Music for Galway’s Cellissimo Festival and Galway Atlantaquaria have teamed up for an ambitious project to spark community exploration of the local impacts of climate change on our seas and marine biodiversity — and inspire action to address the climate emergency.

Galway Bay Is Calling 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 that will pose individual and collective responses to the climate emergency through music and performance.

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 the project.

“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 18-25 May next year,” says Music for Galway chief executive Anna Lardi.

“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.”

Dr Maria Vittoria Marra, education and public engagement officer at Galway Atlantaquaria added: “We are delighted to have this opportunity to work with Music for Galway and ATU (Atlantic Technological University) 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 behaviours and action that promote ocean sustainability.”

Galway Bay Is Calling promises 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 ATU in Galway city to understand people’s behaviours and the key approaches that can influence attitude and ignite community transformation.

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

Berrill 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 18 May 2024.

The progress of Galway Bay Is Calling will be documented and shared over the coming months on participants’ social media channels. Details of Cellissimo will be announced later this year.