Image: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, New York
Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, percussionist, and sound artist Susie Ibarra will bring her ‘Rhythm in Nature’ residency to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Art Preserve from October 5–11, 2026. Joined by co-producer Jake Landau, Ibarra will lead workshop intensives, field-recording sessions, listening exercises, and performances based on rhythms found in different habitats.
Ibarra will conduct and perform alongside residency participants in a unique piece of music echoing the rhythms of Sheboygan’s local ecosystems, including freshwater in Lake Michigan, trees and their frequencies and fractals, and local birdsongs. Participants will move from hearing and listening for rhythms and sounds in nature to recording, mixing, analyzing, and composing visually and sonically with them, concluding in a final performance.
The project also includes a site-specific app featuring field recordings from local sites, information about those locations and related ‘Rhythm in Nature’ concepts, and a mixing tool that allows users to create their own mixes and compositions from the recordings. Users can share responses to the sounds and places through a message board.
Spanning two days, the sites included the meadow at the Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Esslingen Park, the Sheboygan River, Willow Creek Preserve, Acuity Flagpole, Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse, and the North side jetties.
Starting at the Arts Center, residency participants will discuss their experiences listening to nature, sound recording, and performing rhythms from the local ecosystem together. They will then lead their communities on a sound and field-recording walk from the Arts Center to Lake Michigan, returning to the Arts Center to listen and reflect together.
