販売情報

Join us for the book launch of The Shell Seeker by ocean expert and award-winning author Juli Berwald. Gorgeously illustrated and featuring an interactive wheel set into the cover, the book explores the ways shells have inspired us through art, music, architecture, financial systems, and even by providing insights into our future.

The event will include a screening of a short documentary, The Rebel Reef, a collaboration between Juli and Chad Cannon (B.A. ’11). The film interweaves the story of human resilience with that of an unexpectedly healthy coral reef in Honduras. Chad composed the score for the film and will perform a mini concert on violin following the film screening.

July 7, International House of Japan (Roppongi), 6:30-8:30pm. (Doors open at 6:15pm).

Email contact for enquiries: chadcannonmusic@gmail.com

Juli Berwald, Ph.D. is an ocean scientist and author based in Austin, Texas. In addition to The Shell Seeker, she is author of Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs, which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone, which won an Indie Choice Award. Juli has contributed to magazines including National Geographic, Discover, Science, Nature, Texas Monthly, and The New York Times. She has been featured in television and movies, and numerous podcasts. She has also written math, physics, and biology textbooks. Juli founded and is the President of the non-profit Tela Coral, which is working to protect and understand some of the rarest coral in the Caribbean. Tela Coral is delighted to partner with Music for the Ocean, whose concerts are supporting efforts to build the first marine lab and biobank on the Honduran mainland. Juli graduated from Amherst College and holds a PhD in Ocean Science from the University of Southern California where she studied satellite imagery of the ocean.

Chad Cannon is a composer and violinist whose work can be heard in the Oscar-winning Netflix documentary American Factory, the BAFTA-winning PlayStation game Ghost of Tsushima (and its Hokkaido-based sequel Ghost of Yotei), and the Peabody-winning HBO film Night is Not Eternal. He was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy for his score for Exposing Muybridge, and has received 7 International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) nominations, including for Harbor from the Holocaust featuring special guest performer Yo-Yo Ma. As an arranger and orchestrator, he has worked for Joe Hisaishi, the composer for Hayao Miyazaki’s animated Studio Ghibli films, and has worked on major entertainment franchises such as The Hobbit trilogy, The Secret Life of Pets 1-2 , and Guardians of the Galaxy. Chad recently created Music for the Ocean, a set of compositions and improvisations for violin and piano that can be summarized as a “nature documentary for the concert hall,” complete with animation and sound design. The show teaches audiences about marine life while raising money for Tela Coral, a nonprofit working with scientists to study and preserve critically endangered Caribbean corals in Honduras. Chad is a graduate of Harvard, Juilliard, and the Sundance Composer Labs, and is a fellow in the US-Japan Leadership Program (USJLP).

The evening will be hosted by Nobuko Saito Cleary, a distinguished leader in U.S.–Japan cultural exchange and international communication. As the founder of Cross-Cultural Communications, she has worked extensively in education, business, culture and the arts, helping to foster understanding and collaboration between Japan and the United States. Before moving to the United States, she enjoyed a successful career in Japan as a television and radio host. Today, she continues to play a vital role in strengthening U.S.–Japan relations through her work in cultural diplomacy and education. In recognition of her many contributions, she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, with Silver Rays, by the Government of Japan in 2022. Through the film "Paper Lanterns" she is actively visiting many countries to share the message of Peace as her life work. The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and World Trade Organization (WTO) awarded her with their Certificate of Commendation. The Japan Societies of both Northern California and Boston have also honored her with their Distinguished Award. With her warmth, insight, and wealth of experience, she will guide audiences through this special evening.