Welcome

Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer, radio artist and sound ecologist.
She presents soundscape workshops and lectures internationally, performs and writes.

…narrative alchemy… The Wire, Issue 460
"A magical fusion of sounds."
Globe & Mail, Toronto
  • "A magical fusion of sounds."
    Globe & Mail, Toronto
  • "There was more than just a hint of oracular mysticism in Westerkamp's art. There was a magic in those sounds.” Stephen Pedersen, Chronicle-Herald, Halifax
  • "Westerkamp's music balances a poetics of sound with social commitments that include feminism and environmental politics. Her compositions are critical enactments of acoustic space....All invoke attentive listening." Donna Zapf, Beiträge zur Neuen Music, Germany
  • "Westerkamp creates new possibilities for listening. One can journey with her sound to inner landscapes and find unexplored openings in our sound souls. The experience of her music vibrates the potential for change.”
    Pauline Oliveros,Kingston, N.Y., USA (about CD transformations)
  • "Mere words are inadequate to describe what took place when the symphony began....Waves of sound rolled back and forth across the harbour bringing thousands of downtown office workers to their windows. The Canada geese from Stanley Park were aroused and circled through the boats, honking loudly as they joined in." Ken Drushka, Harbour and Shipping) about the Harbour Symphony)

KLAVIERKLANG WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING
Modulus Opening Night Concert
November 7, 2025, 7:30 pm,
Annex, 823 Seymour Street

KLAVIERKLANG, a cinematic tone poem, follows a young girl in post-war Germany who grows up loving the piano. She takes piano lessons—but instead of freeing the girl to play, the lessons make her frightened of making mistakes. The girl’s ears shut down, making music an uninspiring chore.

Later as a young woman, she travels to central British Columbia, to a ghost town and an abandoned house. There she spots a piano—perfectly ruined, a piano on which no note could be a mistake. She learns to listen again—and the girl and her music are free.

That girl went on to become celebrated soundscape composer / activist Hildegard Westerkamp. In this experimental music video, she joins forces with performer Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, a renowned pianist who also performs Klavierklang’s text. Together, they explore the liminal space between music and sound.

In a celebration of the piano as an extraordinary instrument, Iwaasa plays both its keys and plucks its strings, as if exploring a sound sculpture. Her non-linear spoken narrative interacts with intricate soundscapes evoking Westerkamp’s childhood in Germany. These are layered and digitally manipulated with Iwaasa’s recorded reflections on the piano, “this creature, this instrument, that you think you know.”

Filmmakers and installation artists Nettie Wild (director) and Michael Brockington (editor) capture this performance, interpreting the composition’s drama with lyrical imagery coloured and shaped by the music itself.

Duration 17 mins 35 secs including credits

[Film Still from KLAVIERKLANG
Jeremy Cox, Cinematographer; Michael Brockington, editor]

web design by ed