Experience the uniquely stirring voice of Tibetan singer-songwriter Tenzin Choegyal, who will perform solo and accompanied by a string quartet. Riverkeeper’s Tracy Brown and Nepali waterkeeper Megh Bahadur Ale highlight the NYC-based group's urgent advocacy to protect our global waterways in this intimate evening, hosted by NS+ curator Elena Park.
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Music is like drifting clouds that fly freely over the man-made geographical borders in this infinite space of possibilities,” says Tenzin Choegyal, the Tibetan singer and songwriter who has collaborated with artists such as Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Jesse Paris Smith, and Patti Smith. "With his soul-stirring voice, Choegyal creates a meditative and heart-opening experience," responded Tricycle magazine to his new album, Whispering Sky - though that statement could be beautifully applied to any song shared by this captivating artist. Choegyal grew up near the sacred Mount Kalish, an origin point for the rivers that flow through Tibet (Macha Khabab), Nepal (Karnali), and India (Ganges). Riverkeeper's Executive Director Tracy Brown will describe timely efforts to protect and safeguard waters here and abroad, where critical threats to the ecology and wildlife are at play every day, while Megh Bahadur Ale, the Riverkeeper of the Karnali (the Hudson River's "sister") joins on tape to share his perspective from the frontlines, including footage from Joshua Pearson’s short documentary, Sister River.
NationalSawdust+, the lively performance and conversation series curated by Elena Park since the venue opened its doors, brings together luminaries from across disciplines who share their passion for music and explore ideas and current issues, making surprising connections. This season, NS+ continues its For Nature theme, investigating the interplay and collision between the natural and human world; programs feature artists and musicians, scientists, and activists working to preserve and restore the environment, with recent evenings focusing on regeneration, coral reef and wildlife protection, and indigenous wisdom. The NS+ team includes Producer Jeff Tang and Associate Producer Avery Leigh Draut.
For Nature is made possible by the generous support of Kathryn and Emmanuel Morlet and the Wescustogo Foundation.
Please join us for other programs in our NS+ Series:
TENZIN CHOEGYAL
Photo credit: David Kelly
Tenzin Choegyal is one of the world's finest musicians in the Tibetan tradition. As a son of Tibetan nomads, he feels a particular connection to the music of the high Himalayan plateau.
In a career spanning 20+ years Tenzin has performed at festivals across Australia and curated numerous events and concerts including Brisbane’s annual Festival of Tibet. Internationally he has performed in New Zealand, Japan, India, Germany, Bangladesh, Russia, and the United States, including performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall. With his musical offerings, he has also opened many of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Public Talks in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. While proudly continuing the nomadic lineage which is central to his repertoire, Tenzin also embraces opportunities to take his music into more contemporary, uncharted territory, both in the studio and on stage.
Tenzin has nine independent albums, three of them with his fusion band Tibet2Timbuk2, and regularly performs with Camerata Brisbane’s acclaimed Chamber Orchestra, releasing an album titled Yeshi Dolma. His collaborative albums include The Last Dalai Lama? with Philip Glass; Peradam by Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith featuring Anoushka Shankar and Charlotte Gainsbourg; and the 2021 Grammy-nominated Songs from the Bardo, a moving interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, released through Smithsonian Folkways with his longtime friends and collaborators Jesse Paris Smith and Laurie Anderson. An outstanding composer/performer with a great depth of musical knowledge, intuition, and inventiveness, Tenzin continues to bring new sounds of Tibet while strongly holding the essence of ancient Tibetan wisdom. He attributes his art form to the early karmic imprints of hearing his mother, father, and elders as a toddler.
Tenzin Choegyal's most recent album, Whispering Sky, released in August 2024, is a deeply immersive album recorded with friends and collaborators in Canada, the UK, Japan, and Australia. The single Snow Flower was released in November 2024.
MEGH BAHADUR ALE
Megh Bahadur Ale is a river guide, explorer, conservationist, and eco-adventure tourism expert with nearly three and a half decades of experience. An Ashoka Fellow since 2007, he is the founder of multiple ventures including Ultimate Descents Nepal (1992), Borderlands Eco-Adventure Resort (1997), and Nature-Treks.com (2007). He introduced canyoning to Nepal, and developed leadership training programs for youths and professionals.
