Bethany Perkins

Her work sits where music and ecological systems meet — growth, decay, resilience, interconnection — through composition, improvisation, and self-production.

She holds a master's in jazz voice from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was mentored by Theo Bleckmann, Ingrid Jensen, and Todd Reynolds. She is the 2024 People's Choice Award winner of the American Traditions Vocal Competition. She has performed at Dizzy's Club at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joe's Pub, and Feinstein's/54 Below, and recently in Copenhagen. She has played the title role in four Equity productions of Always… Patsy Cline, and returns to it in Kansas City this fall.

She cultivates and maintains interior and exterior landscapes across New York, and her music grows out of it — field recordings, images, and patterns drawn from her botanic life and beyond.

She is currently at work on a body of songs shaped by mycorrhizal networks — the underground fungal systems through which plants exchange resources and information. Plants communicate through unseen networks; musicians communicate through listening and responsiveness. The work asks what happens when one model shapes the other.