Black Moon Trio transforms Bud Finds Her Gift by Robin Wall Kimmerer, with illustrations by Naoko Stoop, into an immersive concert performance where music becomes the voice of the story itself. Through live chamber music, narration, and evocative soundscapes, the trio brings Bud’s gentle journey of curiosity, growth, and belonging vividly to life.
As Bud searches for her unique gift, music guides the audience through moments of wonder, patience, and connection to the natural world. Each character and landscape is illuminated through melody and texture, inviting listeners to experience the story not only through words and images, but through sound. The performance mirrors the book’s core teachings: that gifts unfold in their own time, that listening is an act of care, and that every being has a role in the web of life.
Rooted in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s reverence for Indigenous wisdom and ecological balance, this concert invites audiences of all ages to slow down, listen deeply, and rediscover the quiet lessons of nature. Bud Finds Her Gift becomes more than a story on the page; it becomes a shared, living experience where music, story, and environment are woven together into a single, resonant offering.
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Jerod Impichchaachaahaᑊ Tate: Tochchíᑊna (2024)
Commissioned by Black Moon Trio
Katherine Rawlings: Bloom (2016)
Leo Brouwer: Pictures at Another Exhibition - Portrait of Chopin (Eugène Delacroix) (2004)
Cait Nishimura: Green & Brown (2025)
Matthew Peterson: Winning Isn’t Everything It’s the Only Thing (2023)
Jaylin Vinson: Boxers, Bullies, and Pugs (2024)
Composed for Black Moon Trio
David Uber: Ballade in G (1996)
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Robin Wall Kimmere is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Bud Finds Her Gift, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. This new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us.
Learn More Here
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Naoko Stoop is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her love of drawing began when she was a young child growing up in Japan. She uses found materials including plywood and brown paper bags as her canvas. She is the creator of picture books including Red Knit Cap Girl, which was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book, and the illustrator Woods & Words by Sara Holly Ackerman and more.
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Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods works collaboratively with community partners, artists, health care providers, and scientists to improve health equity and access to nature in Lake County, Illinois, and the Chicago region. We engage people with the outdoors through the arts, environmental education, and community action. Brushwood Center’s programs focus on youth, families, Military Veterans, and those facing racial and economic injustices.