more news....past postings... 2016

winter 2016-2017
Dear singers, Just home from a demanding, wildly inspiring tour of New York City, Montreal, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Atlanta. I felt the power of improvising and harmonizing in circle more than ever before.
For sure it was connected to the American elections which so far have turned out very badly, but this was before Nov 8.
In each circle, inspired by the Standing Rock Camp in North Dakota, we called an ancestor to stand with us, to honor them, as we bring our song on behalf of the living earth. I felt how it deepened our connection, brought the vulnerable presence of music as prayer, and a sense that we are on steady ground, devoted to good, as best we can.
Really I was stunned by how quickly we dove into deep musical waters. Bold, devoted, spirited, intelligent singing.
Also I see how groups in different places are spreading the improvisation ideas of Vocal River so that the circle grows bigger exponentially.
And each circle is different, the challenges of various kinds of musical training, the nature of each city and culture where we sing and the growing sense that creativity is our best way forward.
I felt honored to be in those circles. Thank you all for your beauty and fierce joy. I will be back. 

Margie and I are committed to a new scholarship program which started with Rhonda and J’s wedding in October ... Read more

For now, I am home for the winter on the farm in Hawaii. 
Everything is growing. The avocados and bananas wow! We sold 100 pounds to our local natural foods store with many more to come . Hurrah for PJ climbing the tree and bringing them down with stems. The crew on the farm is making great progress to bring our cacao crop to harvest in the next year or so. And now we see how to turn that orchard into a food forest; shade coffee, mushrooms, bees, herbs and thriving complex ecology. We, that is the royal we or Floyd to be exact, are completing the solar, front entrance lanai, and bathroom with lanai on the singing barn, in preparation for 3 workshops to be held in winter, January and February of 2017. Please look around this website for details and inspiration to join those workshops.

Oooops, actually All The Way In is sold out for 2017. I am so grateful to Margie Farmer and to all of you for signing up in good time so we can make detailed preparations. It will be a wondrous year I predict; 
Big Island of Hawaii at Leo Nani Farms, Portugal at Monte Velho retreat center and Denmark in the city of Copenhagen.
There are still a couple of places in the Mele a Hakuwale and Nature of Voice and Body workshops in Hawaii. If you are considering either of these workshops, now in the final month to get information and see how to make it possible.
Please don’t be daunted. These times require boldness and fiery commitment. 
Big Island has that energy in abundance with Pele and the powerful volcano energy she represents. Wild nature, thriving farm with ducks, chickens and cows as well, and music in the simple, spacious studio up on the hill where we see the Pacific Ocean and Mauna Kea while the Trade Winds blow. A miracle of a place to sing and move.
I am grateful for your support and love.
I believe in you and our circles of song.
I trust that somehow we can confront and resolve the troubles that plague our beautiful planet.
I stand with you in community.
Blessings all around.
Rhiannon



Fall 2016
Realizing the heart beat of the music,
That is—RHYTHM.
Every breath we take is part of the rhythm of being alive.
All essential life is in rhythm.
So how can it be that singers don’t study all kinds of rhythms?
Realizing the tremendous power of rhythm to call us all to song…….
 I ask that singers working with me learn syncopation.
You don’t have to go to conservatory to learn.
Listen to the music of the world, sing along as best you can.
Study Bob Stoloff’s great singer rhythm work.
Learn to sing on upbeats rather than downbeats.
Go to hear live music that defies your understanding and open your beautiful ears to it.
Sing with others who have different musical minds. Trade ideas.
The power of rhythm….the heartbeat of us all……..never fear just let in the polyrhythm.

June 2016
In order to manage the hysteria of the current election year, Janne and I are watching all 7 seasons of West Wing written by Aaron Sorkin. Incredible, smart dialogue, lots of dramatic Situation Room correlation, staff relationships, and on and off collaboration between the west wing and congress. It helps me see how we got where we are now.
Blessings on Hillary, Bernie, Elizabeth and the voters and citizens of the US.
Anyway, at beginning of Season 5, there is a tense ending of an episode which is held in grace by a gorgeous contralto voice which we research to be Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance and many fine film scores. She is Australian and carries a unique concept in her singing. Many critics speak about her language improvisations with bemused curiosity. This is what she says about her personal language.  

"I sing in the language of the Heart. It's an invented language that I've had for a very long time. I believe I started singing in it when I was about 12. Roughly that time. And I believed that I was speaking to God when I sang in that language.”

Refreshing and inspiring to hear her speak so plainly about this language. Every time we enter the realm of music, of song, there is an opportunity to lift ourselves into the poetic grace of our hearts. However you want to call it. I believe we all know how that feels even if it is only for a moment. It reaffirms our humanity and connectedness. 

