Concert pianist Rachelle McCabe and creative writer Kathleen Dean Moore inspire audiences to defend the wild, reeling world in a film that weaves powerful spoken words and iconic Oregon landscapes into Rachmaninoff’s “Variations on a Theme of Corelli.”
Kathleen Dean Moore, Ph.D., served as Distinguished Professor of Environmental Philosophy at Oregon State University, where she wrote books about our cultural and moral relations to the wet, wild world and to one another. These include the award-winning Riverwalking, Holdfast, and Wild Comfort. But her increasing concern about the climate and extinction crises led her to leave the university, so she could write and speak full-time about the moral urgency of action. Since then, she has spoken out across the country, publishing Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril and Great Tide Rising: Toward Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change. Much of Kathleen’s work about the global extinction crisis draws on her long-standing collaboration with the noted classical pianist Rachelle McCabe. “The Extinction Variations,” a film they created together, features spoken words, Dr. McCabe’s interpretation of a piece by Rachmaninoff, and footage of Oregon’s iconic landscapes. Kathleen’s forthcoming extinction book, Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World, will be released in February 2021. She writes from Corvallis, Oregon and from a cabin where two creeks and a bear trail meet a tidal inlet in Alaska. www.riverwalking.com, www.musicandclimateaction.com.
Rachelle McCabe, DMA., is the Artistic Director of Corvallis-OSU Piano International. She enjoys an international career as a concert pianist and artist teacher, and has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, and in China, Canada, Southeast Asia, France, and England. A dedicated teacher and Professor of Music at Oregon State University, Rachelle has served as OSU’s Director of Piano Studies. She directs numerous educational programs, including master classes with world-renowned pianists, the OSU Chamber Music Workshop, and the OSU Summer Piano Institute. Rachelle enjoys a duo-piano partnership with her sister Robin McCabe. The duo recently performed recitals and taught at five leading music conservatories in Beijing. Believing in the power of collaborative arts to bring about change, Rachelle has created innovative programs with writer/philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore to address the global crisis of extinction. The two have performed compelling programs in cities across the USA, Canada, and United Kingdom. Rachelle holds a doctorate from The University of Michigan, a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, and a bachelor’s degree from The University of Washington.
