Hildegard Westerkamp

Hildegard Westerkamp came from Germany to Vancouver in 1968 and has lived on these ancestral lands of the Coast Salish peoples ever since, gratefully acknowledging that her career as composer, radio artist, educator and sound ecologist blossomed on these lands.

Her work with the World Soundscape Project at SFU and first broadcast experiences on Vancouver Co-operative Radio in the 1970s gave her inspiration and creative tools for a lifetime. She is a founding member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology and was chief editor of its journal Soundscape between 2000 and 2012. She has conducted soundscape workshops, given concerts and lectures, and has coordinated and led Soundwalks locally and internationally. Her compositions have been performed and broadcast in many parts of the world.

Westerkamp’s pioneering musical works and writing at the intersections of environmentalism, acoustic communication, radio arts, listening practices and soundwalking activate an awareness, that sound is a decisive dimension of the world, an idea that underpins contemporary thinking across social, political, artistic and scientific practices of environmental respect and concern.

Westerkamp was interviewed on Season Two of our Audiosketch podcast. Listen here.

Visit her website here.