Classical Music and Our Natural World

Lecture

Classical Music and Our Natural World Whales in Motion: Experiencing Marine Mammal Behaviors and Locomotion through Music

Terry Wolkowicz, educator and co-founder of Sound Explorations

In this multimodal lecture presentation, Terry Wolkowicz, an educator and co-founder of Sound Explorations, an organization that combines the worlds of music and science to make scientific discovery accessible to all uses classical music, visual imagery and tactile 3D sculpture models to examine the different ways whales move through their environment and forage for food.

By sonifying marine life behaviors and movement, Wolkowicz and Sound Explorations use music to imitate the specific ways by which animals move through environments. In this lecture, musical examples will provide an auditory illustration of whale locomotion, foraging and social behaviors. In addition, individuals will have the opportunity to experience the motion of whales firsthand, as they interact with the tactile sculptures accompanied by a live musical performance.  

This presentation is part of Terry Wolkowicz's Classical Music and Our Natural World series.

Terry Wolkowicz

Terry Wolkowicz

For more than two decades, Terry Wolkowicz has explored the intersection of classical music and the environment. She serves as president of the nonprofit organization Sound Explorations and education director for the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. Wolkowicz received her bachelor’s degree in music from the New England Conservatory of Music and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.

Wolkowicz has presented at numerous conferences, including the League of American Orchestras, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and other music and STEM organizations. She has completed projects for the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, NASA, NOAA and the Boston Museum of Science. As an author, she has written articles about concept-based arts integration published in the Music Educators Journal, the AZA’s Connect Magazine, Polyphonic (Eastman School of Music Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research) and MusicOvation.