Letters to the Future at Celtic Connections

Name: Letters to the Future at Celtic Connections
Start: 2026-01-31T19:30:00+00:00
Location: Tramway

Schedule

Sat, 31 Jan, 2026 at 07:30 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

Tramway | Glasgow, SC

“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”
Percy Bysshe Shelley.
In order to create the future we want, we need to be able to imagine it. We need to ask our artists - and the artist within each of us, what kind of a future it is.
Michele Stodart (The Magic Numbers) leads an international house band performing original songs written for the production by acclaimed UK and Canadian songwriters John Smith, Emily Barker, Catherine MacLellan, Chris Luedecke and more alongside newly commissioned letters from beloved writers including Robert Macfarlane, David Suzuki and Jeanette Winterson.
Music Director: Michele Stodart
Special Guest Singers: Aysanabee, Suba Sankaran, Wesley Stace, Mimi O’Bonsawin, Clerel, Sadie Jemmett
House band: Miranda Mulholland, Kevin Fox, Dean Drouillard, Darren Beckett and the Glasgow Create Choir.
Folk music driven and ideas powered, this 75 minute concert invites audiences to reflect on the future of truth, cities, indigeneity, rivers, joy and the transformative role of art.
Letters to the Future is a testament that artists don’t just reflect the world, they shape its unfolding.
"Art does not imitate life, art anticipates life."
- Jeanette Winterson
Duration : 75 minutes
Format : Multi-disciplinary concert with original songs, letters and projections
Featuring original songs written by
John Smith, Jean Clerel, Lorraine Segato, Chris Luedecke, Emily Barker, Sadie Jemmett, Wesley Stace, Michele Stodart, Aysanabee, Catherine MacLellan, T. Thomason, and Mimi O’Bonsawin
Featuring original letters written by
David Suzuki, Robert Macfarlane, Jeanette Winterson, Peggy Seeger, David Sax,
The Disability Collective, Brendan Van Niejenhuis, Rhiannon Rosalind, Robin Mazumder, Johanna Mizgala, Julie Pellissier-Lush, Kiki Benzon….and YOU. Contribute a letter on our website!
Lou Cope : Dramaturg
Projectionist/Lighting Design : Frank Donato
Visual Design : Joel Gregorio
Sound Engineer : Dylan Bell
Videographers/Photographers : Good Job High Five (Brittany Farhat & Matthew Fong)
Project Manager: Tali Trow
Publicity: Peter Hall, Partisan PR
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund and in partnership with Theatre Aquarius and the Confederation Centre of the Arts, Canada
You can learn more at letterstothefuture.music.