The Nature of Music 20: David Rothenberg

How does one play music with animals in a way that respects their nature and agency? Other Minds welcomes musician and philosopher David Rothenberg to answer this question in the West Coast premiere of his work Eleven Paths to Animal Music (2025) at the Goldman Theater, David Brower Center.

Based on one section of his 2019 book Nightingales in Berlin, David Rothenberg’s Eleven Paths to Animal Music, is a composition that contains vignettes of natural environments recorded on his travels—from frogs in the Amazon, nightingales and wind in the Camargue, leafcutter ants in Costa Rica, and a lake in Brandenburg, among others. This piece encourages performers to listen closely to whole natural environments and find a way to play together and within them. In addition to the inspiration he takes from the natural world, Rothenberg also cites Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae and Tierra Whack’s Whack World. The remainder of the event will contain shorter pieces where Rothenberg plays with whales and insects, along with a discussion of how and why he embarked on this more-than-human musical quest.

This concert is the 20th edition of Other Minds’s Nature of Music series, made possible through generous support from the EarthWays Foundation.

Parking
Garage parking is available on an hourly basis at numerous nearby locations. The closest garage is the City of Berkeley’s Oxford Garage, located directly underneath the Brower Center – enter at 2161 Kittredge. For more information on parking downtown, please visit the City of Berkeley’s off-street parking information and view a map of downtown Berkeley here.

Accessibility
The David Brower Center’s main floor, which includes the Lobby, Theater, Hazel Wolf Gallery, Kinzie conference room, and public all gender restrooms is fully compliant with ADA regulations. The second floor Tamalpais room and Terrace are accessible by an ADA compliant elevator. The David Brower Center also offers assisted-listening devices that can be set up for events in the Goldman Theater. To request this, or any other accessibility needs, please contact Devin King at otherminds@otherminds.org.

David Rothenberg’s Website

Musician and philosopher David Rothenberg is the author of Why Birds Sing, also published in Italy, Spain, Taiwan, China, Korea, and Germany. In 2006 it was turned into a feature-length TV documentary by the BBC. Rothenberg has also written Sudden Music, Blue Cliff Record, Hand’s End, and Always the Mountains.  His writings have appeared in at least eleven languages. His book Whale Music, about making music with whales, came out in February 2023, Secret Sounds of Ponds in 2024.

As a musician Rothenberg has performed and recorded with Jan Bang, Scanner, Glen Velez, Suzanne Vega, Peter Gabriel, Ray Phiri, Pauline Oliveros, Benedicte Maurseth, and the Karnataka College of Percussion. His album, One Dark Night I Left My Silent House, a duet with pianist Marilyn Crispell, came out on ECM in 2010. Bug Music, came out 2013, along with a CD of the same name featuring music made out of encounters with the entomological world. His book, CD, film Nightingales in Berlin, was published in 2019. It is also available in German and appeared in French in 2024, where it has been a bestseller. The German audiobook version is read by the acclaimed actress Eva Mattes.

His album with Maori musician Rob Thorne Faultlines came out in 2021. His latest albums include Just Leave It All Behind and Lost Steps. Rothenberg has been profiled on Radiolab and in the New Yorker. He has more than forty albums out under his own name. In 2024 he received a Grammy Award for For the Birds. In 2024, he starred in the film Eastern Anthems by acclaimed Montreal director Matthew Wolkow. Recent live performances have include the Philharmonie de Paris, Philharmonie Berlin, House of World Cultures Berlin, Biotopia Senses Festival Munich, BirdLife Slovenia Ljubljana, and a sound installation in 2023 at the Venice Architecture Biennale at the Palazzo Bembo. Earlier museum installations have included the Science Gallery Detroit and the Museum of Natural History in Bergen, Norway.

Working together with a team of scientists Rothenberg has contributed to the detailed decoding of the mockingbird’s song. As an interpreter of science he has written feature multimedia stories on cicada music for the New York Times and whale music for National Geographic, while actively exploring new genres of music from around the world and seeking ever more far-flung musical and scientific collaborators.

Rothenberg is distinguished professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.