva Collection and distributed by Naxos USA, and was awarded as Silver Medal Winner at the Global Music Awards 2022.
Andrew Kruczkiewicz is a Senior researcher at Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society. A meteorologist by training, Andrew's work focuses on the intersection of science, policy and practice related to disaster forecasting, early warning and risk reduction. Andrew is also a drummer and strives to further strengthen the connections between climate science and the arts - particularly around using music, tonality and sound to develop processes to move past alerts and warnings, to taking action to support traditionally underserved populations and in turn decreasing disproportionality of impact from disasters on various demographic groups.