Music connects cultures, inspires climate action in ‘Small Island, Big Song’
Featuring a roster of renowned first nation artists from across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, “Small Island, Big Song” combines music, spoken word, and incredible panoramic video of the artist’s homelands, delivering a powerful and timely cultural message about the impact of the changing seas.
Culminating a series of 2023-24 Moss Arts Center season events curated to invite consideration of environmental landscapes and the impact of climate change, the center presents the performance on Wednesday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m.
Drawing from a shared seafaring heritage to unite the Pacific and Indian oceans, this performance brings together some of the most prominent artists of Taiwan, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Papua New Guinea who have made a choice to maintain the cultural voice of their people, to sing in the language, and to play the instruments of their land. These lineages mixed with their diverse contemporary styles — roots reggae, grunge, R&B, folk, and spoken word — establish a musical dialogue between cultures, drawing on their ancestry to confront contemporary issues with a hope-driven vision of the future.
Motivated by shared concern for the ocean, the “Small Island, Big Song” co-founders — Taiwanese theatre producer BaoBao Chen and Australian music producer and filmmaker Tim Cole — quit their jobs after hearing the predicted effects of climate change to oceanic nations. Chen and Cole spent the following eight years recording and filming with over 100 artists on 16 island nations, layering up songs from island to island. Outcomes include two award-winning albums, a feature film, an impact program, and two world-touring productions.
Toured to 15 countries across four continents, over 170,000 people have seen "Small Island, Big Song" live since its premiere at SXSW 2018. Encores often spontaneously erupt into a shared celebration, with instruments, voices, and dancing bodies rising from the seats.
Support for “Small Island, Big Song” is provided by the Charles and Dorothy Lambert Endowment for the Arts. This engagement of is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Related events
“Climate Change: Our Response as Artists and Scientists,” a panel discussion featuring Virginia Tech researchers and “Small Island, Big Song” artists, will be held on Tuesday, April 16, at 6 p.m. in the Moss Arts Center Cube.
Members of “Small Island, Big Song” will engage with Virginia Tech students during a learning lunch series session at the APIDA+ Center, a geography class visit on climate change and social impacts, and a visit to a music class to discuss their cultures’ distinct musical traditions.
In conjunction with the Moss Arts Center’s “Jamming with Junk” campaign, “Small Island, Big Song” artists will lead a workshop with Pulaski County public schools, showing children how to create musical instruments from recyclable materials. In addition, students in grades three through seven — largely from Montgomery and Floyd counties and Roanoke City — will attend a free school-day “Small Island, Big Song” performance tailored specifically for youth.
Tickets
Tickets for the performance are $20-$55 for general audience and $10 for students and youth 18 and under. Tickets can be purchased online; at the Moss Arts Center's box office, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; or by calling 540-231-5300 during box office hours.
Venue and parking information
The performance will be held in the center’s Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, located within the Street and Davis Performance Hall at 190 Alumni Mall. Convenient parking is available in the North End Parking Garage on Turner Street and in downtown Blacksburg. Find more parking details online.
If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Jamie Wiggert at least 10 days prior to the event at 540-231-5300 or email wiggertj@vt.edu during regular business hours.
