Flyways Project Overview

To many people, migrating birds are harbingers of the seasons, and spirit messengers, revered for their extraordinary powers. To others, they are symbols of power, peace and freedom. But migrating birds face many threats, and each year, fewer birds of many species succeed in returning to their breeding grounds, largely because key habitats along their routes of passage, or flyways, are damaged or destroyed.

Each spring and fall, traveling between breeding grounds in the north and wintering areas in the south, more than half a billion birds of about 280 species follow the Great Rift Valley, one of the most important raptor and soaring bird migration corridors in the world.

Conservation of Culture and Habitat

The Great Rift Valley is a vast cleft on the face of the Earth, running some 5,000 km from Turkey to Mozambique, and home to tremendous biodiversity and an extraordinary array of cultures. However, throughout the region many traditions of music and dance are currently undervalued and in decline. Embedded in these music traditions is a cultural heritage that is in danger of disappearing.

Just as the birds’ aerial highway overarches many ecosystems, so can music also weave a joining thread, connecting peoples across cultures on common ground. The Flyways project is a musical metaphor for the richness and interdependence of life in all its forms. A celebration of the birds' extraordinary journey, using the music from the cultures over which they fly along with the voices of the birds themselves, the project's purpose is to support conservation relating to the birds and to affirm the music traditions found throughout the region.

The various aspects of the Flyways project include:

• Field research and recording, building new musical collaborations across cultures, and learning from indigenous cultures. To date, field research and recording expeditions have been completed in twelve of the sixteen countries of the migration route (click to learn more): South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey and Russia. Local videographers were hired to document the work. (See videos).
• Composing the Flyways work, interweaving music from cultures along the Rift, and vocalizations of the birds
• Recording the Flyways CD / informational DVD (to be released in 2011)
• Performing concerts by the Great Rift Valley Orchestra, a new ensemble comprised of indigenous musicians from along the Great Rift flyway, with members of the Paul Winter Consort. To date, this ensemble has presented Flyways concerts in five countries
• Raising awareness in both urban and rural communities about birds and their migrations, as well as highlighting the musical and cultural traditions.