As a chorus of voices carried across the quarry in Jesmond Dene in mid-October, dog-walkers, runners, and strollers turned their heads and slowed their pace, many eventually stopping altogether.

Curiously leaning over the stony wall to look down into the ravine, they discovered the source of the singing – a gathering of people standing firm despite the gloomy, chilly day. Unable to resist, several of the passersby reached into their pockets and started recording the unusual scene, unknowingly witnessing the Forest Choir.

As JesmondLocal previously reported, the Forest Choir gathered on 18th October, inviting members of local choirs and the general public to sing as participants of this one-day climate action initiated by the artist Uta Kögelsberger.

“We’re living on a planet which has been so damaged beyond repair that we need to intervene. And I want to celebrate that human intervention,” said Kögelsberger.

But can sound, and particularly, music, affect the growth of plants? Can it improve their immune system? In the face of looming threats such as climate change, these questions are attracting growing attention of the scientific community. Despite being a largely contested idea, some studies have suggested that music can indeed be beneficial for plants. For example, scientists have proven that some flowers produce sweeter nectar when they hear their pollinators.

This potential of music to positively affect living organisms is a key inspiration for Kögelsberger’s Forest Choir project – a video of whose meeting in Jesmond Dene will be presented at Tate Modern in London on 4th November.

“It’s quite gentle, isn’t it? To do climate action through singing. Hopefully it will bring more awareness to people in a way that actually is accessible to them, ” Nita, one of the volunteer singers in attendance on the day, told JesmondLocal. “But I think any way you can get climate action out there is a good idea,” added Leslie, one of the other participants.

Each of the 58 singers who attended the event received a consent form to sign and a music score.

On the higher ground, the crew focused on setting up their expensive-looking recording equipment. In contrast to the carefree group of singers happily chatting below them, they, along with the choir director Sharon Durant and Kögelsberger herself, were carefully working through the logistics and final details.

The recording equipment was there because the Forest Choir in Jesmond Dene is a part of not one, but two larger projects concerned with the environmental crisis.

One is Kögelsberger’s Forest Choir project, currently on display at Newcastle University’s Hatton Gallery as part of her solo exhibition, and the other is the nationwide collaborative project Remember Nature 2025.

“I’ve been working with man-nature relations for decades, so the subject of climate change is not new in my work,” said Kögelsberger, describing how her exhibition Some Kind of Love: Actions and Reactions to Living on a Damaged Planet brings together a series of works that are all in relationship to the crisis in forest ecosystems.

One of the works is particularly moving, as the story behind it carries a deep personal significance for Kögelsberger. Encompassing photography and video, Fire Complex follows the aftermath of 2020 Castle Fire in the US, which destroyed approximately 175,000 acres of California parkland and claimed between 10 and 14% of the world’s Giant Sequoia population.

“My partner and I had a home in that forest,” said Kögelsberger, sharing her personal story. “The home burned down and half the community that we lived in also burned. That was the beginning of all the forest work.”

Because of her exhibition and the nature of her work, Kögelsberger has been invited to take part in Remember Nature 2025, which marks the 10-year anniversary of the art project originally initiated in 2015 by the renowned artist Gustav Metzger (1926–2017).

As one of the lead artists that have been selected across England, Kögelsberger was commissioned to create an artistic and public intervention to “remember nature”.

“One of the big things people don’t understand about climate change is that it’s bringing something called climate grief, where people who have been impacted by the change in nature are grieving for what we’re losing on a daily basis,” explained Bob Yeager, Kögelsberger’s husband, who also plays an active role in helping his partner with her projects.

Yeager and Kögelsberger present the Forest Choir as a work that is about both grief and hope, ultimately aiming to heal the forest as well as the singers.

The event itself went as planned, with all participants working through the score, while the lively breaks were filled with chatter and friendly conversation. The singing naturally drew in curious onlookers walking through Jesmond Dene, carrying out one of the project’s intentions: attracting attention that may help to raise awareness of climate change.

“I hope it can stimulate people to realise what a wonderful thing Jesmond Dene is and that it needs some more loving and caring,” said Derek Smith, a volunteer singer and a former resident of Jesmond, who also used to work in the park’s management.

Around 4pm, the voices gradually began to fade as the song came to its end.

Instead of claps or cheers celebrating the successful recording, absolute silence fell upon the participants and onlookers, creating a striking contrast to the previously cheerful atmosphere filled with music. The choir concluded its performance with “a minute of silence in memory of the species already lost”.

It was a fitting end to the event, said Kögelsberger. “We [artists] have the ability to bring people together, to inspire, to create care, to involve people,” she explained. “And I think that without care, there’s no action,”

Follow this link to find out more about the project and see more of Uta Kögelsberger’s work here.