Echoes of Hope (2025 and beyond) is a digital sound installation by Andromeda Turre.

A global, community-based work shaped by listening, the project gathers Hope Notes: short voice messages shared by friends and listeners in response to a single question — what brings you hope?

Each Hope Note is mapped to the place it was recorded, forming a dispersed archive of voices from around the world. These spoken reflections are supported by improvised music for voice and crystal bowls, recorded by Turre and, at times, featuring instrumental and vocal collaborators. The music functions as a sonic ground rather than a finished composition.

Rooted in improvisation, voice, and place, this work explores hope as a quiet, collective response to a world marked by instability and fragmentation. The installation offers space for reflection, grounding, and shared listening.

Echoes of Hope is an evolving archive, with an interactive map coming soon.

To contribute a voice note, email:

community @ andromedaexperience . com

Homegrown Dialogues: Womanist Perspectives on Spirit, Sound, and Sustainability (2025) is a day-long symposium conceived by Andromeda Turre in collaboration with Dr. Mark Lomanno, presented at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

The gathering explored the relationship between music, ecology, and collective responsibility through live performance, listening, and dialogue. Central to the symposium was a performance of Turre’s original music, alongside moderated conversations examining sound as a tool for reflection, care, and social imagination.

Turre’s original compositions, crystal bowl performance, and vocal work—presented as both music and research—are now part of the permanent archives of the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music.

Homegrown Dialogues positioned sound not as accompaniment, but as a primary mode of inquiry—bridging performance, scholarship, and community listening within an academic and spiritual context.

Watch the full symposium HERE.

From the Earth (2024) is a programmatic jazz suite by Andromeda Turre that highlights environmental justice and humanity’s profound interconnectedness with the planet. The work addresses contemporary environmental challenges through collaborators from four marginalized communities coping with the interrelated effects of climate change and systems such as redlining and colonization. Each community is represented by a thematically distinct segment: Earth, Sky, Sea, and Ice.

The suite opens with “Ingression Interlude” and progresses through the four segments, each comprising three movements: an introduction, firsthand accounts, and a reflective response. As an example, “Geosphere” immerses the listener in the earthly realm, “Grandmother’s Permission” integrates recorded interview excerpts, and “Earth Waltz” represents Turre’s reflection, shaped by both the interviews and her direct engagement with nature.

Each segment features distinctive timbres designed to evoke each biosphere. For instance, Earth resonates with warm, wooden tones (didgeridoo, marimba, and bowed acoustic bass) anchored by crystal bowls emitting grounding frequencies. Sky emanates with celestial textures via vibraphone, harp, brass, and woodwinds, creating a luminous soundscape. Sea immerses the listener in an aquatic sonosphere, integrating coastal sounds of hand percussion and brass horns characteristic of Latin music traditions as well as conch shell. Ice explores cold, metallic tones with bell tree, electric bass, EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), and bowed vibraphone. A multigenerational choir, with vocalists aged 9 to 76, closes the suite with emotional and textural complexity, resounding with a diverse and polyphonic message of hope and unity.

The suite’s sonic progression unfolds chronologically, beginning with concepts widely regarded as traditional jazz, advancing through pivotal historical evolutions of the genre, and culminating in contemporary song forms and harmonic simplifications reflective of present-day, populist interpretations of jazz.

PROJECT ORIGINS

The seeds of From the Earth were planted in December 2022 during Turre’s excursion to Iceland. Immersed in nature’s raw, elemental power, she experienced the aurora borealis dancing in the sky, the crash of icy sea waves, lava birthing new ground, and the marvel of standing within a melting glacier. These profound encounters revealed an intimate connection with the Earth, sparking the composition of “Cryosphere,” written from the glacier’s perspective as it confronts its own demise. This visceral connection to the Earth accompanied Turre home, inspiring her curiosity and creativity.

This connection guided a year-long journey of research and interviews with individuals from marginalized North American communities directly impacted by climate change. As an artist rooted in Afrodiasporic jazz traditions, inspired by artists like Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, Turre continues the Griot legacy of chronicling contemporary life through music and oral history. These interactions shaped From the Earth, grounding the work in lived experiences.

