Tuning into the Biophony with Bernie Krause and David Harrington | Exploratorium

Tuning into the Biophony with Bernie Krause and David Harrington is co-organized with the Exploratorium's cultural partner for The Great Animal Orchestra: Foundation Cartier.
Join us for a conversation that will dive into the act of listening. Bernie Krause and David Harrington each have careers spanning over 50 years of devotion to sharing transcendent sound experiences with listeners - in Bernie’s case through his explorations through soundscape ecology, and in David’s case through his founding and leadership of the San Francisco based and world renowned Kronos Quartet. Both are also deep listeners who experience the world through sound and understand the power of sound and music in prompting different ways of understanding the world around us and connecting with people. Having known each other for 40 years, tonight Bernie and David will invite us into their conversation where they will reflect on the points of connection and divergence in their experience, invite us to “hear” with them, and speculate on how sound and music can be tools in confronting climate change.
For over 50 years, Bernie Krause has devoted his life to soundscape ecology. He has traveled all over the world recording and studying the sounds of natural habitats, from the jungles of the Amazon to the salt ponds of California. He’s been stalked by a jaguar, tossed by a mountain gorilla, and often sat still for 30-hour stretches to capture nature’s symphonic sounds great and small-from groaning glaciers and singing sand dunes to bellowing elk and chirping ants.
David Harrington is the founder and first violinist of the chamber ensemble Kronos Quartet. From 1973, Harrington has forged the group into one of the foremost American string quartets of its time. Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long-running, in-depth collaborations with many of the world’s foremost composers, resulting in a vast body of Kronos-commissioned works for string quartet. The quartet exists under the non-profit Kronos Performing Arts Association,
The conversation will be moderated by Kirstin Bach, Director of the Arts at the Exploratorium.
View of the exhibition The Great Animal Orchestra, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, 2016. © Bernie Krause / © UVA. Picture © Luc Boegly