Maritime Rites is a program of ten “environmental concerts for radio,” exploring the natural and cultural sounds of the Eastern Seaboard, first commissioned by American National Public Radio in 1984. The program features the improvisations of Wadada Leo Smith, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Lacy, Clark Coolidge, Joseph Celli, Jon Gibson, Malcolm Goldstein, George Lewis, John Cage, and, in an extended vocal solo, Alvin Curran himself. Foghorns from ten U.S. states and New Brunswick, Canada, are heard, alongside the sounds of water, wind, birdsong, and a panoply of maritime sonic signalling instruments.

Prior to its genesis as a work of radio art, Maritime Rites began as a series of concerts on waterborne vessels, the first of which was scored for choirs and shells on the waters of the lake of Villa Borghese park in Rome. Its most recent iteration was performed in 2025 on Hofvijver Lake for the Rewire Festival in The Hague.

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