Come explore how sound mediates the relationship between humans and whales, and how the recognition of whales’ vocal expressions as music shapes our perception of them. “Singing and Listening with Whales: Exploring Human and More-Than-Human Musicalities,” presented by Marie Comuzzo will be held on Tuesday, February 24 at 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium at the Blackstone Memorial Library. The Branford Land Trust Winter 2026 Speaker Series is free and open to the public.
How are whale songs understood and produced across different cultures and disciplines? And how does connecting with whales through sound carry different meanings depending on cultural context? Marie’s talk will examine some of the interactions between First Nation communities and whales, the ways in which whales’ songs are studied within Western scientific communities, and the creative engagements between whales and musicians, both in live performances and recorded sound.
“Studying human-whale interactions across diverse cultures and disciplines highlights values of care, curiosity, and reverence for whales’ lives and their cultural participation,” Marie explains. “Arguably, hearing whale songs as music in the 1970s had – and continues to have – a tremendous political power in the anti-whaling and ocean protection campaigns. These have led to remarkable global change, establishing considerable limitations on the capitalistic exploitation of whales’ lives. This shift underscores the way Western cultures often equate complex melodic musicality with intelligence and emotional depth – qualities that can render a species more worthy of empathy, protection, and even survival.”
By examining these sound-based connections, Marie asserts that direct and indirect sonic exchanges function as vessels for ecological and cosmological repair, transmitting ancestral lessons that invite us to challenge extractive systems of life, reimagine gender and our relationship to the ocean and the earth, and reconsider what it means to be human.
Marie Comuzzo is an ACLS/Mellon Innovative Dissertation Fellow and a Ph.D. Candidate at Brandeis University. Marie’s research examines how sound mediates the relationship between humans and whales and the political power that recognizing whales’ vocalization as music had in ecological conservation and multispecies kinship within and beyond Western imaginaries. They also hold a Master’s in Musicology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a Masters in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Brandeis University. She has presented at conferences in the United States, Aotearoa New Zealand, and has been invited to give talks in the US, New Zealand, and Italy.
The upcoming Branford Land Trust Winter 2026 Speaker Series includes these events: Tom Cleveland, ““Fish Ladder, 20th Anniversary, History, Stories, and How It Came To Be” on March 24; Two Coyotes Wilderness School, “Raising Our Future Ancestors” on April 28; and our Annual Meeting in May featuring “Access to the Outdoors: Disability, Grit, and Belonging in Nature” with Justin Brownell.