POND MUSIC BY David rothenberg

Annual Performance - August 28 & 29, September 19, 2021

Composer, musician and philosopher-naturalist David Rothenberg lead guests on a sensory experience along Manitoga’s woodland footpaths designed by Russel Wright to the wilderness of Lost Pond and along the Quarry Pool Path to the central Quarry Pool. Rothenberg played clarinet in concert with the symphony of projected underwater life, transforming the natural pond sounds into ethereal music.

“Rothenberg, an artist empowered by science, has no qualms in asserting that ‘an engagement with art is fundamentally an engagement with beauty, even if it is a strange or unfamiliar beauty’.” - The Guardian

“[Rothenberg] mulls the notion that we humans might have adopted our concepts of rhythm and dance from the chitters, chirrups, buzzes and whirrs of the insects that surround us.” - The New York Times

ABOUT DAVID ROTHENBERG

David Rothenberg is a composer, musician, jazz clarinetist, author and philosopher-naturalist who has written and performed on the relationship between humanity and nature for many years. His many publications include the internationally published Why Birds Sing which was made into a feature length BBC TV documentary, Thousand Mile Song about making music with whales, and The Possibility of Reddish Green, published in 2020. He has sixteen CDs under his name including Bug Music (companion to the book of the same name) and the podcast series, The Soundwalker. Rothenberg is a Harvard graduate as well as a distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology which has encouraged and supported all of his creative projects since 1992.

THE 2021 ART & DESIGN HOST COMMITTEE

Lead Sponsors / David M. & Nanci H. McAlpin, The Marilyn & James Simons Charitable Foundation; Sponsors: Joe Chapman, Tom Krizmanic, Gary & Laura Maurer; Supporters: Allison Cross & Henry Nye, David Diamond & Karen Zukowski; Anne & Fred Osborn III/ The Easter Foundation, Lyn & John Fischbach, Frederic C. Rich, William Roos & Scott Olsen, Jonathan & Diana Rose/Lostand Foundation, Alex Reese & Alison Spear; Member: Marlaina Deppe; Friends: Linda & Stephen Breskin, Xavier Fernandez, Annette Gallo, Patricia Zedalis & Michael Strasser.

And with support from Manitoga’s Leadership Circle / William Burback & Peter Hofmann, Vernon Evenson & Paul Cassidy, Cheryl & Jack Lenhart, Matthew Marks & Jack Bankowsky, Melissa Meyers & Wilbur Foster, PCLB Foundation, Wild Woods Foundation

This performance was made possible, in part, through the Putnam Arts Council's Arts Link Grant Program with public funds from Putnam County, and from the Sara Little Turnbull Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts.

Photography: NIGHTINGALES IN BERLIN_Viktoriapark, Kreuzberg, Berlin, in May 2017; Water Boatman and Water Beetle by David Rothenberg; Lost Pond detail from Manitoga Archives.