Throughout the compositional phase, Turre’s creative process was deeply intuitive, shaped by nature, interviews and moments of otherworldly inspiration. The song “Amulena,” for example, is sung in glossolalia and was inspired by a dream where she was able to tap into intergenerational knowledge during her altered state of consciousness. Her father, trombonist Steve Turre, joins her on “Amulena,” performing on conch shell, an instrument resonant with indigenous spiritual practices as well as symbolic of the natural world.

Turre crafted her score with meticulous care, incorporating intentional direction as well as musical notation. Turre arranged the suite, drawing inspiration directly from nature, such as patterns in bird songs, the low rumble of tectonic shifts, or the cascading rhythms of hailstorms, with the exception of the horn arrangements for “Sin agua no hay vida” and “Contigo” which were crafted by Steve Turre.

ALBUM COLLABORATORS

From the Earth showcases the talents of 20 incredible musicians and speakers.

“Ingression Interlude” features a commissioned poem written and recited by Betty Neals, created specifically for From the Earth. Developed as a guided poetry meditation, Turre’s intent was to prepare listeners for the spiritual journey unfolding throughout the suite, setting the thematic tone and mindset for the work. Ms. Neals is also Turre’s Godmother as well as the poet and lyricist who frequently collaborarted with Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Each of the four segments; Earth, Sky, Sea, and Ice, includes an interview excerpt from a connected community. All interviews in From the Earth were conducted, recorded, and edited by Andromeda Turre to provide authentic, firsthand perspectives.

The first segment, Earth, includes the song, Grandmother’s Permission and features an interview with Dr. Jifunza Wright-Carter of the Black Oaks Center in Pembroke Township, Illinois. Dr. Wright-Carter is a farmer, physician, and advocate living in a historically Black farming community founded by former slaves.

The Sky segment includes Ms. Margaret’s Lament, featuring Ms. Margaret Gordon of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project. A lifelong environmental activist, Ms. Gordon has spent decades addressing the impacts of air pollution in her historically redlined community of West Oakland, California. 

The Sea segment presents Sin Agua No Hay Vida, with Dr. Gladys M. Canals from Camuy, Puerto Rico. An educator dedicated to raising the next generation of environmental stewards, Dr. Canals speaks to the critical importance of preserving Puerto Rico’s waterways and fostering environmental awareness among its youth. An English translation of her spoken contribution is available HERE.

In the Ice segment, Oracle Interlude features an interview segment with Rhonda Hiscock, an environmental scientist from an indigenous community in Newfoundland, Canada. Her work focuses on developing data-driven policies and best practices to protect the fragile icy ecosystems of her homeland.

LISTEN to the album

Hera (2023) is an ongoing collective of women musicians and composers uplifting one another’s voices through shared performance. United by a spirit of collaboration, the ensemble takes turns “wearing the crown,” with each member stepping forward to lead the band and present their original compositions.

Watch HERA live

Emerging (2021) is an immersive concert experience composed and conceived by Andromeda Turre as a meditative exploration of purpose, community, and self-inquiry in the face of societal disruption. Premiered at The Cutting Room in New York City on November 7, 2021, the work draws inspiration from the Japanese concept of ikigai, a philosophy that identifies the intersection of "what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for". Turre was first introduced to ikigai during the nearly two years she spent living and working in Japan, an experience that profoundly shaped her worldview and continues to inform her creative practice. Composed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Emerging was Turre’s artistic response to the mass displacement and reevaluation of work and identity occurring across the global workforce. Rather than viewing this moment as a crisis alone, Turre saw it as an invitation for introspection—an opportunity to consider how purpose might be reimagined at the intersection of creativity, contribution, and livelihood. The full concert was subsequently presented at the Serious Fun Arts Festival in White Plains, NY on October 16, 2022, featuring visual projections designed by Kleidi Eski. Excerpts of the work were also performed at the Stuttgart Jazz Open in Germany on July 17, 2023, introducing international audiences to Turre’s multidisciplinary approach to sonic storytelling and social reflection.

View Concert Trailer

Lena: Lessons From a Lady (2019) is a one-woman musical commissioned by Baltimore Center Stage, starring Broadway star Syndee Winters, with an original score and songs by Andromeda Turre. Based on the inspiring life of vocalist, actress, and civil rights activist Lena Horne, the show takes you on a journey through her remarkable life, offering lessons that continue to inspire the world we live in today.

The staged performance was both music directed and conducted by Andromeda Turre, who was seven months pregnant at the time of the show.

View PBS All Access Special