A typical scientist may publish their research in a journal or present their findings at a lecture. Michael Bell, UW–Madison professor of community and environmental sociology, is not your typical scientist. Bell translates his research into musical compositions, offering a new way to experience environmental sociology. “[Music] gives me a way to communicate my work that your average academic publication just doesn’t,” Bell said.
His latest composition is a symphony entitled Regeneration: A Pentalogy. Three movements will be performed in collaboration with Kanopy Dance Company, a resident modern dance group of the Overture Center for the Arts. Five performances of the collaboration will take place on Earth Day Weekend, April 19 to 21, at the Overture Center as part of Kanopy’s upcoming concert, ConFluence: A Prelude. The show will celebrate the power of connecting to our natural world, with original choreography by Kanopy’s co-artistic directors, Lisa Thurrell and Robert E. Cleary.
“[Music] gives me a way to communicate my work that your average academic publication just doesn’t.”
— Michael Bell
The symphony’s central theme revolves around a concept Bell calls ecological dialogue: “viewing the world as an ongoing conversation with life, both human and more than human,” he explains. Through its five movements — birth, youth, career, crisis, and realization — the symphony aims to inspire in listeners a sense of human and ecological community. “It’s hard to encourage that kind of caring in your average academic publication,” Bell said. Through music, he hopes to encourage “love and care for each other and our world.”
Raised in a musical family, Bell has been writing and performing music since he was eight years old. He plays the mandolin, guitar, banjo, and piano, and he gravitates toward folk, world, and classical music. A member of several bands and musical groups, Bell has won multiple awards throughout his career, including ones with the “class-grass” group, Graminy, as well as with his father-daughter “folk cabaret” duo called The Elm Duo.
In school, Bell gravitated toward geology, forestry, environmental studies, and sociology, but music has always been a part of his life. It encouraged him to seek an interdisciplinary way of thinking about the world. “I find that sticking to one discipline can be very monologic and confining,” Bell said. “You just don’t get the opportunity to appreciate the interactive possibilities of renewal, surprise, and possibility that comes from bringing voices together. I’ve tried to do that in my own work and studies, but also as best I can in how I approach my own life.”
Now a faculty member in both the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Bell’s diverse thinking carries into the classes he co-teaches. “I love interdisciplinary teaching — I just get so much out of it,” Bell said. He teaches an undergraduate lecture class and a graduate seminar every year with Nelson colleagues from other departments.
In addition to teaching, Bell also leads the Soil, Health, and Agroecological Living Lab (SHALL), where he works to improve farming techniques that promote a more equitable and sustainable food future for all. One of the lab’s newer projects, called Centering Justice in Climate Smart Agriculture, centers on native food sovereignty as well as labor conditions and standards for farm employees. “We want to make sure that when we do climate smart agriculture, that the labor conditions are also getting better,” Bell said. “It’s not good enough if we do things which are more climate friendly, if it’s worse for the people who have to do it.”
Like the rest of his work, this project inspires Bell’s musical side. “At some point I’ll try to turn the results of that work into music,” Bell said. As he weaves his passions for ecology and music together, Bell proves that scientific reports can come in many different forms — even symphonies performed by live orchestras and dance companies.
For more information on the concert, visit kanopydance.org. For tickets, see overture.org or phone 608- 258-4141.
Hear ConFluence: A Prelude during Earth Fest
Earth Fest Kickoff Celebration
Friday, April 19 | 1:30–6 p.m.*
Learn more
*Performance at 2:40 p.m.