In 2014, three Deaf students and their parents boarded a small yola in Samaná, Dominican Republic, together with artist Noa Batlle, clarinetist David Rothenberg, and a two-person camera crew. They set out to experience the live music of humpback whales — marking the first time for such an interspecies concert with a Deaf audience.

In 2015 and 2016, the initiative expanded dramatically: nearly ninety Deaf and non-Deaf participants joined each trip aboard a large vessel, transforming the intimate experiment into a communal exchange at sea. Musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra performed alongside the whales’ songs, turning the ocean into a resonant stage. Musicians extended the performance not only to the students but also to the whales themselves. A documentary film directed by Batlle captured these unprecedented encounters.

The project culminated with an artist talk by Batlle and Rothenberg at Centro León, offered specifically for Deaf students of Santiago de los Caballeros, further grounding the work in accessibility and interspecies dialogue.

As Idelisa Bonnelly, the pioneering marine biologist of the Dominican Republic, observed, the initiative offers an opportunity to perceive and celebrate the harmony that already exists between humanity and nature. By amplifying the voices of whales and orchestra alike, and ensuring Deaf students could fully inhabit the moment, the project reimagines accessibility beyond the human. It invites audiences to listen differently: to the vibrations of sound across bodies, to the sea as a chamber of resonance, and to the possibility of interspecies community.