A Note on Ears to the Earth by Luke Helker

Ears to the Earth is an idea that I’ve had for a while, which was simply curating a series of concerts to take place annually on Earth Day. The works performed on any given event would include a combination of pre-existing works and newly commissioned works.

Coincidentally, the year I decided to begin organizing the first concert was the same year of the Covid-19 pandemic. I put the concert on the backburner and decided that another way to facilitate conversations around music and art-making in response to the climate crisis was through the podcast medium. (Side bar: I continue to remember how differently the air felt/looked and how frequently I heard birds singing during those initial few weeks when absolutely no vehicles were operating. It seems we were so eager to “get back to normal” despite openly acknowledging how fractured our definition of “normal” had become).

Keeping the same title, the Ears to the Earth podcast was a way for me to talk to composers whose general oeuvre evoke or are inspired by places in nature. Many of these composers are part of a larger network of like-minded composers across the world known as the Landscape Composers Network. While I haven’t produced a podcast in quite some time, you can access the library of episodes on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

*Note: I am currently in the process of transcribing the interviews for greater accessibility, however, I don’t currently have a concrete timeline for when those will be available.

Below you’ll find the links to two videos. The first is the first annual concert, which took place virtually in 2021. The concert was comprised of pre-recorded video performances stitched together to create a full program. The final two pieces were the pieces commissioned for this event: Frank Nawrot’s They Have Names for solo percussion and Daijana Wallace’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle for cello and percussion. I was very pleased to be able to perform this piece a second time with James at the 2022 Percussive Arts Society International Convention.

The second video is a live stream from 2022. This was the first Ears to the Earth performance that we were able to have in-person, which took place at the Cider Gallery in Lawrence, KS. The commissioned pieces from this year included Jenni Brandon’s Tempestas for clarinet and percussion (performed by Dr. Stacia Fortune, clarinet, and Dr. Ryan Pearson, percussion) and blue drag on sterile canvas for solo percussion by Nicholas Tran.

The third performance of Ears to the Earth took place in 2023 at the Spencer Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Kansas. This was a particularly special program because it allowed me to collaborate with a bunch of composers/performers that I had met while attending the 2022 Yarn/Wire Institute. Composers included David Acevedo, Hannah A. Barnes, Isaac Barszo, Kyujung Lim, Qiujiang “Levi” Lu, and Trevor Van De Velde and additional performers included Kate Sloat on harp and Tom Fabing on percussion.

I am especially pleased to be performing several of these new works at the 2023 New Music Gathering in Portland, Oregon.

*Videos to be posted soon.

I hope you’ll continue to follow this journey as it evolves with every subsequent iteration and I if this is a project that you’d like to be a part of, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Introduction to Ears to the Earth by Luke Helker

Episode Transcript:

Earlier this year, I took a trip to Alaska. What you’re hearing is me hiking along a trail in Anchorage whilst positioning a handheld recorder to capture the sounds around me as I walk. It was still the winter season, and the snow that was packed onto the ground amplified my footsteps. Occasionally you can hear small charter planes above or the sound of other people along the trail, but it’s mostly quite still. The water was still frozen in time and the snow-capped trees stood erect, reaching for the light that gives them strength.

I had come to Alaska not just because it’s high on my travel bucket list, but because for many years it was the place in which two composers I greatly admire lived and worked. The music of John Luther Adams and Matthew Burtner has become inextricably tied to the landscape of Alaska, and I wanted to do my best to walk in their shoes and be able to see, hear and feel some of those same things. 

This relationship was also the focal point of my master’s thesis, which examined how living in Alaska affected how Adams and Burtner compose music. But I quickly realized that these relationships are felt by everyone regardless of where they live or what their careers may be. It affects our attitudes, our behaviors, and even our memory. It’s a relationship so ingrained in us since birth, it’s very easy to forget how powerful it is.

I also realized that there are countless composers who have used their musical voice to articulate their relationships to their environment, at least, more than could sufficiently represented in a singular research document. The desire to talk about and profile these composers has encouraged to use the platform of a podcast in order to dive deeper and learn more about how their landscapes, ecosystems, and environments inspire them to create the music that they make.

It’s quite a coincidence that I should come to this realization amidst the pandemic we all find ourselves in. This was not intended to be framed through the lens of living with the coronavirus, , but the reality is that for better or for worse, this has forced all of us to confront and reconsider our relationships to our living spaces. The good news here is that I do believe has wider implications towards how we consider the world around us.

I’m going to begin this journey by releasing an episode for each chapter of the thesis, although I won’t be as wordy. Then I’ll try to flip flop between profiling some of the composers mentioned in the document  as well as interview living composers to gain some insight into how nature and place affects their compositional process. If possible, I’ll even attempt to dive into the psychology and philosophy of place, as there is a substantial body of research on these subjects. Along the way I encourage you to reach out and let me know what you like and what you don’t like, any feedback or new artists you think I should check out. My hope is to expand this behind a musical context and interview performers, visual artists, architects, and dancers, as they certainly embrace these relationships in their practices.

But in the end, I hope that you may learn something new, hear something new, or gain a new perspective on how your own places affect you.

My name is Luke Helker. This is Ears to the Earth.