CIM's Yolanda Kondonassis slates 'Five Minutes for Earth' concert at Cleveland Museum of Art

Her title may be head of CIM’s harp department, but Yolanda Kondonassis is just as much a steward of the planet. 

With her latest recording, Five Minutes for Earth, Kondonassis (BM ’86, MM ’89, Chalifoux) has found a unique way to raise money for environmental causes, all while promoting the harp and new music.

It’s not just an album, either. On Sunday, Oct. 23 at 7pm, Kondonassis and several of her colleagues and former students will perform Five Minutes for Earth live in concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland. The program will represent the live concert world premieres of all 17 works on the program.

Tickets, $25, are available through the museum or through Earth at Heart, the artist’s foundation.

Five Minutes for Earth, released in April 2022 on Cleveland-based Azica Records and produced by Alan Bise (BM ’94, Knab), CIM’s director of recording arts and services, highlights short new harp solos with environmental themes by 15 composers, including Keith Fitch, CIM’s own head of composition, and CIM alumnus Nathaniel Heyder (BM ’21, Fitch).

Also featured on the diverse, boundary-busting medley are works by Chen Yi (a guest artist at CIM this year), Aaron Jay Kernis, Stephen Hartke, Michael Daugherty, and Reena Esmail, among others.

“I picked folks that I love and respect,” said Kondonassis, a renowned teacher and prolific recording artist with multiple Grammy Award nominations, who is also releasing a music video for each piece, many of which are already available to view.

“I knew they all had real depth of creativity. I knew the narrative would become apparent after all the music came together.” 

The live performance Oct. 23 includes even more. The program will feature curated video and still images, poetry by Cleveland Orchestra oboist Robert Walters and the premiere of a new vocal work by Steven Mark Kohn (MM ’84, Erb/O’Brien), performed by CIM students. 

Kondonassis also will debut another work in the Five Minutes Collection, Wildflower (Yolanda's Song), by legendary jazz artist and composer Arturo Sandoval, which will be released as a single on the Azica label later this season.

While Kondonassis will perform the majority of works on Oct 23, she will be joined by four students of hers: Ina McCormack (MM ’20), Xiao Du (MM ’13, AD ’16), Juan Riveros (BM ’21, MM ’22) and Grace Roepke (BM ’19, MM ’21). 

“The idea of including a specially commissioned work of poetry...vocalists from the Cleveland Institute of Music and several exceptional emerging harpists...just seemed right,” Kondonassis said. “It’s the perfect way to highlight the community aspect of this project in bringing artists together for change.”  

There’s another narrative in Five Minutes for Earth running parallel to the music. Kondonassis isn’t just presenting a large slate of new compositions. She’s also inviting others to join her in playing them.

Make that encouraging others. For every documented performance of a work in the Five Minutes for Earth collection by any musician worldwide, Kondonassis pledges to send a financial gift from her foundation Earth at Heart to one of several major environmental charities including the Environmental Defense Fund, The Nature Conservancy and The Sierra Club Foundation.

Fitch, whose piece “as Earth Dreams” is part of the project, put it best when he noted the impact Kondonassis and Five Minutes for Earth will have on music – and the planet.

“We’re so lucky that we have Yolanda here, both at CIM and in the world in general,” he said.