As a social innovator, Megh founded the Nepal River Conservation Trust (1995), the Bagmati River Festival (2001), and the Tour de Lumbini (2012). He led the 2018 Karnali River Expedition, producing a management framework to protect Nepal’s last free-flowing river. Megh also coined The Great Karnali Quest – a 248 km raft race, the longest in the world – to raise awareness for the Karnali River. Initially scheduled for 2020, the event was postponed due to COVID-19 and the 2024 earthquake in Karnali Province, but is now rescheduled for March 2026.
A recipient of the PATA Personality of the Year (2016), Megh continues championing river conservation through innovative projects like the Andhikhola School of Bamboo Technology.
TRACY BROWN
Tracy Brown became President and Hudson Riverkeeper at the environmental protection NGO Riverkeeper in 2021. A recognized leader in clean water advocacy, she brings a multidisciplinary approach to her work, prioritizing data-driven, community-oriented strategies to protect and restore the Hudson River from source to sea. During her tenure as President, she has helped expand Riverkeeper's iconic water quality monitoring program, grown its fleet of boats engaged in patrol and science work on the River, and spearheaded the passage of key environmental legislation. Before taking on this leadership role at Riverkeeper, she was instrumental in developing water quality monitoring programs at both Riverkeeper and Save the Sound, and was an architect of New York's Sewage Pollution Right to Know Law. A resident of Sleepy Hollow, Tracy is a founder of the Peabody Preserve Outdoor Classroom, a nature preserve for hands-on, outdoor education for the students of the Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow public schools. She is also a member of the Pleiades Network, a national community of women leaders in environmental and social causes.
RIVERKEEPER
Riverkeeper protects and restores the Hudson River watershed, and safeguards drinking water supplies for millions of New York residents, through advocacy rooted in community partnerships, science, and law. Founded in 1966 by a group of fishermen who banded together to protect the river from polluters, Riverkeeper‘s vision is of a Hudson teeming with life, with engaged communities boating, fishing, and swimming throughout its watershed. Since that time, Riverkeeper has continued to patrol the river, inform the public, and go to court to hold polluters accountable. In addition to fighting threats to clean water — like destructive power plants, reckless development, and decrepit infrastructure — Riverkeeper also specializes in solutions: from improving wildlife habitats, to increasing investment in water supply and sewer systems, to rallying thousands of volunteers to restore their local riverfronts.
ELENA PARK
Filmmaker, producer, and NationalSawdust+ curator Elena Park has moved freely through the worlds of arts, culture, and media throughout her colorful career. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she founded Lumahai Productions to embrace opportunities for artistic collaboration and social change with artists, thinkers, and communities as well as institutions, large and small.
Elena's first hour-long film, Eun Sun Kim: A Journey Into Lohengrin, created with San Francisco Opera (SFO), was just released, with broadcasts on KQED. Last spring, she conceived and directed Visual Cavafy, a series of visual poems screened at the New Museum as part of the Onassis Foundation's Cavafy Festival, showcasing the talents of Taylor Mac, Julianne Moore, Caroline Shaw, and Carl Hancock Rux with Daniel Bernard Roumain, Bora Yoon, and Jeffrey Zeigler, among others.
Additional director/executive producer credits include eight In Song award-winning video portraits for SFO, featuring Pretty Yende and Jamie Barton; Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus performances ranging from Mozart to Debussy to Unsuk Chin, conducted by Alan Gilbert and Jane Glover; Vân-Ánh Võ for Stanford Live; and Jake Heggie's Intonations for the Cabrillo Festival. For the Metropolitan Opera, she is Executive Producer of the Saturday radio broadcasts and was Supervising Producer for the first 140 shows in its worldwide Live in HD series.
Selected roles: Curator for SFO's INSTIGATORS; Supervising Producer for San Francisco Symphony's MTT25: An American Icon; Special Advisor for …(Iphigenia); Artistic Consultant for the Kennedy Center; Executive Producer for WNYC Radio; and Strategic Advisor for SFO, Cambodian Living Arts, and Meyer Sound. TV/film credits: Bel Canto, Amazon's Mozart in the Jungle.