Yo-Yo Ma performs a work for cello in the woods, accompanied by a birdsong chorus
The Birdsong Project is an endeavour organised by the Audubon Society as a ‘celebration of the joy and mysteries of birdsong’ via visual art, music and poetry. In this music video from the album For the Birds: The Birdsong Project, Vol II (2022), the celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma is seen and heard performing ‘In the Gale’, which he created in collaboration with the composer Anna Clyne. Perhaps the only piece of music written ‘for cello and birdsong’, the performance sees Ma alone with his instrument in a wooded landscape, performing the poignant work alongside a chorus of some of nature’s most gifted singers.
Video by The Birdsong Project
Director: Ryan Booth
videoNature and landscape
Scenes from Aboriginal Australian pottery chart the turn of the seasons
7 minutes
videoHistory of science
Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful
8 minutes
videoLove and friendship
What does it mean to say goodbye to a creature that doesn’t know you’re leaving?
13 minutes
videoMusic
A riveting audiovisual dive into what makes sounds harmonious, or not
28 minutes
videoProgress and modernity
Moving from Tibet to Beijing, Drolma reconciles big dreams with harsh realities
31 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
videoGender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
videoLanguage and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes