Song for Nature on Sky Arts

Song for Nature is a specially created concert that brings together a broad range of artists – composers, rock musicians, dancers, actors – performing alongside scientists and activists to raise awareness of climate change on Earth Day, Thursday 22 April.

Whatever your main focus is when it comes to the performing arts, a key figure thereof is bound to be part of this stellar cast. My own overriding interest is dance, and so I am very much looking forward to watching the wonderful Royal Ballet principal Marcelino Sambé (appearing by kind permission of RB Director Kevin O'Hare) performing a solo specially created for him by the choreographer Will Tuckett. Sambé is an immensely expressive artist, Tuckett an inventive choreographer; their collaboration will certainly be exciting.

Still within my sphere of interest, dancer and choreographer Akram Khan performs an extract from his widely acclaimed work DESH accompanied by a choir of children singing Alleluia by the composer Jocelyn Pook.

Fans of the band Queen will be happy to see guitarist Brian May alongside the prolific musical theatre actress Kerry Ellis (Les Misérables, Wicked, Miss Saigon – you name it, she's been in it!). May and Ellis will sing a brand-new song and a new arrangement of a well-loved classic.

Actors David Suchet, Sheila Atim, Michelle Terry and Jonah Hauer King will speak classic environmental texts; first-rate figures of the opera world such as Gerald Finley and Danielle de Niese will sing.

There will be folk music, too, with Nathan Evans reprising his extraordinary, viral hit, the sea shanty Wellerman.

Blended in with the performances will be contributions from some of today's leading environmentalists, like Natalie Fee, the author of the book How to Save the World for Free, Bella Lack, Youth Ambassador for The Born Free Foundation, and Hannah Peck from Cool Earth.

The concert was filmed over three days at the London Coliseum, both on stage and in other areas of this glorious London venue. The film was directed by one of the finest directors of filmed performance around, Ross MacGibbon. The performance itself was conceived by Dominic Dromgoole, former artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, and directed by Bill Buckhurst (Sweeney Todd).

Song for Nature came about as a result of the cancellation of the London Climate Change Festival, which had been programmed for March 2020, but like so much else fell victim to Covid-19 restrictions. The festival was the brainchild of the award-winning actress Janie Dee, who says 'the innovation and willpower of the activists and artists taking part in this concert' will surely bring hope to our troubled times.