Search
Hildegard Westerkamp
Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer who focuses on listening, environmental sound and acoustic ecology. She is on the board of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) and is a co-editor of its journal Soundscape – The Journal of Acoustic Ecology. She has taught courses in Acoustic Communication at Simon Fraser University, is conducting soundscape workshops and giving concerts and lectures internationally. Some of her compositional work appears in US film-maker Gus Van Sant’s films Elephant and Last Days. Her music has been commissioned by CBC Radio, Canada Pavilion at Expo '86, Ars Electronica (Linz), and Österreichischer Rundfunk, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien in Germany.
She received Honorable Mentions in competitions such as Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, Prix Italia, and the International Competition for Electroacoustic Music in Bourges, as well as a Recommendation for Broadcast from the International Music Council's 4th International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music.
Her articles have been published in Radio Rethink, Kunstforum, Musicworks, MusikTexte. For an extensive exploration into her compositional work see Andra McCartney's Sounding Places: Situated Conversations through the Soundscape Work of Hildegard Westerkamp, (York University, Toronto, 1999), and on the internet at: www.sfu.ca/~westerka/compositions.html
As part of Vancouver New Music's yearly season she has coordinated and led Soundwalks since 2003, which in turn has led to the creation of The Vancouver Soundwalk Collective