Posts Tagged Research

‘Hearken to the Hermit Thrush’

On February 22, 2021 / Birdsong, Research, Writing, Zoomusicology / Leave a comment

I’m pleased to share my most recent zoomusicology article, “‘Hearken to the Hermit Thrush: A Case Study in Interdisciplinary Listening,” which was published as part of the special research topic “Songs and Signs: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cultural Transmission and Inheritance in Human and Nonhuman Animals” in Frontiers in Psychology. In this article I discuss my own approach to zoomusicological inquiry, and use the example of how the hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) has been understood and discussed over the past 200 years to illustrate why interdisciplinary perspectives are essential for better understanding of animal songs. The full text is available for free here.

Composer in the Tabloids

On June 26, 2017 / Commissions, Concerts, Pieces, Research / Leave a comment

The Sunday Mail/Daily Record did a story about my research on seal vocalizations! Thank you Sunday Mail and Heather Greenaway for the lovely coverage of my work!

My piece Seal Songs, based on the Selkie legend, was originally written for the Voice Factory Youth Choir and the Paragon Ensemble, conducted by Mark Evans, and premiered in Glasgow and Skye in 2011. Seal Songs received its US premiere by the San Francisco Girls Chorus and Trinity Youth Chorus in June, 2017. I’m currently conducting research on seal vocalizations with Prof Vincent Janik and Alex Carroll at St Andrews University, and will be writing a new piece based on my research, to be performed by the St Andrews New Music Ensemble, conducted by Bede Williams, in February 2018.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Performs US Premiere of Seal Songs

On May 30, 2017 / Concerts, Pieces / Leave a comment

The San Francisco Girls Chorus and Trinity Youth Chorus are performing the US premiere of Seal Songs on June 4 at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. This is really exciting for me, not only because they are fantastic choirs, but because I sang in SFGC for a year when I was 13 (my family was on sabbatical in Palo Alto), and it was such a wonderful and formative musical experience for me. It’s always been a dream of mine to have something performed by them! Here’s a little letter I wrote to the choristers, as part of their ongoing Postcards series.

Athenaeum Research Fellowship at the Royal Conservatoire of Glasgow

On January 11, 2017 / Awards, Research / Leave a comment

I am so happy to be starting my dream job as Athenaeum Research Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, in Glasgow. I’ll be doing a mix of research, composition, and a little bit of teaching. Upcoming projects here include interdisciplinary research on seal vocalizations with Prof. Vincent Janik at St Andrews University and writing a piece based on my research to be performed by the St Andrews New Music Ensemble conducted by Bede Williams, a new piece for the Fair Trade String Trio, and a set of spring wassailing songs with newly written poetry by American composer and poet Forrest Pierce.

Premiere of Seven Duos for Birds and Strings

On November 30, 2014 / Concerts, Research / Leave a comment

I wrote Seven Duos for Birds and Strings in 2011-2012, when I was composer-in-residence at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany. The piece explores the ways different species of birds might sing their songs together, ranging from unintended overlapping to hocketing so tight that it sounds like only one bird singing.

Seven Duos was commissioned by the Canada Council for the Arts for violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel and violist Dan Sweaney. For a variety of reasons, the piece did not receive its premiere until November 28, 2014, when Annette-Barbara and Dan performed it at the International Viola Congress. I’m glad they waited, because this year the Congress was in Porto, Portugal, and I was able to attend! They gave a fantastic performance, and I had a great time visiting Porto as well.

Hermit thrushes sing songs based on the overtone series!

On November 23, 2014 / Research / Leave a comment

For the past several years, I’ve been researching the song of the hermit thrush together with Bruno Gingras, Dominik Endres, and Tecumseh Fitch. We found that its songs follow the overtone series! Our resulting paper was published in the Procedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences on November 18. Some good press coverage of our research can be found in Smithsonian Magazine and Huffington Post, and on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks.