An essential aspect of my work involves playing music
for rituals, retreats, meetings and other settings in which
personal, as well as collective growth and expansion, comprise
the core intention of the gathering.
Rituals
One of my favorite uses of music is to weave it into the
fabric of sacred ritual.
Jubilee! World Beat Band
I have been deeply honored to play the
piano and to coordinate the World Beat Band for the Jubilee!
Community since 2001. The eclectic mix of
music is thoroughly integrated into the Sunday morning
celebrations at Jubilee! and adds vibrancy to the rituals
and the essence of the services. It also adds a dynamic
emotional foundation for Howard Hanger's humorous and
transformative meditations.
The community's enthusiastic response to the music
at Jubilee! is a consistent and reliable tribute to
the profound healing power of music.
In the course of it all, the World Beat
Band engages with a broad range of musical styles from
traditional sacred music to jazz to rock, R&B, gospel,
reggae and other pop music to call Jubilants into a deeper
spiritual experience and to accentuate the idea in Creation
Spirituality that everything is in God and God is in
everything.
"Into the Call: Allowing the Sacred"
In November of 2007 we held a two and
a half hour multimedia ritual celebration to acknowledge
the coming of Winter that I co-produced with Suzannah
Tebbe Davis. The
ritual was inspired in part by my experience with Matthew
Fox's The Cosmic Mass and
Suzannah's experience with Chakra
Balance work.
As co-producer and lead musician,
the music and sound was seen from the beginning as a
core element of the ritual, with the motivation of creating
an opening for and the possibility of transformational
experience. Some of the music was improvised, a
couple of songs selected, and some of it written especially
for certain places in the ritual. With the assistance
of three other musicians (on bass and hand drums) and
myself on keyboard, computer-based synthesizers, and
African hand drums, the music was threaded throughout
to accompany group movement, chanting, projected images,
meditation and creative process time.
Rites of Passage Council
I help to facilitate weekend retreats put on by the Rites
of Passage Council and play the 
djembe as an intrinsic
element of the sacred ritual process work.
Drum circles
I facilitate drum circles for groups
and organizationswho are looking for a fun and inspiring
way to enjoy themselves and learn something about their
group dynamics at the same time.
I also offer therapeutic drumming sessions
for groups and individuals. Although in some
ways subtle, drumming has a way of opening our authentic
nature and revealing aspects of ourselves that can be
deeply liberating.
In addition to working with smaller circles, I have, for
the past several years, participated in and helped facilitate
the infamous Pritchard
Park drum circle in downtown Asheville on Friday nights.
Seminars / workshops
I offer seminars and workshops for groups in which I use
music as a tool both for creating and enhancing mood and
for creating the space for organic experiential learning.
Substantive topics that I offer for workshop settings
include: creativity, coping with change, team-building,
communication styles and skills, exploring group dynamics
and conflict resolution.
My approach to dealing with these topics is to allow the
teaching to come through naturally through the process
of drumming and making music in a group, so that the learning
is natural, fun and easily integrated.
