The Moth Project: A multi-media show that blends music, family history and moth lore

The Moth Project
8 p.m. Dec. 3, Great Canadian Theatre Company, 1233 Wellington St. W.
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-moth-project-live-at-gctc-tickets-431807145797

Peter Kiesewalter, an Ottawa musician who’s been living in New York City for 25 years, comes home this week with The Moth Project, a new multi-media show inspired by the plethora of moths at his family’s Eastern Ontario cottage.

Like many of the best ideas, it burst forth while sitting by a campfire with his brother, Tobi, an interpretive naturalist who likes to photograph and identify moth species. One summer netted 300 different species, and Kiesewalter was astonished at the array of colours and textures of the winged insects. 

“One night around the campfire there were a couple of moths around and I thought, ‘Okay, these things are nocturnal and incredibly adaptive,’ Kiesewalter says of the moment he first started to see the similarities between a freelance musician and a moth.  “Then it really hit home for me when the pandemic hit and all of my work was cancelled. I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m pretty adaptive and drawn to the flame.’ So it started there. I instantly felt that connection with them.” 

Back in the city, Kiesewalter did some research on moth lore, fleshed out the idea and applied for a Canada Council grant, framing the project as a different way to interpret nature. He got the grant.

“Tobi and I found a great deal of similarity between interpreting a piece of music and interpreting your ecosystem,” Kiesewalter said. “As a musician, I interpret stuff all the time – I play music by classical composers or cover tunes by artists that I love – and he’s been talking for years about how interpretation has to evolve and change. We thought maybe that’s where artists can step in to help get the message across.”

In creating the show, Kiesewalter knew he wanted to keep it small, musically diverse and visually stimulating. He was influenced by the theatrical work of artists like Robert Lepage and Laurie Anderson, particularly the solo shows that incorporate family history or serve as a form of personal memoir. 

First staged last summer at the Maberly Community Hall, not far from the Kiesewalter family cottage, The Moth Project features two performers – Kiesewalter on keyboards and his partner, Whitney LaGrange, on violin – playing a variety of music alongside some truly stunning images of moths, including large-scale work by Jim Des Rivieres, the late Ottawa “Moth Man,” and high-def, slow-motion video of moths in flight shot by U.S. scientist Adrian Smith. 

Some of the songs illustrate an aspect of the Kiesewalter family history, such as their emigration from Germany to Canada, and find a parallel in moth behaviour. 

“I’m not a biologist so I wasn’t going to get up and do a PowerPoint on the life cycle and the larvae. My interpretation had to be a different thing,” Kieswalter said. “So I was trying to weave personal story with some of the themes that kept coming up as I was researching moths. The big ones, of course, are found in the whole animal kingdom – migration, life and death, fate – and it felt natural for me to explore how it connects to my experience.”

The overarching message of the show is rooted in the importance of diversity, whether cultural or biological, taking a cue from the work of Indigenous writer and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of one of Kiesewalter’s favourite books, Braiding Sweetgrass. 

“I can’t talk about the show without saying how much of her wisdom is in the show,” he said. “One point she makes is to get to know the names of your neighbours. That can be literal and it’s polite human nature, but it can also be getting to know your ecosystem and just being aware of where you are in your surroundings. Once you wrap your head around that it’s a very powerful concept that helps foster an understanding and appreciation for the natural world.”

Meanwhile, the variety of the music in the show underscores the diversity theme and reflects Kiesewalter’s experience. “The music is kind of all over the map and it was very deliberate to make it as wide-ranging as possible,” he said, noting the flow from Bach to Joni Mitchell to ambient electronics to original songs. 

“It’s not only a reflection of my life as a musician, which Ottawa has a lot to do with because it’s a small market and I had the privilege and opportunity to play a lot of different things with a lot of different artists, but I also wanted the show to be as diverse and eclectic as the moth species themselves.”

Kiesewalter has been invited to present The Moth Project at two conferences, including this week’s naturalist gathering in Cleveland, Ohio, and an upcoming showcase for music presenters in New York City. He also plans to record the songs, and hopes to bring the show to non-traditional venues, such as natural history museums, in addition to music venues.

lsaxberg@postmedia.com