The Summer Sound Garden returns to Silverwood Park for the first time since it premiered on the island in Silver Lake in July 2018. Come experience this spatial sound score at the island site for which it was originally composed and designed! With a live roving movement score by dancers Leslie O’Neill, Sarah Baumert, Erika Hansen, Suzette Gilreath, and Megan Mayer, as well live musical accompaniment by the Free Range Orchestra & Choir and site-specific poetry written for the site during the free outdoor Poetry + Nature writing workshop on June 22. (Scroll Down for Workshop details) Plus, site-specific nature photography, visual art, and a summer song from Blue Lady and the choir! Event is free but registration recommended for weather updates and event details.
What is a “Sound Garden”?
A Sound Garden is an immersive, site-specific, spatially composed sound installation featuring 50+ small speakers, embedded in nature, each playing a different part of a whole piece of music, spread out in a careful design so that every step, every turn of the head, every pause results in a uniquely changing listening experience. Sound Gardens are self-guided, durational experiences that unfold differently for each listener, as they move through space, and as the sounds move around them. The more time spent inside a Sound Garden, the more the ears adjust, the more depth reveals itself, and the more resonant and lasting the experience becomes.
Poetry + Nature Workshop at Silverwood Park!
The week before the Summer Sound Garden event, acclaimed poets and Teaching Artists Chavonn Shen and Teresa Ortiz will lead a site-specific writing workshop on the island in Silver Lake, including a guided nature walk and creative time to write in nature. Poems created in the workshop will then be installed as part of the Summer Sound Garden event the following week, on Saturday June 29. OUTDOOR POETRY + NATURE WORKSHOP on Saturday June 22 10am-1pm. FREE. Ages 12 & Up. All experience levels welcome! Click button below for more info and to register.
MAP of SILVERWOOD PARK and island site of the SUMMER SOUND GARDEN
SUMMER SOUND GARDEN PHOTO GALLERY (2018-2023)
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.