Secret Sounds of Ponds – West Fairmount Park David Rothenberg

Name: Secret Sounds of Ponds – West Fairmount Park David Rothenberg
Start: 2025-04-06T17:00:00-04:00
Location: West Fairmount Park

Schedule

Sun, 06 Apr, 2025 at 05:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

West Fairmount Park | Philadelphia, PA

Bowerbird and LandHealth Institute are pleased to co-present a unique out-of-doors performance by musician-naturalist-philosopher David Rothenberg and the secret sounds of two of Philadelphia’s favorite lakes.
Join David Rothenberg, interspecies musician, composer, naturalist-philosopher and author of over a dozen books and forty albums including “Why Birds Sing”, “Bug Music”, and “Survival of the Beautiful”. In 2024, Rothenberg released Secret Sounds of Ponds, a book/music/performance initiative which reveals the unknown music beneath the surface of even the most ordinary pond. Join him for an afternoon of aquatic vibrations, bug solos, and inter-species jamming. David uses hydrophones (underwater microphones) to tune into live bug sounds and then improvises, using his clarinet to duet with the plants and insects amplified from under the water. You’ll never see a pond quite the same way again. All ages are welcome, though the morning concert will be more oriented towards kids and will have hands-on activities for younger listeners who wish to touch and draw as well as listen.
Both concerts are free and open to the public.
Sunday, April 6th
9-11 AM at FDR Park’s Edgewood Lake (family friendly auxiliary activities provided) &
5-7 PM at West Fairmount Park’s Centennial Lake (for the more contemplative crowd)
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rothenberg’s books have been translated into eleven languages and he has more than forty recordings out, including One Dark Night I Left My Silent House which came out on ECM, and most recently In the Wake of Memories and Faultlines. He has performed or recorded with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, Ray Phiri, Suzanne Vega, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, Umru, Iva Bittová, and the Karnataka College of Percussion. His award-winning film Nightingales in Berlin has been shown all over the world. His latest book is “Whale Music and Invisible Mountains”. Rothenberg is a Distinguished Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Co-presented with Landline Health Institute and organized in collaboration with World Askew