Painting pictures of nature through sound

Late on a Saturday night, at Dunnenzies’ live stage downtown, a unique musical talent is on show.

The artist paints vast pictures of nature through sound, courtesy of his clarinet.

Going by the name Zoltan Stravinsky, he spends the night playing atmospheric music, and explaining the story between each piece.

“My band broke up and I didn’t have a lot going on, so I’d always played clarinet, so I figured, ‘hey, why don’t I try to take it seriously,’” Stravinsky told Kelowna10. “I did some research, and got an electric setup put together.”

His inspiration for the specific brand of musicianship came after participating in a tumultuous event.

“While my band was broken up, I was following the news feeds of the Fairy Creek [old growth forest] Blockade,” he explained. “I was able to take vacation time and go out to do that, which I did, and it was the most enlightening thing I’ve ever done in my life, so to speak. It spoke to me being out there and fighting to defend the world we live in.”

His songs tell stories of the lifespan of plants and animals, from the mighty Douglas firs growing high into the sky, to brown bears escaping wildfires.

He transitioned through songs about different life whilst explaining the symbiotic relationship of the environment and the impact everything has on each other.

“I just spend a lot of time in the forest, right?... it’s something that people in the city don’t relate to,” he explained. “So, I thought, why not write some songs about it? Bring it into the public consciousness?”

Stravinsky’s goal is to raise awareness about nature’s beauty and how society is encroaching upon it.

“The world is beautiful, and we shouldn’t be destroying it the way we are.”