Listening with China Blue

Listening with Hildegard Westerkamp, Acoustic Ecology Composer

What if the world around us is a continuous symphony and listening is how we become part of it? In this episode of Listening with China Blue, I sit down with pioneering acoustic ecology composer Hildegard Westerkamp, whose life's work has transformed the way we think about sound, place, and our relationship with the environment. We explore what happens when we begin to hear the everyday world as music; the rhythms of cities, the voices of nature, the sounds we welcome and those we tune out. Hildegard shares how attentive listening can deepen our relationship with place and awaken us to the continuous symphony unfolding around us. Our conversation asks us to consider listening not simply as something we do with our ears, but as a way of participating in the world. If you've ever wondered what you might discover by slowing down and listening to the symphony already unfolding around you, this episode is for you.

Listening with Annea Lockwood, Pioneering Composer

What if listening doesn’t simply change what we hear, but determines how we understand and relate to the world around us? In this episode of Listening with China Blue, I sit down with pioneering composer Annea Lockwood to explore her lifelong fascination with sound, the environment, and the visceral ways we experience listening through our bodies. We talk about her belief that listening determines everything, her decades of listening to and recording rivers, and her understanding of rivers not simply as landscapes or sources of sound, but as living systems with agency of their own. Our conversation asks what becomes possible when we stop treating the natural world as something separate from ourselves and begin listening to it as an active participant in our shared existence. If you’ve ever wondered how listening can transform your relationship with the natural world and what we might discover when we begin to hear rivers as having lives and agency of their own this episode is for you.

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Listening with Singing Rain and Laughing Owl, Indigenous leaders

What if listening wasn't just something you do with your ears, but a way of connecting with the Earth, your ancestors, and every living thing? In this episode of Listening with China Blue, I sit down with Singing Rain and Laughing Owl of the Association of Native Americans of the Mid-Hudson Valley about oral tradition, listening to birds, trees, rocks, and ancestors, and the belief that every living thing has a voice. This conversation is about listening as relationship, memory, and a way of belonging. If you've ever wondered what the natural world might be saying and how listening can deepen your relationship with it this episode is for you.

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Listening to the World: Stuart Fowkes on Field Recording, Sound Mapping & Cities and Memory

Field recording, sound mapping, and soundscape storytelling are transforming how we experience the world. In this episode of Listening with China Blue, I speak with Stuart Fowkes, founder of Cities and Memory, one of the world's largest collaborative sound projects, bringing together more than 2,500 artists who remix the world one sound at a time. Since 2014, Stuart has built an extraordinary global archive of field recordings and creative reinterpretations from more than 100 countries. What began as a simple idea—to pair an original environmental recording with an artistic remix—has evolved into an international community exploring memory, place, culture, and listening through sound. Our conversation explores what makes a meaningful field recording, how sound mapping can preserve disappearing acoustic environments, and why listening deeply to everyday places can change how we understand our communities. We discuss the creative relationship between documentation and imagination, the ethics of recording public spaces, and the role of artists in building a shared sonic memory of the planet. Whether you're interested in field recording, acoustic ecology, sound art, environmental storytelling, podcasting, or simply becoming a better listener, this conversation offers an inspiring look at how sound connects us across cultures and geography.

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Listening with Vero Faye Kitsuné, C Z A R I N A Musician

China Blue speaks with musician Vero Faye Kitsuné who goes by the name C Z A R I N A about how as an indigenous Filipino shamanism, the grandeur of nature and Spain's witches inspired listening for the Dark Wave. Vero Faye Kitsuné is an American award-winning electronic artist, producer, and filmmaker based in Galicia, Spain, she is known for a darkwave/industrial sound inspired by cyberpunk and anime, she creates synth-heavy, cinematic music.

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Listening with Timothy Blunk, Activist

China Blue speaks with Timothy Blunk a former US political prisoner who served over 13 years in some of America’s most notorious prisons for his activism in resistance to racism, US support for apartheid in South Africa, and involvement in Central America during the 1980s. His prison term included 7 years in solitary confinement in USP Marion. Tim appeared on the television program “20/20” documenting the campaign against Marion’s use of solitary confinement as a form torture. His case was recognized and documented by both Amnesty International and US Human Rights Watch. #listening #podcasts #Activism #solitaryconfinment

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Listening with Richard Vine, Art Critic

Internationally recognized art critic Richard Vine, PhD is the former managing editor of Art in America who has taught throughout the world and has produced more than three hundred art articles. His books Range from the career survey of "Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches, and Drawings" and "New China, New Art," which traces the emergence of avant-garde art in post-Mao China to the crime novel "SoHo Sins," set in the New York art world of the 1990s. He has also co-curated exhibitions at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; the National Academy of Art in New Delhi, India, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York. China Blue speaks to Mr. Vine about his early life listening to his Welsh grandfather, being at the 1970 Kent State shooting and about acclaimed Chinese artists Gu Wenda and activist Ai Weiwei and the renown architect Zaha Hadid.

