Jane Goodall was a champion of peace and the natural world, spending her life raising awareness about the importance of connecting with our environment and all beings in it. We are remembering the first anniversary of her passing with a special multimedia tribute.

Strung Together: Listening for Hope is a sonic, tactile, olfactory, and visual meditation on Jane Goodall’s four principles: the Resilience of Nature, the Amazing Human Intellect, the Power of Young People, and the Indomitable Human Spirit. Few know that she also wrote poetry; her written works, including the famous Prayer for World Peace, will guide the experience.

The immersive script utilizes the Kishōtenketsu storytelling form, moving through four sections that highlight these core principles alongside poetry, natural elements, and blindfolded sensory engagement. The musical foundation itself is uniquely personal, based on the sonification of Jane Goodall’s name to create a custom scale that permeates the entire composition. Throughout the performance, actress Lauren Gaspard embodies Jane.

Audiences will take on deep listening in a night garden, enveloped by layered, multichannel spatialized sound performed live by the spectacular Bergamot String Quartet from New York and the Frost Electronic Music Ensemble. Dimitry Chamy will provide inspiring visual projections, immersing the audience in a magical world imagined by Juraj Kojš and his collaborators.

This is a profoundly experiential event emphasizing togetherness by engaging touch, smell, taste, sound, and vision. The audience is paired for the performance: one person experiences the journey blindfolded while the other becomes their guide. Guides gently assist their partners utilizing local, ecological materials and simple technologies to amplify touch, smell, and sound. To fully absorb the work, guests are encouraged to experience both nights and swap roles!