Projects

Conversations with Whales

Conversations with Whales uses music, storytelling, and the mythical proportions of whale songs to grapple with climate change in the fastest-warming U.S. state.

Conversations with Whales

Conversations with Whales uses music, storytelling, and the mythical proportions of whale songs to grapple with climate change in the fastest-warming U.S. state.

Alaska has experienced more warming in the past four decades than any other state. In the small island community of Sitka, the effects of climate change are omnipresent and immediate: industrialized fishing and the disruption of the salmon life cycle profoundly affect both human and non-human Sitka residents, including the local migratory humpback whales and other cetaceans that pass through Southeast Alaskan waters. With the help of our partners, we have set out to create music that reflects the lived experiences of this community and its interactions with whales in our irreversibly changing environment. Rather than attempting to encapsulate the human and environmental consequences of climate change by painting with broad strokes, Conversations with Whales explores the unique chemistry between Sitka, its inhabitants, and its natural surroundings, blending their words and sounds into music rooted in real people and real changes. This thirty-minute newly composed work will be performed with free admission on July 31, August 1, and August 2, 2020, in Sitka, Alaska.

Media Highlights

NewMusicUSA Grantee Event

Vigorous Tenderness: a vernal equinox concert

March 19, 2024 | 5:30 pm

Wells Reserve at Laudholm

NewMusicUSA Grantee Event

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Noontime Lenten Concerts

March 20, 2024 | 12:15 pm

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church; Decorah, IA

NewMusicUSA Grantee Event

2024 TUTTI Festival to Feature DOUGLAS HEDWIG’s “Hymn & Dance” for Orchestra

March 21, 2024 | 7:30 pm

Michael D. Eisner Center for the Performing Arts, 240 West Broadway, Granville, OH 43023

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