I heard Toni Morrison speaking in a video today about the role of artists in the culture. She says that we are dangerous. That we have the capacity to see into the true heart of things and the responsibility to share our truth. As a community we must do no less. 

The more of us who are expressing our personal artistry with an awareness of the kuleana (responsibility) we carry, the stronger will be the culture. The more fervent our desire to find our unique voice.

Blessings of creativity, of continuing to believe in goodness, in the face of unprovoked violence all around the planet, of standing for our own visions and understanding we are speaking to spirit, to our own bright, beautiful souls when we sing.

Blessings on that.

I head out on the road for two months starting June 26. I hope to see many of you during this extended trip around North America. Check my website tour page for details.

Keep singing for your life and all of ours.  
Rhiannon


March, 2016

Spring arriving.
Our singing barn has a full, gorgeous roof. Beautiful, long awaited like the rain.
Much more to do before the first session of All The Way In arrives on the farm in late May.
I want to have my Steinway sitting on the completed barn floor by then.
Barn doors swung wide open to welcome the singers.
Music in the air.
Before all that.
In mid April I head out for concerts and teaching.
Duo concert with Laurence Hobgood at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, CA.
Workshop in Baltimore.
All The Way In meets for our third and final session in Montreal.
Reunion of the alumni of All The Way In ignites in Woodstock, NY.
These events out on the road balance a good long winter on the farm in Hawaii.
I am one lucky woman.
I’m teaching a six week series in Hilo and finally finding some island singers who want to improvise.
Learning this winter about speaking my mind but judging which words will actually help rather than just relieve me.
Remembering to enter a conversation with kindness, so maybe I have to wait until I can feel kindness rather than my opinion.
Cultural differences, life style differences, spiritual differences. 
Integrity. Kindness. Collaboration. Honesty.
With months ahead of political positioning.
I find myself watching and listening. 
Saying my prayers for good leadership.
Keeping council with myself.
May we speak boldly when it matters, speak softly if it helps to open doors.
May this election bring us a kind, smart, collaborative, spiritual president, and good advisors.
May the refugees of the world, especially from Syria, remind us of our connection as humans and as fellow immigrants.
May we find home and help create home for others.
Bless the songs inside us.

Rhiannon

January 2016

The year turns.
We enter some new room of life.
Blank walls and ceiling.
The floor is made for dancing and the air for singing.
How can we make life better so that dance and song and drawing and writing all become understood as the essential life force that they are?
We do it by doing it!
We go do it.
We do it in places that need healing. Places that call to us. We sing everywhere we can, in all times of day or night and all kinds of weather.
We do it together and that makes us strong.
So I go do it at Kalani with Mele a Hakuwale on January 6. Singers will meet me there at the warm ponds, heated by Pele. We dream up.
We dance our way into song. Working together to understand how we improvise our dreams of music into being.
Then the year continues, going to California and the East Coast, Montreal, perhaps to Europe.
Mele and All The Way In, Alive!, duets with Laurence Hobgood on piano, and Omega with Bobby McFerrin, WeBe3, Christiane and Judi.
Hollyhock in Canada on Cortes Island.
Meanwhile my music studio is being built at Leo Nani Farms and the passionate vision to make music in the presence of cows, ducks, chickens, cats and dog, tea, cacao, turmeric, pineapples, bananas, papayas, avocados, citrus, flowers of riotous color and shape, this aina that sees up to Mauna Kea and down to the great Pacific.
All that because we have entered this new year.
And be it known that difficult and deadly times continue all around and we are part of that as well.
We sing because of it.
We sing through it.
We sing to make life better.
We sing to be free.

Blessings on this year of 2016.
Rhiannon

past postings...





October 2015 
And did I mention yet, our beautiful tea. Our camellia sinensis crop out in big concentric circles came to fruition this spring and summer with four harvests of white tea. We have just picked the last round which is drying on racks downstairs. We have brand new black rice paper bags and labels have just arrived by mail,
so we are ready to get this tea out to you.

If you are interested, please go to the Product Page of the Leo Nani Farms website and you will find instructions for purchasing this subtle,rich tea. And please, while you are there, please join the mailing list for Leo Nani Farms.



We're planting more flowers right now because Janne and I are getting married on the farm October 18, 2015. Small, local, legal wedding with live music, imu (Hawaiian method of slow, wood-fired cooking of meats and vegies in the earth) and ceremony, acknowledging our love and the deep connection with this farm and the blessings that has brought us. For sure there will be Hawaiian music, hula and lots of food and talk story. What a blessing for the farm to have guests here touching the plants, talking to the animals and sharing their farming wisdom of this tropical place.

