Sound Healing Part I

A Must Have Experience for All

Hi everyone! Long time no speak, chat, read, etc… Forgive me for the prolonged silence, it has been a busy summer filled with many gigs, research, driving up and down to North Carolina, and some form of relaxation (kind of).

Today’s post will be about Sound Healing. I will admit, I had a semi finished draft done via the substack app on my ipad, but it seems it decided to drift into the ether that is nothing. That’s my way of saying I fucking lost it, and am extremely disappointed in myself. That being said, here I am, starting anew. This is something I have been meaning to write about for ages, so I think it’s good timing I do so now, especially given my favorite sound healing collective, Bloom Sound Collective, is having an event this Monday.

Now, let me dive into my experience into sound healing. The story begins a couple years back when my super duper close friend, collaborator, sound healing artist and composer Derek Weagle ventured a question to me. The question asked whether I played with choirs, and knew what sound healing was. I had played with choirs, and singers, given my good ole basso continuo background, and of course the occasional Sunday church job. Sound healing…hell if I knew. After explaining it to me, I was interested and curious. For those of us who don’t know what it is, let me give a brief explanation. Sound healing combines voice, resonating instruments, and sometimes other music to help relax the body, mind, and ultimately the soul. At least, that’s my unrefined definition. Sound healers use different kinds of bells, shruti boxes, gongs, singing bowls, and so much more.

Back to the narrative: Derek was working with Choral Chameleon, an excellent ensemble of singers whose voices were next level. Around the same time, Molly Rabuffo (executive director of Bloom and one of the best singers I’ve heard and played with) and Derek founded Bloom Sound Collective, and partnered up with Choral Chameleon to deliver a night filled with sound healing, pure voices, and instruments. I was late to the game, with another cellist who was usually doing them up until that point. Come August 2022, my first experience came to perform with these two groups, and experience sound healing first hand.

Now, let me tell you, it was mind blowing. Imagine getting the best back crack of your life and your body tingles. That’s what it felt like. Reverberations coursing through the body, the air alive and dancing, and a sense of ease settling into the mind. Of course, this was great, but I nearly missed some cues and entrances because I had never experienced such a level of release, both mentally and spiritually. I played with the choir, played some long tones, joined them on songs, and experienced for the first time in a long time, a renewal, a rekindling of hope for music and why I was doing this. People after would return to their bodies at the end of the experience, and comment on how beautiful and inspiring the night was. For context, during these kind of things, you can either sit in a chair, or lay down on a yoga mat and cover yourself with a blanket. As I like to call it, yoga without the effort (but really, yoga for the soul).

Fast forward into the future, doing multiple sound healing ventures with Bloom and Chameleon, the time came when Bloom did their own event, right in Brooklyn. This time, I was offered to play a solo. A kind of segue-way between sections of the healing coming back down to Earth. I decided on John Corigliano’s “Fancy on a Bach Air,” a sort of homage to the first cello suite and of course J.S. Bach. The piece is structured in a way that allows the cellist to float between notes at their own pace, time, and create connections however they see fit. There are some notated moments that should be followed, but typically its a free form piece. People loved it, and loved the space it promoted before, during, and after its conclusion. Anyways, the night was magical and filled with an energy I felt the first couple of times participating in the sound bath. The night ended, and people kept walking up to us sharing their thoughts, feelings, leaving a desire to want to give more music back to them. I never wanted that feeling to end, though all good things must come to a conclusion. That’s how it is, and should stay. Can’t live in elysium forever haha.

Anyways, I can keep on going on and on about sound healing, and the impact it’s had on me as both a person existing in that space, and helping create and sustain it. I’ll have a part two out eventually, discussing my most recent experience and why it was so meaningful for me, and the audience (i think/hope). If time allows, it’ll come sooner rather than later.

Now, as I mentioned, the timing could not be better. Bloom is having an amazing event this coming Monday, where most of the founding sound healers (click before to see all the sound healers. They’ve been amazing at their craft, and so supportive of me) will come together to deliver literal awesomeness. Click here for all details to the event. If everything I have written thus far has resonated with you, or piqued your curiosity, check it out. If you can’t make it, more to come I am sure (follow them on Insta). Of course, this post sounds like an advertisement for them, but the little gap of free time I found, the loss of my previous draft, and their event kind of lined up. When I say that being with them has been one of the most gratifying, holistic, eye opening music experiences ever, I mean it. I don’t say that often, and if you know me personally, you know it’s a rarity. The experiences I have had with them thus far has begun healing my relationship with music, and made me ever so slightly less jaded (I hope…I think…I hope so).

Anyways, cheers. I hope you have enjoyed this post. It came out to be a bit longer than I expected, so I hope someone gets through the entire thing. And if not…oh well!