On January 27, 2026, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds before midnight, the closest it has ever been to the symbolic threshold of global catastrophe. This unprecedented setting reflects a sharply heightened risk of civilisational collapse driven by escalating nuclear tensions, unregulated development of AI, continuing failures of global leadership, and the most enduring issue of our time – climate change.
Led by artistic director and composer Robert McIntyre and pianist Georgina Lewis, Changing Wilds Ensemble blends post-minimalism, art music, and neoclassical works to contemplate these wicked problems. Looking through a shared lens of environmental precarity and internal reckoning, 85 seconds to Midnight features the music of Australians Robert McIntyre, Stuart Greenbaum, Laura Abraham and Alex Turley, alongside prolific Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and renowned Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds.
This concert invites audiences to listen closely, feel the passage of time in sound, and experience how such music can hold tension, tenderness, and hope all at once. In this way, 85 seconds to Midnight doesn’t seek to illustrate catastrophe and apportion blame, but to hold open a collaborative space for contemplation, responsibility, and agency at a time when, as the Doomsday Clock suggests, every second counts.
CHANGING WILDS ENSEMBLE:
Robert McIntyre (composer, curator, and co-artistic director)
Georgina Lewis (piano, co-artistic director)
Isabel Hede (violin)
Gemma Kneale (cello)
Jessica Aszodi (guest mezzo soprano)
*Praise for Changing Wilds Ensemble
‘McIntyre proved the intersection between music and law is sustainability…’ — ClassikON
‘Place, feeling, memory, and the environment were all explored in a stunningly curated concert from McIntyre’s ensemble.’ — Classic Melbourne
Presented in arrangement with Changing Wilds Ensemble.
