Finn Chatwyn-Ros: Nature Sings
How can we use music to foster our relationship with nature?
‘Nature Sings’ is a new album by Finn Chatwyn-Ros, created for families to enjoy together. Each song is influenced by babies and toddlers in the family workshops Finn leads at the gallery, Finn’s own daughter’s interactions with nature, and the gallery’s ecosystem: the woodland, the Octagon Room and the river.
The songs support adults in introducing their little ones to concepts of taking care of our shared planet. Children are seeing sunlight on clouds for the first time, smelling plants for the first time, crunching on gravel for the first time. The album helps children to make sense of and fully engage in these sensory experiences that our planet gives us. Songs like ‘Chasing the Moon’ encourage children to be attuned to the world while ‘The Planet We Live On’ teaches them the importance of taking care of the world.
Finn hopes this album shifts the perspective for grownups to see the magic of nature through children’s eyes. The songs are intended to be for families, not just for children. Finn explores how inter-generational exchange enables adults to renew their relationship with nature through their children.
Buy the album to listen at home.
Album illustrations by Sonia Kenny.
About Finn Chatwyn-Ros
Finn is a trained primary school teacher, specialising in Early Years and in Music Education. She has taught in schools, nurseries, music hubs, libraries and community centres, as well as festivals and parties. Finn is the founder of Crescendo which has been running since 2011 and provides quality, tailored music sessions across London. The organisation also runs post-natal music sessions, baby classes and toddler classes in South London. She believes passionately in the importance of music for the youngest of our children.
Finn is artist-in-residence at Orleans House Gallery, leading the Curious Tots workshops. Designed for babies and pre-walking toddlers, Curious Tots is a sensory musical session that uses puppets, instruments, and creative activities to explore, play and imagine. Finn explores Cultural Reforesting through these sessions, focusing on the natural world around us and how we can renew our relationship with it.
