Rhythm in Nature Workshop Intensives with Susie Ibarra and Jake Landau

Tuesday–Wednesday, October 6 & 7, 2026 10:00 am–12:30 pm JMKAC Theatre, Art Preserve, and other nearby locations Applications are due Friday, September 18. Due to a later school start date, Lawrence University students may apply through Friday, September 25. Apply Here Susie Ibarra, Pulitzer Prize-winning Composer, percussionist and sound artist and founder of Rhythm in Nature, along with Rhythm in Nature co-producer Jake Landau are excited to bring their next in-person residency to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and community. Stemming from the concepts of Ibarra’s Rhythm in Nature: An Ecology of Rhythm book, which teach her six-part analysis to researching and utilizing the rhythms in nature in different habitats of the earth, this will be a five-day residency of workshops, a performance presentation, and a community event. Ibarra will focus applications of Rhythm in Nature practices on the natural environment around the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Art Preserve campus with the local ecosystems of freshwater in Lake Michigan, trees and their frequencies and fractals, and local endemic birdsongs of the season. Over the course of the residency, participants will learn and experience going through the process of first hearing and listening for rhythms and sounds in nature, to recording them, mixing them, analyzing and composing visually and sonically with them, and conclude in a final performance based on this work with Jake Landau and Susie Ibarra joining the performance presentation and Ibarra conducting the work. This will be done through collective field recording sessions at various locations including the Art Preserve, collective listen back sessions in studio, and workshops on analyzing, composing with, and performing music based on these rhythms and experiences. “I find examining, practicing, meditation on, and reflecting on these natural rhythms from the field, in the studio, on the stage, and applied to creative practice have left me more connected to our earth’s environment and ecosystems and inspired by its wonder” – Susie Ibarra, Rhythm in Nature: An Ecology of Rhythm Please note: Due to limited capacity and close engagement with Susie Ibarra during her residency, participation in these workshop intensives will be selective and application-based. View and fill out our brief application here. Applications are due Friday, September 18. Due to a later school start date, Lawrence University students may apply through Friday, September 25. Selected participants will be required to attend both workshop intensive sessions, the performance on Thursday, October 8 at 7:30 pm, and the afternoon community event on Saturday, October 10. You may direct questions about the application to JMKAC’s Associate Curator of Programming & Performance, Marielle Allschwang, at [email protected].