Celebrate Yourself in Nature

Yoga, Meditation and laughter
Celebrating yourself in nature
A weekend of regenerating wellness in the nature of the Itria Valley.

Celebrating yourself in nature is a residential weekend dedicated to the regenerating wellness of Yoga, Meditations and Laughter, in the splendid natural scenery of the Itria Valley under the oaks of Par Tòt.

Two immersive days of regenerating practices in an environment that raises peace and harmony. A residential workshop has the charm and power of community, like a family, either small or large, celebrating every aspect of life together.

The journey will begin with a ritual, a Sufi “Karunesh” dance to open the heart and connect us deeply, working on the heart as an intelligent organ, an energetic and spiritual portal.

The first day will begin with Hatha Yoga, to find inner peace. You will learn some techniques for immediate well-being by improving posture, breathing, increasing flexibility and tone of your whole body. Then we will practice a visualization and exploration of the Chakras. Yoga Nidra will follow to let you experience deep relaxation, as to sleep like a baby!

Throughout the whole first day, you will be guided by the music of the American ambient musician, Michael Reiley. Michael will play the hang drum live during Hatha Yoga, he will give us a sound bath on the Chakras to activate specific frequencies during the Chakra yoga session, and for the Yoga Nidra practice he will accompany us with a relaxing concert of deep immersive ambient music to help us fall asleep.

The second day will be dedicated to Laughter Yoga and to the discovery of unconditional laughter, source of happiness and strength. You will find that laughing with or without a reason makes no difference to the brain, and that laughing is a medicine for everyone, with multiple benefits. Laughter Yoga is a very powerful practice that brings joy and fun. Even the most shy will not be able to stop laughing!

Binaural Sound Therapy and Talk

Join us for a special Sound Healing Night led by Michael Reiley, a Therapeutic Musician and Deep Listening® Facilitator.

This binaural sound healing will be based on the principles of therapeutic music, a tradition with ancient roots supported by contemporary scientific research. This approach has the potential to relieve anxiety, reduce stress, and cultivate an inner sense of ease and calm.


The healing will be composed of two distinct phases. The first portion of the evening will be devoted to a discussion about the nature of sound healing with time for questions and group discussion. After a quick bio-break, participants will then be invited to settle into a comfortable position and simply receive the vibrational support of Michael Reiley’s amazing binaural sound healing. A sample of his work can be found by clicking here. It’s recommended, if possible, that you listen to this concert using headphones in order to fully experience the healing effect of binaural beats. A discussion of potential health benefits of binaural beats can be found here. (If you don’t have access to headphones, it’s OK, you’ll still derive considerable benefit from this experience.)


Date: Thursday, June 17, 2021
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EST
Cost: $20.00 (or $30 Buddy Discount — Two attendees for the price of 1-1/2)
Location: Online


Teacher:
Michael Reiley is a composer, musician, teacher, Therapeutic Musician, and Deep Listening® Facilitator. With over 20 years of experience as a keyboardist, producer, composer, and performer, his work explores the nexus of inner and outer soundscapes as a mode of transpersonal connection and oneness. His music uses techniques and technologies such as drones, binaural beat frequencies, color therapy, data sonification, field recording, tape loops, sacred geometry, esoteric frequency ratios, alternate tuning systems, extended improvisations, sound healing instruments, and more traditional instruments like piano, hand pan, and synthesizer. Michael teaches at the Center for Deep Listening® at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and leads somatic listening workshops around the world called Listening Bodies with his partner Monica Gentile.

Sound Sangha

🧘🏽‍♀️ Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. I am pleased to announce that I’m starting a weekly meditation group called sound sangha (“Sangha” is a Pali and Sanskrit word that means “community”). This will be an exclusive meet-up for Patrons. It will be a 45-minute session, with 20 minutes of meditation, followed by a group discussion around a topic of listening and mindfulness held on Zoom. 

🧡 You can become a Patron and join the community of Mindful Listeners here: http://patreon.com/michaelreiley.  🐚 The focus of the group will be on the intersection of meditation, sound, and listening. We’ll work with classic mindfulness-based meditation practices, as well as the work of Pauline Oliveros (Deep Listening), R. Murray Schafer (Soundscapes), Kay Gardener (Sounding the Inner Landscapes), Ajahn Amaro (Inner Listening), Thich Nhat Hahn, and Nada Yoga (just to name a few). 

🐘 Listening can be a wonderful tool to develop mindfulness, clarity, and calm in your life. No meditation experience is necessary! Depending on the experience level of the group, I will adjust the guided meditation accordingly.

🎶 In addition to our weekly meditation group, you’ll have access to download basically all the music I make. I upload at least one form of soundscape music track a week to download for your collection or stream on the Patreon website or app.

 🗓 The first meeting with be Friday, May 7 at 12 pm Eastern Time, and every Friday at noon thereafter. 

🙏🏻 Thanks so much for your support and love over the past year as my Patrons! I’m really excited for you some of you to meet each other and for us to grow as a community. Please share with anyone who might be interested.

Weimar Workshop / Bauhaus.fm

I had a wonderful time co-leading a two-week workshop with the sound studies students at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in Germany. We had a deep and expressive time exploring Deep Listening, Field Recording, and Sonic Art with a very gifted and interesting group of students.

I also had the privilege to discuss my work on their radio station over at Bauhaus.fm on the show called “Every Dreaming Body is a Listener?!” with Brandon LaBelle. You can find a recording of the conversation on their website (in English).

Sensing In Festival

Listening Bodies was delighted to share a half-day workshop and a evening concert with the Sensing In Festival organized by Movement Artisans and the Axis Syllabus community in Berlin. In this workshop we synthesized some classic Deep Listening® exercises like Zina’s Rhythm Circle and the Tuning Meditation with some of our own inquiries like Monica’s Tuning the Ear as well as some new pieces involving the synesthesia of touch and hearing with live music by Michael. Check out more over at Listening Bodies.

