Ambient Bird - Ohlone Park 2026
sfSOUND musicians join the bird ensemble
in an outdoor performance of
Wendy Reid’s Ambient Bird-Ohlone Park 2026,
with Brenda Hutchinson’s Dailybell at sunset
Saturday, May 16 - 7:30pm
Ohlone Park: 1601 Hearst Ave, Berkeley 94703
Near North Berkeley Bart, with no formal seating:
sit on the grass, stand, or wander
musicians:
Lulu, African Grey parrot
Wendy Reid, violin
Krys Bobrowski, gilsglas
Brenda Hutchinson, long tube
Ron Heglin, tuba
Kanoko Nishi-Smith, koto
Ben Davis, cello
David Samas, percussion
Diane Grubbe, flute
Tom Djll, trumpet
John Ingle, saxophone
David Michalak, skatchbirds
Jacob Felix Heule, percussion
Dailybell, everyone
AMBIENT BIRD - OHLONE PARK 2026
Wendy Reid’s site-specific work, Ambient Bird-Ohlone Park 2026 is a 52-minute interspecies sonic landscape which reflects an eco-centric philosophy of connecting with all living creatures and the environment. The ensemble includes an African Grey parrot and experimental musicians working with the ambient sounds, specifically, the birds of Ohlone Park: Cedar Waxwings, Lesser Goldfinches, Bewick's Wrens, Oak Titmice, Western Bluebirds, Anna's Hummingbirds, California Scrub-Jays, Dark-eyed Juncos, Stone Pigeons, and American Crows -all part of an event that is intended to bring everyone and everything together, and honor the park's indigenous inhabitants, the Ohlone People.
The structure of this work can be described as a musical process which attempts to reflect nature’s manner of operations: a spatially notated score of sonic fragments transcribed from bird-human interactions and a Native American chant is interpreted and performed by the musicians within the ambient environment of Ohlone Park. Contextual in nature, the work allows performers to act according to unpredictable conditions and variables which arise within the musical continuity. In performance, an attempt is made at a spontaneous unforced growing of sound and silence in which emphasis is placed on formation rather than pre-established form, as in the building and shaping of cell-like units in living processes.
This site-specific piece, as with the first incantation,‘Ambient Bird 433’, pays homage to John Cage’s ambient silent composition 4’33”(1952).
At sunset, following the performance, Brenda Hutchinson leads everyone in bell-ringing: created by composer and sound artist Brenda Hutchinson in 2008, Dailybell is an ongoing aspirational project based on the premise that something as inarguable as the movement of the Earth can be used as a point of unity and awareness among groups of people who might otherwise find it impossible to agree.
About the site: Ohlone Park was originally the land of the Ohlone people, who consider their connection to the land to be sacred. It remains a place of cultural significance that people protect and recognize its history. It is the hope of many that one day it will be returned to its indigenous inhabitants.
Special Thanks: City of Berkeley-Shallon Allen, Thomas Horn-videographer,
Phil Perkins-location audio engineer, Edward Morse-tech, Andrew Aldrich-photography,
Matt Ingalls-sfSOUND, and the musicians of Ambient Bird-Ohlone Park 2026
This performance is included in ‘Ambient Bird-Berkeley’ (2025-26), a project supported in part by a Civic Arts Grant from the City of Berkeley
Cost: Free
Videos featuring musicians playing at this event
A 2024 festival performance in Albuquerque.