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Listening with Martha Little, Podcast & Audio Consultant

Listen to Martha Little, a podcast and audio consultant who speaks about listening to others and how compassion can be contagious. Martha Little is an award-winning journalist and executive audio producer whose career has spanned more than 35 years at organizations such as NPR and Amazon’s Audible. Today, Little leads LittleMedia, a creative consultancy that helps companies and individuals elevate their storytelling. Her latest passion project explores the transformative power of empathic listening, unlocking deeper human connection and communication in both personal and professional spaces. She is also fortunate enough to have a son who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia who has taught her the importance of deep listening and compassion in improving mental health.

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Listening with Richard Humann, Artist

Next on Listening with China Blue is Richard Humann who speaks about his exhibition based on bone music currently up in New York City and listening for a revolution. Humann is a New York City-based artist who uses a multitude of materials to create installations, sculptures, videos, and sound projects. In his work he delves deep into concepts and ideas like in this case bone music.

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Listening with Scott McVay: The Man Who Helped the World Hear Whales Sing

My next guest, Scott McVay, helped the world to hear whales sing for the first time. With his wife Hella, he co-discovered the songs of humpback whales—an underwater symphony that became a vinyl phenomenon in 1970 and forever changed how we listen to the sea. His work on whale songs has appeared in Science and Scientific American, and his books, Whales Sing and Other Exuberances and Surprise Encounters, capture a lifetime of listening in deep kinship with the living world.

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Listening with Ellen Waterman, Professor of Music and Sound Studies

In "Listening with China Blue" hear from Ellen Waterman a Professor of Music and Sound Studies who states that listening equates to care. Ellen Waterman holds the Helmut Kallmann Chair for Music in Canada at Carleton University. There her interdisciplinary research is wide. As a flutist and vocalist she engages in improvisation, performance ecologies, and Deaf and disability-led music where she realized that listening equates to care. She also forms community-engaged methodologies and explores the potential of listening to create social change.

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Listening With Cynthia McVay, Author

In "Listening with China Blue" hear from Cynthia McVay the author of "A Field of My Own: A Memoir of Place" who tells about how listening connects to place. McVay is a lifelong creative and environmentalist who chronicles her intimate, two-decade relationship with a flagging orchard in the Hudson Valley. As an architect and general contractor, you will hear how she moved an enormous 180-year-old hand-hewn Amish barn to the property to make her sustainable home, as she dealt with snarky contractors, a tippling partner, puzzling neighbors, concerning caretakers, black rat snakes and coyote chases. Yet, each day brings her joy and serenity. You will hear about her acoustic memoirs of place that begin in the country: the Hudson Valley, in New York City and on the island St. Croix.

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Listening With Ron Whitehead, US National Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate

In "Listening with China Blue" hear from the US National Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate, Ron Whitehead who says "Listening is the greatest art of all" Whitehead is a poet, author and runs the non-profit organization Global Literary Renaissance, to support literature worldwide. He teaches, and collaborates with artists and musicians focusing primarily on the Louisville art scene and Kentucky folk art. Whitehead was also the honorary poetry editor of GonzoToday. Whitehead who has authored thirty titles was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice, and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He published a book of poems titled The View From Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Bathroom Window and collaborated with Ferlinghetti the poet and founder of City Lights Booksellers on other projects. Ferlinghetti called him the "Bodhisattva in Kentucky"

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Listening With John Yau, Esteemed Art Critic, Poet and Author

In my podcast "Listening with China Blue" hear from Listen to Esteemed Art Critic, Poet and Author John Yau, speak about listening to artists like: painter, Ed Moses’ who spoke about his gestures as animations, Jasper Johns’ experience about describing his famous Flag painting and Duchamp’s quote about artists not interested in listening. John Yau is a Hudson Valley based American poet and critic who has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction, and art criticism. Among his collection of poetry is Corpse and Mirror selected by John Ashbery for an award from the National Poetry Series, and Broken Off by The Music. His artists' books include projects with Squeak Carnwrath, Richard Tuttle, and Pat Steir, his books of art criticism include The United States of Jasper Johns and In the Realm of Appearances: The Art of Andy Warhol. Yau was the Arts editor of The Brooklyn Rail for four years followed by editing the online magazine, Hyperallergic Weekend. He also runs a small press, Black Square Editions, which publishes translations, poetry, and fiction. Yau currently teaches art history and criticism at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Yau has received many prestigious awards and grants. In 2024, his essay collection Please Wait by the Coatroom won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

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Listen to Eric Lewis, Professor of Music

In this podcast Professor Eric Lewis speaks about how "silence is an action" and his relationship to composer Pauline Oliveros. Eric Lewis is a professor of Philosophy at McGill University, specializing in the philosophy of improvised art, and Black Aesthetics. He is the author of five books, and numerous other publications. He is also on the management team of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, and the Toolkit of Care. He is the Director of The Laboratory of Urban Culture, and co-founder and President of Arts in the Margins. Eric is an active improviser on brass and reeds, and is a member of Tone Reve, The Free Jazz Messengers, the Tuned Air Trio and the Instant Synthesis Ensemble. He also runs the annual new media art residency Koumaria, Greece.

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Listening to Laura Kuhn, Director of the John Cage Foundation

In this podcast hear from Hudson Valley's, Laura Kuhn, Executive Director of the John Cage Foundation who speaks about her relationship with Cage, his understanding of silence and the importance of intentionality. Kuhn helped to establish the John Cage Trust, shortly after the composer’s death in 1992. in 1968 he began working with Cage on a variety of large-scale projects, completing her doctoral dissertation on Cage’s “Europeras” in 1992. In 2007 Kuhn became the first John Cage Professor of Performance Art at Bard College. Additionally, she has lectured and conducted performance workshops in venues as diverse as the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art.

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Listening with David Rothenberg, Interspecies musician and professor

In my podcast "Listening with China Blue" hear from the interspecies musician and professor David Rothenberg, who explores if bird songs are music, why birds sing at dawn, and how the beauty of whale music got the world to care. David Rothenberg, is a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with a special interest in animal sounds as music. He is also a composer and jazz musician whose books and recordings reflect a longtime interest in understanding other species such as singing insects by making music with them. Rothenberg has recorded at least 9 albums in his own name, and has performed or recorded music with Peter Gabriel and other jazz musicians. He is also a Grammy Award winner. Additionally, he is a Deep Listening practitioner. With more than forty recordings out he is an excellent person to speak to on the topic of listening.

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Listening with Bjorn Eriksson, Composer & Deep Listening Leader

Hear from Bjorn Eriksson, Composer who speaks about the early years of Deep Listening and creating works that are based by listening and conducting in the moment. Mr. Eriksson is a sound artist, improvisor and composer. He makes electronic music, composes and performs with among others Norrbotten Improvisers Orchestra, Aleatoriska Ensemblen as well as AOM (Avatar Orchestra Metaverse) and DVN-EAO. He is a teacher of sound art, music and sound at Hola folkhögskola. Sweden. He is a Certified Deep Listening® teacher/facilitator at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY.

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Listening with Dame Evelyn Glennie, World's Premier Solo Percussionist

Hear from Dame Evelyn Glennie the world's premier solo percussionist who speaks about how she respects the sound and that "listening needs space and time." Dame Evelyn Glennie is the world’s premier solo percussionist. Her solo recordings exceed 40 CDs. A double GRAMMY award winner and BAFTA nominee, Evelyn composes for film, theatre and television. The Evelyn Glennie Podcast was launched in 2020. Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and has over 100 international awards to date, including the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. Evelyn is Curator for The Evelyn Glennie Collection. Her iconic film Touch the Sound, TED Talk and charity The Evelyn Glennie Foundation embody her life-long mission to Teach the World to Listen.

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Listening with Michael Reiley, Meditation Teacher

Hear from Michael Reiley, a meditation teacher, a Sound Songha producer and a Deep Listening professor speak about listening as a mindfulness tool. Michael Reiley is a producer, therapeutic musician, and meditation teacher focused on helping others to awaken their innate capacity to listen and resonate with the interconnected web of inner and outer soundscapes. Michael Reiley has dedicated more than two decades to a prolific career as a musician, producer, and collaborative artist. His extensive body of work includes crafting music for dance, film, and diverse applications for esteemed clients such as Alchemy of Breath, Wavepaths and IKI Health. His creative talents have extended to sound installations, performances around the globe, and the production of over 20 albums, showcasing his multifaceted contributions to the arts. Deep Listening®, following the lineage of the visionary Pauline Oliveros, has profoundly shaped Michael’s artistic trajectory since his first project working with Pauline in 2007.

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