Listening Bodies + Giving Tuesday

Hello, thank you for opening and reading this email. I know the amount of end-of-year-holiday emails can be overwhelming!
TLDR 
Click this link:
https://igg.me/at/listeningbodies
watch and donate!

  Today is Giving Tuesday. I wanted to tell you about an Indiegogo campaign I just started with my collaborator from Listening Bodies.

As I developed more and more as an artist and practitioner of meditation, I found a natural calling for teaching and that people were interested in my life experiences and what I was sharing.   After I completed my Deep Listening certification I found a synthesis of my music and meditation practice where they were no longer separate. However, one section of my practice and teaching that was missing was body practices… until I met Monica Gentile.
Her teaching style and areas of expertise (somatic, movement, dance, yoga (Hatha and Laughter)) fit perfectly with what I was teaching. Very organically and effortlessly, we planted the seeds of what is a holistic and integral practice called Listening Bodies.
We’ve taught in Philadelphia and Berlin this year and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We taught classes for dancers, a sound walking class, an ASMR class and will lead a 2-day workshop in a few weeks here in Berlin. 
We have been invited to bring Listening Bodies to Mexico. We will teach our workshop at residencies, schools and project spaces in six locations in Mexico and two in Costa Rica. We will be paid small fees and offered a place to stay. However, we need to pay our own travel costs… thus the Indiegogo. A grant we were applying for did not work out, so we’re asking for your help!
If you’ve read this far you are a dedicated and supportive person! We need to raise $2500 for our flights from Europe and back and flights, buses, and taxis around Mexico and Costa Rica.
If you are reading this email you may have supported my work in the past. So now during this time of giving we are asking for more support to help grow our family of Listening Bodies to include artists and communities in Mexico and Costa Rica.
At a minimum check out our Indiegogo page and video (the end is funny 🙂 https://igg.me/at/listeningbodies

Have a safe, peaceful and light holiday.
With love from Christmassy Berlin, Michael and Monica 

P.S. Please feel free to respond to this newsletter email. I read all the responses and I love hearing from you. Also please feel free to add me to your own mailing list to keep up to date with what you’re doing and staying connected.

Mixes from the Field

‘m very excited to announce a new collaborative project, a new residency and a call for used keyboard donations for a community art and music school in Philadelphia…

Mixes from the Field

Last spring I met Dutch sound artist Sharon Stewart at EMPAC during a day-long meeting of Deep Listening teachers, students and community. After the symposium, during a layover at Penn Station and on the train ride back to Philadelphia we connected over our shared interest in field recording and sound art philosophies. From that meeting and a continued connection online we developed this new and exciting framework.

Mixes from the Field

Today, we’re pleased to announce a new website, teaching, performance and collaborative project called Mixes from the Fieldexploring the connection between environment, field recording, Deep Listening, sonic ecology and sound art.

This year I am honored to be Composer in Residence at Village of the Arts and Humanities with support from American Composers Forum. The residency will culminate in a week-long workshop with students at the Village and Mixes from the Field. During this week-long intensive we will be teaching the students about Deep Listening techniques, how to listen and remain connected to the environment and how to make music from the found sounds of their world. It will include hands-on technical workshops, field trips, sound walks and sonic meditations. The finished work by the students will be posted to the Mixes from the Field website and be part of the global community of listening and sharing.

Village of Arts and Humanities


Also Mixes from the Field will be hosting a day-long Deep Listening / Field Recording workshop for adult artists on Saturday March 25 at Art Church (52nd and Webster Street) in West Philadelphia. Look for a detailed announcement email coming soon…


CALLING ALL LONELY KEYBOARDS

As part of my residency at Village of the Arts and Humanities, I’ve expressed interest in starting to give keyboard lessons after school to the students there. The Village already has an impressive lineup of free music performance and production lessons for students. They already teach guitar, drums, music production, singing, rapping, podcasting, but not keyboards/piano! Why? Because they need some keyboards! This is where you can help.

  1. Do you have an old or new keyboard with a minimum of 50 keys (synthesizer or digital piano) that you’d like to donate? It should have full sized keys with touch sensitive velocity.
  2. Would you like to “sponsor a keyboard” by helping to purchase a keyboard for VAH?
  3. Do you know of a music or piano store who might like to donate a keyboard to VAH?

Once we have a few keyboards I’m going to start giving lessons there as part of my composer residency. In addition to teaching keyboard technique, the keyboard can be a gateway into the wide galaxy of music theory, chords, songwriting, collaboration, improvisation, playing by ear, sound design and self-expression.

Please get in touch at [email protected] or 267-312-2821 if you’d like to be involved!

Thank you!!

Michael