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.

Summer of Listening

Happy summer everyone. Thanks for opening this email and at least skimming the first line 😉

I had an amazing time in Europe these past two months. I did a 3-week tour with William “Bilwa” Costa which took our Un/Natural Fields project to Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Austria and Poland with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. After that, I did another set of shows with singer Katrine Faber in Germany and Denmark. I’m still waiting on some documentation to be posted, but I will share some live recordings and videos soon. I have plans to collaborate on more projects with both artists in 2019.

Faber McDermott performing at Spektrum in Berlin. Photo by Carl Krüger

I’ll be back in Berlin for a three-month residency at GlogauAIR working on and (finally) presenting a version of Echozoo this fall. Until then I’ll be in Philadelphia and I’m doing a series of workshops and concerts in the coming weeks centered around mindfulness and listening.
 


COURTS

Photo by Shawn Theodore, a fellow Artist in Residence

Before I get into the workshops, if you’re in Philadelphia this week, please check out the closing party for an amazing photo and sound installation I was honored to be a part of. I was an artist in residence at the Village of Arts and Humanities SPACES program. As part of that residency, I created music and sound design (along with the band Ill Doots) using people’s voices and basketball court field recordings from the Hartranft neighborhood in North Philadelphia exploring the culture of the past, present, and future of the courts for the show, Home Court: The Hartranft Basketball Court Revival. Check out the SPACES website for more info. The closing party is Wednesday, July 18, 6-8pm at The Village of Arts and Humanities gallery space.
 


Art of Listening Class

The Art of Listening
Springboard Studio
530 Carpenter Ln, Philadelphia, PA 19119
Sunday, July 22, 11 am – 4 pm
Suggested Donation/Danā $20
Event Info

A day-long class exploring meditative states of listening consciousness led by composer and dharma teacher Michael Reiley McDermott. Through listening, we can develop an intimate connection to our environment, each other and ourselves. In this day-long retreat, Michael will take us through listening exercises, periods of silent meditation, Dharma talks, performance scores of singing and sounding and a sound walk. The practices of Listening Consciousness are rooted in Theravada and Zen Buddhism, vipassana meditation, the Deep Listening techniques of Pauline Oliveros, Thich Nhat Hahn and the music and philosophy of John Cage.

No meditation or musical experience necessary. Beginners are welcome.


Healing Frequencies


Healing Frequencies
with Maraliz Campos and Michael Reiley McDermott
Magick City
37 Box St. Brooklyn, NY
August 4, 9pm-11:30
$15 / pre-show // $10 / door
Facebook Event | Tickets

A night of healing frequencies and intentional dialog about listening, time and consciousness. Maraliz Campos and Michael Reiley McDermott, sound practitioners/musicians, present a discussion and concert and sound journey across aural landscapes with filtered and reimagined field recordings from Michael’s recent travels and artist residencies in Thailand, Myanmar, India, Germany, Latvia, Iceland, United States and Brazil.

Part two is a meditative ambient journey from Paraguayan-American artist Maraliz with crystal/Himalayan bowls, rattles, original samples, synth, vocals, tuning forks, etc.


Listening Bodies


Listening Bodies
with Monica Gentile (Lake Studios Berlin) and Michael Reiley McDermott
Mascher Space Cooperative
155 Cecil B. Moore Ave. Philadelphia
August 11th, 11am – 3pm
$10 / Before August 1 // $15-20 / After August 1
Tickets | Facebook Event A workshop exploring states of consciousness and embodiment. Open to dancers, musicians, artists, yogis, and meditators.

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

Dhamma of John Cage

Happy New Year everyone! 2016 was such a wonderful year for me with so many projects. I’m very grateful to all of you who supported me whether by helping to fund my Hatchfund for EchoZoo and my residency at Ayatana and my field recording trips to the Pacific Northwest, coming to my sleep concerts during my artist residency at <fidget> or with Temple Universities BEEP, coming to see my collaboration with Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet in Ephemeral, my Fringe Fest collaboration with Fran Markey or maybe enjoying my little musical part of Klip Collective’s Nightscape at Longwood Gardens this fall or perhaps support during my Deep Listening certification studying with the late Pauline Oliveros.

I’ve got some exciting projects this year including several sleep music concerts and recordings, an Echozoo research residency in Brazil, a new ballet with NGCB, new albums coming out on Buddy System and NOREMIXES, and a new education initiate teaching Field Recording and Deep Listening with Dutch artist Sharon Stewart with a pilot program funded by American Composers Forum at Village of the Arts and Humanities this March.

Now on to this month’s projects… First I’m teaching a three part series on John Cage and Buddhism…

The Dhamma of John Cage

A three part series exploring the connection between John Cage and Buddhism with periods of meditation, listening and discussion.
Sunday January 8, 15 and 22, 2017
7:30-9pm

Springboard Sangha
530 Carpenter Lane, West Mt. Airy
Free and Open to the Public

Consciousness Hacking Oneironautics Workshop Lucid Sleep Concert

Lucid Dreaming workshop with overnight concert
Saturday February 4, 2017 7pm – Sunday February 5, 2017 ~9am
Sera Phi
715 S. 50th St, Philadelphia, PA 19143
Lecture on Lucid Dreaming by Thomas Peisel, co-author of A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming: Mastering the Art of Oneironautics.
Overnight Lucid Dreaming concert by Michael Reiley McDermott using Sera Phi’s surround and in-floor sound system.
+dream zone plant magic by milksunn(((o)))
Facebook Invite
Eventbrite
Sliding scale / pay-what-you-want tickets, but reserve your spot because space is limited!