Bernie Krause, world-renowned soundscape ecologist and Sonoma Ecology Center’s Emeritus Board Member is bringing over 50 years of soundscape ecology to San Francisco’s Exploratorium this June through October.
Bernie 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. Every April since Spring 1993, he has been recording at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.
Throughout this time, he’s chronicled the dramatic changes in ecosystems at Sugarloaf Ridge and beyond, demonstrating a compelling case for reversing climate change. Sugarloaf Ridge is at least 3.6 degrees warmer now than in 1993. These factors, in addition to drought and wildfires, led to Bernie’s observation of “radical changes in bird, insect and frog density and diversity as expressed in the biophonie,” Bernie tells the Press Democrat in an interview. After the years-long drought in Sonoma Valley, Bernie recalls the muted sounds of nature in Sugarloaf Ridge. “The park went from an extremely vibrant habitat to one that was dead silent. Nothing was singing, nothing was chirping, nothing was moving. It’s like it was dead,” Bernie describes to the New York Times in 2020.
The Great Animal Orchestra is an immersive audiovisual art experience that had made stops in London, Milan, Paris, Shanghai, and Seoul. Together with United Visual Artist, Bernie is bringing thousands of hours of recordings of our planet’s rich sonic biodiversity back to Northern California, where much of his work takes place.
Tickets for The Great Animal Orchestra at the Exploratorium are available June 10 – October 15, 2023.
For more on Bernie Krause
- Bernie Krause: The Voice of the Natural World, TED Talk, 2013
- This Is What Extinction Sounds Like, Great Big Story, 2016
- The Father of Soundscape Ecology, CNN, 2012
- Croaks, squelches, waterfalls: the visionaries bringing the jungle to your headphones, The Guardian, 2020