While audiences know her primarily as one of the most pre-eminent concert pianists performing today, Hélène Grimaud has also established herself as an active wolf conservationist. On Saturday afternoon, an “ambassador” from the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y., which Grimaud co-founded in 1999, will visit the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Atka, a 9‑year-old Arctic gray wolf, “is a unique ambassador as he travels to schools, museums, nature centers and libraries across the Northeast to help people learn about the importance of his wild brothers and sisters,” explains the Wolf Conservation Center website, which describes the organization as one that “promotes wolf conservation by teaching about wolves, their relationship to the environment, and the human role in protecting their future.”
Atka
Melanie Brigockas, manager of public relations and marketing at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, said in an e‑mail, “Atka has been visiting the Peabody since he was a year-old pup. We have been watching him grow for about eight years now. Some visitors have valued the experience so much they return every year to see him. Atka is happy, curious, and friendly and has excellent manners. He enters after people are seated and is guided to the front within inches of some visitors but they are asked not to pet him. After seeing this magnificent animal in person and hearing about wolf behaviors and the important role they play in the ecosystem, first-time visitors will leave with a sense of wonder and admiration — definitely a different understanding about wolves than they had before.”
The dust jacket of Grimaud’s memoir, Wild Harmonies: A Life of Music and Wolves, explains: “While in Florida in 1991, she took a late-night walk and encountered a man with his pet wolf-dog hybrid. She felt an immediate, instinctual connection to the almost wild creature — one that the animal seemed to share. From that moment, Grimaud knew she had found the missing piece within her. As her fascination with wolves grew, she became involved in the plight of this threatened species and committed her time and resources to found a wolf preserve in upstate New York.”
Atka will be at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History on Saturday, October 22. Programs will commence at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., and are free with museum admission. For more information, visit peabody.yale.edu.