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
video
Animals and humans
Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?
57 minutes
video
Archaeology
What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation
16 minutes
video
Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
9 minutes
video
History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
video
Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes
video
Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes