Ann DuHamel
Associate Professor of Music
University of Minnesota Morris
Kate Knuth
Founder, Democracy and Climate LLC & Transformation Scholar
Live from the University of Minnesota Morris, this IAS Thursdays presentation kicks off “Prayers for a Feverish Planet,” a multi-day musical series coinciding with Earth Day. Pianist Ann DuHamel’s latest project expands and revolutionizes the modern piano recital by featuring new and recently composed music about the climate crisis alongside conversation with guest speakers. The entire venture encompasses more than sixty new works for piano and piano/electronics by composers on six continents, and in the spirit of eco-artivism, asks urgent questions of the listener: How do our actions generate positive change for the environment? How can we live more mindfully and conscientiously as global citizens? What sustainable impact can we create for generations to come? In addition to engaging in these questions with the event’s featured guests, audience members will hear vanishing shorelines echoed in vanishing notes, cracking Arctic ice, and music that reflects on grief, hope, and more.
More information and program notes can be found here.
EVENT LOCATION
Please note that masks are required for in person attendees. The event will also be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person.
Humanities Fine Arts Recital Hall, Humanities Fine Arts Building
University of Minnesota Morris
304 Cougar Circle, Morris, Minnesota 56267
Campus Map
ANN DUHAMEL
Pianist Ann DuHamel’s performances have been praised as poetic and “… a delight for the ears and the soul” (Encuentro Universitario Internacional de Saxofón, Mexico City). She’s performed in 16 countries on four continents.
Hailed as a “forward thinking classical pianist” (Midwest Record) for her debut album Rückblick: New Piano Music Inspired by Brahms (Furious Artisans, 2020), Ann actively champions contemporary composers. Piano Magazine applauded “the depth of programming and playing” in Rückblick, admiring Ann’s “range of sound and full melodic tone,” as well as her “clear voicing and vibrant sense of color.” Ann also appears on Tyler Kline: Orchard (Neuma Records, January 2022), performing works she commissioned.
In demand as a collaborative pianist, Ann has performed chamber music with members of the Grammy- Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as with Martha Councell-Vargas, flute; Maria Jette, soprano; and Clara Osowski, mezzo-soprano. Her performance at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall with ensemble: Périphérie was applauded by the New York Concert Review as “outstanding,” praising the group of “superb musicians” who “played with power and assurance.”
KATE KNUTH
Dr. Kate Knuth is Founder and Principal at Democracy and Climate LLC, which offers research, policy, and strategy services at the intersections of climate action and strengthening democracy. Dr. Knuth is a scholar of transformation, with her research focusing on how to drive the kind of transformative change needed for a just, sustainable future. She serves on her neighborhood association board. Dr. Knuth was the first chief resilience officer for the City of Minneapolis and founding director of the Boreas Leadership Program at the UMN Institute on the Environment. She previously served six years in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Dr Knuth served six years on the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board. She earned a PhD from the University of Minnesota, a MSc from Oxford University, and a BA from the University of Chicago, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Norway.