Dear Nature

Eighty-one letters written over 81 consecutive days. Letters that confront our ongoing relationship with nature; letters that question, confess and address. 

Socially engaged artist John Newling’s letters to nature form a poetic manifesto for our relationship with the natural world. Part impassioned plea, part exercise in truth and reconciliation, they are written frankly and intimately as if to a loved one, attempting to forge a closer, more fruitful relationship. 

Now, in this thought-provoking co-commission, composers Sally Beamish and Lisa Heute have linked a selection of these letters using a series of pieces for solo cello, the increasing length and complexity of which reflect the growth and flourishing of a seed. The letters will be read by representatives from the local community—school children, a woodsman, a climate activist, a carpenter—as an appeal for a new state of mind for the future, rooted in hope, balance and respect.