Solar Return for Change

Solar Return for Change unites jazz artistry with environmental advocacy, transforming climate research into artistic expression and connecting student musicians with faculty and members of the MIT Climate Project. By giving voice to climate research through music, the project demonstrates how artistic collaboration can provide both a platform and hope for environmental activism, connecting MIT’s scientific expertise with the transformative power of jazz performance to inspire action on the climate crisis.

Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr., is the director of Wind and Jazz Ensembles at MIT, where he serves as music director of the MIT Wind Ensemble and the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble and oversees the jazz chamber music programs, including three combos, the MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and the Emerson Jazz Scholars Program. Harris is also the creator and director of It Must Be Now!, a project creating music and visual art on themes of racial justice. He is also leading a project combining Brazilian music and environmental research, focused on the Amazon rainforest.

Harris has been highly active with public school students and music educators throughout his career, leading seminars, guest conducting, and coordinating enrichment events at MIT and beyond. 

Biography: MIT Music & Theater Arts

A composer, arranger, pianist, and occasional singer, Guillermo Klein began his craft in childhood in Argentina. When his father gave him a piano at age 11, he promptly began writing songs, inspired by the legendary Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. Klein attended Berklee College of Music, where his intention to study classical music gave way to his passion for jazz. His colleagues at Berklee—many of whom came from South America—provided the framework for what would eventually become Klein’s main musical voice, the Big Van large ensemble (later called Los Guachos). After graduating from Berklee, Klein moved to New York City and quickly became associated with Smalls, a jazz club where he established a weekly engagement with his 17-piece Big Van band. Smalls was critical in fostering young artists who would ultimately be some of the most influential voices of modern jazz.

Biography: MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology
Social: X | YouTube 

A Grammy® winner, Doris Duke Artist, and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow, Miguel Zenón is one of a select group of musicians who have masterly balanced and blended the often-contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, Zenón has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between jazz and his many influences. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has released 17 albums as a leader. He has worked with luminaries and organizations such as The SFJAZZ Collective, Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, David Sánchez, Danilo Perez, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, Kurt Elling, Joey Calderazzo, Steve Coleman, Ray Barreto, Andy Montañez, Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band, The Mingus Big Band, and Bobby Hutcherson. Zenón has given hundreds of lectures and masterclasses at institutions all over the world and is a faculty member in the Music & Theater Arts Department at MIT, as well as the current Visiting Scholar for the Harmony and Jazz Composition Department at Berklee College of Music.

Biography: MIT Music and Theater Arts
Website: miguelzenon.com
Social: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

A musician in the New York City area for over 30 years, Ben Monder has performed with a wide variety of renowned artists around the world. Monder is an American modern jazz rock guitarist who continues to perform original music internationally with his own quartet and trio and in an ongoing duo project with vocalist Theo Bleckmann. He has appeared on over 130 CDs as a sideman (including on David Bowie’s last studio album, Blackstar), and has released six albums as leader. A guitarist’s guitarist, Monder is also a master of texture and unusual voicings, creating what one reviewer has called “detailed sonic landscapes of mystery and power.”

Website: benmonder.com
Social: Apple Music  |  Bandcamp | Facebook

Bill McKibben is an author, environmentalist, and activist.  In 1988 he wrote The End of Nature, the first book for a common audience about global warming. He is a co-founder and senior advisor at 350.org, an international climate campaign that works in 188 countries around the world and has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. 

Website: billmckibben.com
Social: Facebook | X 

Founded by Music Director Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr., in the fall of 1999, the MIT Wind Ensemble (MITWE) is one of the most innovative such ensembles of its kind, composed primarily of outstanding MIT undergraduates and graduate students studying a wide range of disciplines within science, engineering, and the humanities. Its repertoire includes outstanding traditional works and new music for full wind ensemble, chamber winds, brass ensemble, percussion ensemble, and woodwind ensembles. MITWE has commissioned 55 original works from many prominent composers. MIT Affiliated Artist, renowned composer, and tuba player of the Empire Brass, Kenneth Amis, is the assistant conductor of MITWE. 

Website: MIT Music & Theater Arts

The MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (MIT FJE) was founded in 1963 by Boston jazz icon Herb Pomeroy and has been led since 1999 by Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr. This advanced 18-to-20–member big band/jazz ensemble is composed of outstanding MIT undergraduate and graduate students studying a wide range of disciplines. An advanced combo is formed from the membership of the MIT FJE, which performs traditional and contemporary jazz ensemble literature, including student compositions and new works written for the MIT FJE by major jazz composers. Improvisation is a prominent part of the MIT FJE experience. MIT FJE has released five professional recordings, including its major jazz label debut on Sunnyside in 2015, Infinite Winds, which received a five-star review from DownBeat and was chosen by the magazine as one of its “Best Albums of 2015 Five-Star Masterpieces.”

Website: MIT Music & Theater Arts

Presented by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and MIT Music and Theater Arts.