David Rothenberg is a composer, clarinetist, philosopher, and author of several books on animal songs, including Why Birds Sing, which was turned into a documentary by the BBC in 2006. He has more than forty albums under his own name, and has worked with scientists to decode the mockingbird’s song and written stories on cicada music for the New York Times and whale music for National Geographic. Rothenberg will travel to the Bay Area to talk about playing music with animals at Other Minds’s The Nature of Music series on April 16, 2026 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. Rothenberg will also give the West Coast premiere of his work Eleven Paths to Animal Music, which features recordings of natural environments from his travels. On the podcast, we talked about what animal song tells us about animal cultures, which animals are the most musical, and making field recordings for his piece Eleven Paths to Animal Music.

Music: Sharawji Blues by David Rothenberg, performed by David Rothenberg (Terra Nova); Dreaming Slow by David Rothenberg, performed by David Rothenberg and Lembe Lokk (Terra Nova); On the Journey That Must Be by David Rothenberg, performed by David Rothenberg (Terra Nova); Magicicada Warm Springs by David Rothenberg, performed by David Rothenberg (Gruenrekorder/Terra Nova)

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Listen to David Rothenberg’s Soundwalker podcast.

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The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).