A world where music reconnects people to the planet, inspiring care, compassion, and stewardship.
Birds in Plight
October 2026
Opening the season, Birds in Plight creates a powerful musical meditation on disappearance, migration, beauty, and ecological loss, searching a changing sky and the harmonies within it.
Bird Walk and Community Singing
Sunday, October 4, 9:00 AM
meet outside Madonna della Strada Chapel, Loyola University
Fall Concert
Sunday, October 11, 4:00PM
Skowronski Music Hall at Loyola University
New Earth Ensemble
What the Earth Remembers
Premiering in 2027
the earth is telling us her story, still.
& that story is always unfolding. even now. especially now.
–Marcus Amaker, “What the Earth Remembers”
Partnering with Handel Choir of Baltimore, University of Michigan, and Northwest Chamber Chorus, The EcoVoice Project has commissioned a new work with libretto from celebrated poet Marcus Amaker and music by Grammy-nominated composer Shawn Okpebholo.
What the Earth Remembers, an oratorio by Shawn E. Okpebholo with text by Marcus Amaker, explores creation care in a time of climate crisis. Moving from childlike wonder to collective reckoning, the work traces a world of rising heat, vanishing life, and the fragile, often fractured relationship between humanity and the natural world. Through images of water, root systems, and memory, it reflects on how the earth holds our stories—both the harm we have done and the responsibility we carry. If the earth remembers everything, what will it remember about us—and will it remember that we learned how to care?
Marcus Amaker
Shawn Okpebholo
Check out our WBEZ Interview!
EcoVP Director Kirsten Hedegaard and Ammo’naka librettist Lokosh sat down with Sasha-Ann Simons from WBEZ’s “In the Loop” to discuss the world premiere of Ammo’naka and how it invites us all to consider our connection to the earth!
The EcoVoice Project joined the Elgin Master Chorale’s outreach program for the Educational Connections Concert!
The EcoVoice Project’s director, Dr. Kirsten Hedegaard, conducted the Elgin Master Chorale for the annual “Educational Connections Concert” this February. More than 500 students came together for this powerful celebration of music, learning, and our shared responsibility to care for the planet.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this meaningful and inspiring experience possible!
EcoVoice News
From interviews and news articles to teaching and conferences, check out what EcoVoice is up to out there in the world.
Support EcoVoice
Please support EcoVoice today. 🎶
We can’t do this without the help of others—of people like you who see the power of music to change hearts and minds and bring good into the world. A gift of any amount is meaningful if given from the heart ❤️ and goes to support the work of musicians and other artists, our scientist and activist collaborators, and students who make the work of EcoVoice a reality.
EcoVoice is a 501(c)3 organization. Donations are commonly tax-deductible.