Name: Walking Festival of Sound: Sanctuary for Environmental Listening
Start: 2026-04-25T14:00:00
Location: Harvard University

Harvard University Department of Music

For several hours on the Saturday afternoon of April 25, Holden Chapel will turn into a sanctuary for environmental listening. Being one of the oldest buildings in Harvard Yard, since 1744 this space has served many disparate functions, hosting morning and evening prayers and lectures, and later housing a medical laboratory. Its walls, which have witnessed both contemplation and scientific inquiry, today provide a unique environment for sonic experiences. On this occasion, the chapel will be filled with compositions by Music Department students and guest composers who, in their work, draw on environmental recordings. This experiece will serve as a reminder that science, spirituality, nature and human cultures are not seperate realms, but deeply entangled aspects of life at large.