Welcome to the website!

Richard BlackfordThis website is dedicated to my new work, which combines wild soundscape recordings with orchestral scoring. Here, you will be able to read about the background to The Great Animal Orchestra Symphony and about my two-year collaboration with natural sound expert Bernie Krause, following a visit to his home in Glen Ellen, California.
You can read about his remarkable book, on which the symphony is based, his current work in the field of wild soundscape recording and his increasingly important environmental work for awareness and the preservation of animal species.
You can hear extracts of field recordings that feature in the symphony and there’s also a page about the education projects Cheltenham Music Festival is running prior to the premiere on July 12th. There are background notes to the composition itself and technical info about how we mapped Bernie’s recordings onto a sampling keyboard and combined it with a large orchestra.
The concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and the Nimbus recording will be available in September. So read, listen and enjoy!