Free Sept. 18 talk will explore thrumming music of nature

Lisa Rainsong recording birdsong.

The late summer and early fall season brings a chorus of singing insects. That thrumming hum is the music of nature, as described by Lisa Rainsong, a longtime music theory professor at Cleveland Institute of Music and a professional naturalist who specializes in the music of Earth’s first musicians: birds, insects and amphibians.

On Sept. 18, 6:30–8 p.m., QuietClean Heights will host a free public program presented by Rainsong, “Birds and Insects are Listening,” to kick off a public awareness campaign across Cleveland Heights and its surrounding communities. The program will take place at the Lee Road Library, 2345 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights.

Rainsong, a longtime Cleveland Heights resident, is an active field naturalist who makes her own recordings of bird, insect, and amphibian song. She seeks to inspire an understanding of, and appreciation for, the oldest music on earth, and the protection of the avian, insect, and amphibian musicians and their concert venues at a time when their music is in danger of being silenced by climate change and habitat destruction.

Join QuietClean Heights at the Sept. 18 event to learn how crickets, katydids and other insects create and receive sound—and why. Learn to recognize insects by sound in this engaging program that will feature photographs, sonograms, and practical advice on how to invite a chorus into your own backyard.

Rainsong has presented programs at numerous park systems and for organizations across Northeast Ohio. QuietClean Heights is proud to sponsor Rainsong’s first presentation in her home community. To learn more about her work, visit www.listeninginnature.com.