The Moth Project, an original production composed of 12 songs set to moth videography, will show at the Overture Center for the Arts on Oct. 24 at 8 p.m.
The 75-minute show features Grammy-nominated creator Peter Kiesewalter as pianist and his partner Whitney La Grange as violinist, both dressed in white. Throughout the show, images and videos of moths project onto a screen behind them. The media is from around the world, but many of the shots are from Kiesewalter’s own cottage in Canada.
Kiesewalter first conceived of the idea during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he spent time at the cottage in Canada with his brother, an interpretive naturalist, and the two’s six collective children. Kiesewalter was out of work and worrying about how to pay rent.
While at the cottage, his brother, usually a birder, picked up “mothing,” at one point documenting 87 species of moths in a single night. Kiesewalter was astounded.
“I've been coming to this cottage for 45 years, and I didn't even know,” he said. “I thought there were the brown ones and the ones that eat your socks, basically.”
He started paying attention, and over months of campfires, The Moth Project came together. Two years later, it aired for the first time at a town hall near the cottage. The second show was in Cleveland at the National Association for Interpretation Conference, where it received glowing reviews.
Kiesewalter was inspired by a broader movement in science to use art to raise awareness of climate change, reaching people in a way that impacts them emotionally.
“[Scientists] were saying, ‘we’ve got to figure out other ways to get the message across that the world needs our attention,’” he said.
The Moth Project has since been presented at botanical gardens, academic conferences and theaters across Canada and the United States.
The show contains covers and six original songs, inspired by classical, bluegrass and R&B music. Bach and Joni Mitchell covers play alongside original works with titles like “Emergence” and “Pheromones.”
“That's by design, to reflect the diversity of the moth species,” Kiesewalter said. “There's 160,000 different moth species, so I thought that a show about or inspired by moths warranted a sort of eclectic musical palette. All the music in the show is from different parts of my musical education and upbringing.”
Kiesewalter, who plays the clarinet, saxophone, piano and accordion among other instruments, currently resides in New York with La Grange and two of their children. He moved to New York after graduating from Ottawa University with degrees in classical clarinet and jazz saxophone performance. In New York, he found klezmer, a style of Jewish instrumental folk music. At various points in his life, he has also played jazz, Americana, bluegrass, Cajun and zydeco music. All of these, he says, feature to some degree in The Moth Project.
From 1999 to 2005, Kiesewalter worked for ABC News as the resident composer, writing scores for films, shows and television productions.
After working at ABC, Kiesewalter started a rock band called the East Village Opera Company that played modern renditions of classical opera music in German, Italian and French. The band signed a record deal with Universal Studios, received an Emmy Award and was nominated for a Grammy. Kiesewalter played with the East Village Opera Company for eight years. Since then, he has produced commercially and for individual artists.
The Moth Project is a return to the road for Kiesewalter, and a welcome one.
“I like the details of putting a show together and making things work smoothly,” Kiesewalter said. “I do still like getting in front of people and moving people… It fuels me.”
Kiesewalter integrated the story of his parents’ immigration from Germany into the project, where he connected their migration to moth migration.
“It's a pretty common story, like the migration story of lots of animals,” Kiesewalter said. “Migration stories are generally stories of: why do these animals or people move? The main reason is survival. Germany after the war was decimated. There was nothing.”
His parents moved to Canada in the 1950s and “worked their asses off” to stay, Kiesewalter said.
“All of the same things that affect the moth, or all of nature, affect my parents — life, death, transformation, metamorphosis, migration. It's a very personal show,” Kiesewalter said.
Kiesewalter hopes The Moth Project will inspire viewers to pay more attention to nature for their own sake.
“Being mindful of nature doesn't have to be a chore or an effort,” Kiesewalter said. “You don't have to do it for the benefit of the earth. Do it for the benefit of yourself, because the sheer beauty of it is all the reason we need to actually start treating the earth a little better.”
In contrast to the negativity often surrounding climate change, Kiesewalter tries to employ the same messaging that ecologist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer uses in “Braiding Sweetgrass”: the Earth is a gift, and our connection to it is sacred.
“Nature, moths, are incredibly beautiful. Pay attention to them for a sec, and it'll change the way that you integrate with the natural world,” he said.
