“In the spring and summer, when [the wildlife] is all awake and active, it’s really busy,” said Beacon composer and musician David Rothenberg when I profiled him for the March 2024 issue of Chronogram to tie in with his book and companion CD Secret Sounds of Ponds. Now that the thaw is here Rothenberg has scheduled concerts on March 29 and 30 and April 5 that will star singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked and other musicians alongside the sounds of the creatures and plants that inhabit Hudson Valley ponds.
Rothenberg, a clarinetist and self-described environmental philosopher who has worked with Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Suzanne Vega, Elliott Sharp, Marilyn Crispell, and Pauline Oliveros, has also released albums that incorporate the sounds of cicadas and whales. For the Secret Sounds of Ponds project, he uses submersible microphones known as Hydrophones to harvest and recast the utterings of area underwater life and interweave them with the voices and instruments of human collaborators.
On March 29, Rothenberg will perform with guitarist Charlie Rauh at a pond in Fahnestock State Park in Carmel Hamlet. The March 30 performance is with Michelle Shocked and will take place in Cold Spring, while the April 5 event will be held at Manitoga in Gardiner and will feature Shocked and composers Rinde Eckert and Craig Chin. Tickets and more information are available through Rothenberg’s website.
This article appears in March 2025.
