Music With a Mission: Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis on Her New Album, Five Minutes for Earth, and Connecting Activism and the Arts

<p>Classical musicians are incredibly passionate about their work. But that doesn't mean they can't make room in their hectic lives for other passion projects. For harpist Yolanda Kondonassis — one of the world's greatest soloists and head of the harp departments at the Cleveland Institute and Oberlin Conservatory — earth conservation has been the focus of her activism for more than 20 years. And it's led her down some fascinating roads both inside and outside the music world.</p> <p>In 2012 she published her first children's book, <em>My Earth, My Home: A Kid's Book About Why Protecting Our Earth Matters</em>. She also founded Earth at Heart — a nonprofit organization that serves to increase earth conservation awareness and action through the arts.</p> <p>Yolanda's latest album, <em>Five Minutes for Earth</em>, is a perfect example of the way she connects her many passions. A collection of 15 five-minute works for solo harp she commissioned from some of today's most dynamic compositional voices, <em>Five Minutes for Earth</em> is more than an album, she explains in the latest episode of the <em>Classical Post </em>podcast: "It's a project with some long-reaching goals."</p> <p>"Once all of these pieces are released and premiered, they'll be available to harpists all over the world. And for each verified performance — by any harpist, anywhere in the world — an automatic donation will be made to one of a list of really worthy, vetted earth conservation organizations through Earth at Heart."</p> <p>In addition to prompting awareness and action about the climate crisis, Yolanda's project also looks to empower musicians to play a part in the earth's future, given that the financial constraints of an artist's life often make it difficult to donate monetarily.</p> <p>"I wanted to explore the idea of giving musicians a way to contribute through their performance, through their service, when discretionary income may not permit them to write a check to a worthy organization for a very dire cause."</p> <p>In this conversat