Behind the Birdsong Project: Angélica Negrón
There is no doubt that birds are a rich source of fascination and inspiration for musicians—something felt keenly by Brooklyn-based musical artist Angélica Negrón. This deep connection is what led Negrón to contribute to For The Birds: The Birdsong Project—a five-volume collection of more than 200 pieces of music, poetry performances, and visual art by some of the biggest talents in the arts and entertainment industries. That collection is now available on digital streaming platforms and was released as a limited edition 20 LP vinyl box set, which won a GRAMMY Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. The project seeks to highlight how birds need our protection now more than ever—and the powerful role art and music can play in driving conservation action.
Why birds? With their unique, melodious songs and ability to quite literally take flight, no other form of wildlife is both so magical while also being incredibly accessible in our day-to-day lives. “What’s really interesting about birds is that sometimes I don’t see them, but I hear them,” Negrón says. “It’s a lot about the aural experience and what you hear.”
When first approached about the project by Hollywood music supervisor Randall Poster, who is one of the producers behind the project, Negrón was struck by the long list of renowned artists already on-board that she loved and admired. Most of all, she was drawn in by the multi-disciplinary nature of the project. “It was not only music, but poetry, visual art, actors reading; I just felt like it was a community of makers and creators coming together for a really good cause. It’s a really beautiful thing,” she says.
Negrón is herself a master of the multi-disciplinary arts. Having grown up playing the violin, today she says she spends more time playing “plants and vegetables and water.” What exactly does this mean? In addition to using tools like accordions and robotic instruments, Negrón uses conductive technology to create electronic music from almost anything—including literal plants and vegetables. “I like to see the physicality behind the sound in electronics,” she says, “which has brought me to explore more unusual instruments.”
Another big creative inspiration for Negrón is Olivier Messiaen, a 20th century French musician who was also an ornithologist and regularly incorporated transcriptions of birdsong into his music. While there’s value in direct parallels between bird sounds and specific instruments—like the agility of a piano or the melody of a clarinet—Negrón is particularly excited by using unexpected tools, such as when she played the violin using the wooden side of the bow instead of the usual horsehair side. “I’m always excited to just find different ways or different entry points and different ways of revisiting familiar sounds,” she says.
She regularly incorporates field recordings from a range of geographic locations, but especially from Puerto Rico, where she was born and raised. For her contribution to The Birdsong Project, Negrón pulled from recordings of birds singing in the night on a beach in Guánica, Puerto Rico; but she was also inspired by the concept of mobiles and moving sculptures such as those by the visual artist Alexander Calder, which called to mind the image of birds gliding in the sky—hence the song’s name, “Planeaciones.”
Negrón’s attachment to nature and appreciation of birdsong is something that has emerged more since moving away from Puerto Rico; visiting home has given her a new appreciation for the island’s great range of natural beauty and rich bird life. More than ever, she’s deeply aware of the intersection of Puerto Rico’s colonial history, climate justice issues, and disaster capitalism. Negrón views birds as an accurate metaphor for these complex experiences, considering their great diversity, their migratory behaviors, and the environmental threats they face.
She hopes that we can all nurture a greater sense of empathy towards nature to better drive conservation action. “We all—at least, I tend to—get overwhelmed by things like climate justice, because those things can be really overwhelming,” says Negrón. “But if you take a step back, pause, listen, and connect; and then also talk to others about your connection, and share those experiences, I think that feels more like a path to concrete change.”
Connection is not only key for her art, but also for teaching her students through New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers and Lincoln Center Education programs. Through this work, Negrón has learned the importance of sharing her own personal experiences and creative processes to connect with younger generations more effectively. Negrón describes how, in working with her students, she shared the story of when she was once stuck on a piece and found the solution by stepping away and out into nature. As she was walking, she began recording the birds around her, and “that was the thing that unlocked the whole piece. It’s a testament to the importance of being present and being out and living.” Creativity doesn’t just happen in the classroom—or even in front of your instrument. She often prompts students to create something inspired by what they heard that day. “It could be something in nature, it could be their sister yelling at them—but just being intentional and hyper-aware of the sounds around us, and see what happens.”
This is the lens through which Negrón approaches life, for herself and for her students: “Create opportunities for engagement that lead to connection, that spark curiosity.” This is how we can all “listen differently.”
Bird-watching as a hobby is one that is traditionally quite lacking in diversity—something that must change if we are to create a healthy future for birds, our planet, and ourselves. If this is to shift, we too must learn to “listen differently” in how we approach engaging new audiences, including the next generation, around the fight for bird conservation. Just as Negrón has demonstrated that there is more than one way to create music—there is more than one way to help birds.
With this goal in mind, Negrón hopes The Birdsong Project “provides people with multiple entry points—whether through sound, through visual art, through poetry—to connect and to listen to the world around them more intently and differently.”