“Music in nature’s always been a part of Westben,” says Donna Bennett, co-founder of Westben Centre for Connection & Creativity through Music. It’s a mission statement most people will associate with the Barn, a 400-seat timber-frame structure with grand doors that roll back to let the summer ambience in. With the Sounds in Nature event on September 28 and 29, the storied Campbellford arts centre is taking that philosophy one step further.
“We’re not a black box theatre who try to shut out the world or create a new world. Nature is part of it,” Bennett says. That might mean butterflies fluttering past the barn doors, or catching a show beside the pond at the Willow Hill amphitheatre, or watching a performance around a campfire. For Sounds in Nature, it means following a group of musicians and dancers on a morning walk through Mary West Nature Reserve.
“It’s a small-group experience with a naturalist and we take them through the forest. All of a sudden they hear music, and they don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s so fun to see their faces turn and get excited,” says Bennett. “We have one musician start and then a little bit farther down another, and then a third. They lead us to a little opening in the forest where we all sit on camping stools and the naturalist talks about how the Nature Conservancy of Canada is trying to revitalize this property, and how you can do that at home.”
Even without the performances, the Mary West Nature Reserve is a fascinating place. Part of the Conservancy’s goal is to beat back invasive species and restore native ones, protecting the surrounding woodland. Part of the property has also been turned into a seed orchard, where repurposed farm fields now provide native seed for other nearby restoration projects.
Once the naturalist has shared their ecological insight, the artistic portion resumes: “then dancers appear and they take us to another spot at the forest by a stream. There is a group of musicians there and they play about a half-hour concert with some interactive elements. It’s a full sensory experience,” Bennett adds.
That includes taste, as the group heads back to the Westben campfire for some treats from Nikki Fotheringham, who incorporates edible flowers into her baking. There’s an opportunity to chat with the musicians and dancers and even go home with some seeds, if participants would like to apply the Mary West Nature Reserve conservation practices in their own backyard.
Overall, Sounds in Nature is a wellness-centred experience designed to leverage the health benefits of time spent in nature. The music is calibrated to complement the outdoor soundscape, with double bassist Ben Finley and supporting musicians improvising over bird calls before segueing into a pair of compositions written specifically for the forest.
Ben Finley is the son of Bennett and Westben’s Artistic and Managing Director Brian Finley, as well as creative director of the Centre’s Performer-Composer Residency program. The program sees eleven artists from all over the world come for a week of natural inspiration similar to the Sounds in Nature walk.
The international connection is a sign of how much Westben has grown since its inception. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, it has evolved from its roots as a classical music venue to one that embraces rock, pop, folk, comedy, and more. “It’s hard to believe—July 1, 2000 was our first concert,” Bennett says, sounding surprised and gratified by Westben’s enduring popularity. “There was no big, long rationale or plan at the beginning—we just wanted to share music with the community and live in our own community.”
Sounds in Nature is just one manifestation of the creative seeds that were planted 25 years ago, but if fall is a time to appreciate the harvest, Westben’s promises to be bountiful.
Sounds in Nature runs September 28 & 29, 2024. Visit Westben.ca for tickets, info, and more
