A National Day of Quiet

The fascination with silence took root early in the life of composer John Cage. In 1928, during a speech contest at Los Angeles High School, he argued for the establishment of a national day of quiet. Cage believed that by embracing silence, people could finally “hear what other people think.”

This marked the beginning of his lifelong journey into exploring the nature of quiet and the listening opportunities that disciplined silence offers. For Cage, silence wasn't just the absence of sound; he found beauty in the sounds of a truck speeding by, radio static, the hum of an…