Cheryl E. Leonard was awarded a 2008/2009 Antarctic Artists and Writers Program Grants from the National Science Foundation. In the austral summer of 2008/2009 she journeyed to Palmer Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula to create musical compositions using natural sounds and materials.

While onsite in Antarctica, Cheryl played amplified natural materials such as ice, rock, water, moss, feathers, shells and bones as musical instruments. She recorded compositional elements and improvisations created with these instruments, made field recordings of the region's wildlife and natural soundscapes, and gathered a few Antarctic natural objects to bring back to the U.S. and use as instruments in live performances.

Leonard is now busy crafting a set of musical works, based on the forces that shape environments and ecosystems in the region, that combine sounds from natural object instruments with the recordings she made in Antarctica. Each piece will have a unique subject matter and instrumentation. Musical structures, sound sources, and the process of developing each piece will reflect that work’s specific subject. Individual compositions will explore sea and land ice, the Antarctic circumpolar current, wind and storm patterns, geological and paleontological histories, human exploration and exploitation, adaptations of life to environmental extremes, and changing terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Themes will focus on topics under current scientific investigation in the region, and highlight connections between the Antarctic Peninsula and global climate change.

Completed musical compositions will be performed in a series of live concerts in 2009 and 2010. Recordings of the compositions will be released in late 2010. CHATTERMARKS, a CD of Cheryl's best Antarctic field recordings, is now available.

Read about Cheryl's adventures on The Ice and hear samples of her Antarctic recordings at: www.musicfromtheice.blogspot.com and on Electronic Musician Magazine's blog: The Bus. Different materials are posted on each site.

Cheryl's next performance of Antarctic compositions will be Saturday April 17th, 2010 at The Lab, in San Francisco.

Antarctic sounds CD just released- CHATTERMARKS: Field Recordings from Palmer Station, Antarctica