Composer Frank Horvat dedicated himself to environmental activism through music. Now, he's busier than ever

If you drew a Venn diagram showing the overlap between Canadian contemporary classical music and environmental activism, one name would stand out: Frank Horvat.

Based in Toronto, Horvat has become known as Canada's "eco-composer," as he describes it, for his growing body of works that not only address humankind's negative impact on the environment, but also celebrate our natural, living monuments.

"As I learned more about climate change around 15 years ago, there was something within my heart and soul that felt like I had an obligation to help bring more awareness to this situation, not to mention also assess how I was personally contributing to the problem," Horvat explained to CBC Music. "So, in addition to selling my home and moving into a smaller dwelling, selling my car and ensuring that all other carbon I emitted was offset, I looked to my creative self to bring more awareness."

At first, Horvat was hesitant, since he wasn't a scientist or politician. "But then I realized that music was my 'thing' and I had a role to help engage more people in the issue with the particular skill set that I had," he affirmed. Today, he's busier than ever.

The past year has been especially fruitful, with the release of four new albums of Horvat's environmentally themed music. The most recent of these is Fractures, a cycle of 13 songs performed by soprano Meredith Hall and pianist Brahm Goldhamer that explores the controversial practice of fracking.

"Hydraulic fracking is often referred to as 'clean' energy, but it's far from it," Horvat reflected. "What I really appreciate about this song cycle is that we explore so many different viewpoints of the issue."

He sets texts by a variety of Canadian and American writers, many of whom he discovered in Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America. With song titles such as "Lullaby in Fracktown" and "Homeland Security," the cycle is "almost like an oratorio," Horvat said, and "tells a story that helps audiences better understand the full ramification of fracking."

Magnificent Roots

Through his music, Horvat urges people to not only protect our natural environment, but also to celebrate it.

In October, Sinfonia Toronto and conductor Nurhan Arman opened their 25th season with a new work by Horvat called Magnificent Roots.

"When [they] approached me to compose a concert overture in celebration of their 25th anniversary, I thought about how it would be fitting to tie into the composition another positive and triumphant chapter in Toronto's history," Horvat recalled.

"Then, I heard about Toronto's oldest tree: a 250-year-old red oak in North York. It immediately came to me that this would be the perfect basis for the composition. I feel that natural and living monuments deserve to have us pay homage to them just like we do with so many forms of human achievement."

Environmental activism through music is not a new endeavour for Horvat. His first composition to address climate change was Earth Hour, a continuous hour-long work for solo piano, intended to be performed in complete darkness. He wanted to "give listeners the time and space to get out of their everyday lives and contemplate the environment and their place in it." He toured it to more than 60 cities during his sustainably minded Green Keys tour in 2010-11.

Subsequent works include If not Us, Then Who?, a chamber piece that includes audio from activist Yeb Saño's speech at the 2012 UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, and the string quartet For Those Who Died Trying, inspired by a photo essay on 37 murdered or missing environmental activists in Thailand.

His most ambitious project to date is a 60-minute work for percussion, piano and tape called An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene, released in October by Ottawa's Shhh!! Ensemble, the duo of percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham, who describe Horvat's work as "a daring and timely musical exploration of humanity's impact on Earth."

Horvat said he "attempted to have a single work encapsulate most of where our species has gone wrong in damaging our planet, but also offer hope that we can return to living in a healthy coexistence with nature."

The work incorporates an array of instruments and audio samples to support Horvat's vision. "I was very fortunate to work with [Shhh!! Ensemble] on that piece," he admits. "They might call my composition 'daring and timely,' but they had to be even more daring to execute it."

He added: "As a side note, I don't know if I could have gotten through writing parts of this composition if it wasn't for the breaks I was able to take in nature to re-centre myself."

In fact, Horvat believes mental health is directly linked to our natural surroundings.

"If we are disconnected from nature, our mental health suffers and either creates an inability to take action or no motivation to do so," he mused. "[And] if we as a society, and personally, can't improve our mental health, then how can we have the bandwidth to care for and work on a gargantuan issue like climate change?"

Last March, Odin Quartet released From Oblivion to Hope, an album of Horvat's music for string quartet. Its centrepiece is The Four Seasons … in High Park, inspired not only by Vivaldi's famous work but also the green space where Horvat takes his aforementioned restorative breaks.

The year 2023 included an experience that somehow seemed inevitable for Horvat: for 17 days in June, he was one of 31 participants in the Arctic Circle expeditionary residency, which invites international artists, scientists, educators and innovators to live and work aboard an Arctic-class expedition ship while sailing the waters of Svalbard, an archipelago just 10 degrees latitude from the North Pole.

"This was an experience that impacted and inspired every fibre of my being," Horvat enthused. "I got to experience something that many will not get a chance to experience. Because of this, I'm motivated to compose music based on what I learned and experienced there."

The first piece resulting from his residency is I Am Ice, a commission by Toronto's Annex Singers, who'll give its premiere on Dec. 16.

"I hope this creates a spinoff effect, so more and more creatives align their artistic voice to address the climate," Horvat says. "The more 'stuff' we put out there, the more hearts we can touch, [and] that will only help provoke more change to make the world a better place."

To listen to Horvat's A Village of Landscapes, a set of 13 vignettes released earlier this year by bassoonist Sébastien Malette, is to share his optimism that all is not lost.