Ha lau leo nani, the gathering place at Leo Nani Farms, our music teaching studio for me and photography office for Janne, is finally getting through the architect plans, the permitting, and settling on just the right placement on the hill to be sure we feel the Trade Winds and see the mighty Pacific below and Mauna Kea above. We should be in the studio by early 2016. Quite a process, but each delay and change of plans has been leading us to the right building for the music. Our trust has increased and our commitment is steady. Please be welcome in the time ahead to come sing at Leo Nani.

Got sun today so I need to get out there and work in the gardens. From the ducks, chickens, cows, cats and our new baby puppy, Gnocchi, Janne and I send greetings of aloha and the wish that your fall season is fruitful with harvest for all you need to thrive. Bless the world, the women and children, the mothers and fathers, the farmers, the artists, the laborers, the warriors, the immigrants, the stone beings, the tree beings, the plant beings, the four leggeds, the winged ones, the humans, the elements, and all the unseen powers that connect us all.

May peace come and the long awaited rains so that we cherish life endlessly.  
Rhiannon
August, 2015
Two month tours seem impossibly long but what if the work is so compelling and the destinations almost all in wild nature?
Lucky me!
All The Way In—Session One at Commonweal Institute on the California coast at Bolinas
Hollyhock Retreat Center—Cortes Island, BC Canada
Tuolomne Meadow Artist Series--Yosemite National Park
Alive 40th Reunion Concerts—Bay Area, California
Alive—40th and final Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival on 500 acres near Hart, Michigan
WeBe3 recording sessions—Joey Blake’s studio, Boston MA
Bobby McFerrin with faculty: Joey, David, Judi, Christiane and Karen, Circle Singing Gathering—Omega Institute, NY State
 
In between I stayed with friends and family who nurtured, fed me and let me rest. Thanks Mary, Carol, Hallie, Kathryn, Elizabeth, Janet.
Rehearsals for each event were wonderful and I was challenged to learn and relearn many songs with lots of lyrics and arrangements.
This after 8 years of improvised concerts.
I remembered that music comes in many forms and I am a musician. I can do this!
Janne traveled with me during the Yosemite and Alive weeks. 
We got to experience wonderful gigs with Janne shooting still photography, camping in the mountains on the East side of the Sierras with hot springs and bears, camping in the woods with thousands of womyn and children all the while feeling our connections to people and places on the Mainland that are part of home for us.
That nurturing carries us as we return home to Leo Nani Farms and see how much everything is growing. How beloved in this land.
I am forever grateful for this kind of touring in which I am passed from one loving group of singers to another, where long time relationships are honored and revitalized. Where nature gives me starry nights, campfires, silence, pounding rhythms of the pacific Ocean, and the joy of being able to continue to bring my music to your ears and hearts.
 
Please stay tuned for fall and winter events in Hawaii. And for a tour in November to the Mainland; NYC, Atlanta, Connecticut and LA.
Always music is the guide.
The farm is prospering and the music teaching studio is clarifying and solidifying. Please be patient. All is well.
All things in proper time in this wild year of 2015. Hasn’t it been challenging, terrifying and yet sometimes delicious?
Can we make it if we let go of our willful wishes and trust our prayers, surrendering to the great good of all?
Keep believing.
Come visit Hawaii. Stay in touch.
A hui hou,
Rhiannon 

May 2015
Earthquakes and volcanoes going off.
Cities cracking open.
All of us standing at attention.
Bowing to the power of the great Mother once again.
Must be time for music!
I fly on May 6 to the East Coast and then to Europe for a month.
Concerts and workshops.
WeBe3 joining up once again. What a miracle to sing with Joey and David.
Lucky, lucky me.
Until we can hear stones.
Until the trees release their magic knowledge.
Until there is enough time.
Until we are not afraid.
Until we hear the message of the music.
Until then, let’s try to be kinder, more forgiving.
Sing more often than we shout.
Carry ourselves with the awareness that our ancestors are watching.
Believe in magic and creativity as healing force.
Stand up for the ones who are hurt.
Carry more than our share sometimes.
Bury resentment.
Go to the source of power and bow.
To Mauna Kea.
To the vast oceans.
To the children and kupuna.
To the right and left.
For all of creation.
My heart to yours.
See you out there.
Love and music to you all.
Rhiannon


March 2015
March blows in.
I blow out to California for a visit to LA and the Bay Area. Workshop at Kate’s new music home in LA, presenting at a naturalist writer’s conference called Geography of Hope out in Point Reyes, stirring up new work in the Bay Area and visiting family and friends.
Meanwhile on the farm we harvested our first white tea flush. I am carrying a precious bag of the dried leaves with me to share with friends. The bounty of the farm continues!
We have already had two farm concerts in 2015, Women of the World from Boston, MA and David Lynn Grimes from Cordova, AK. Dear friends who graced the farm with their presence. Splendid to have Big Island friends bring pupus, go walking around the land and meet one another in the presence of great music. Mahalo to the musicians and the guests.
I am beginning my first local ongoing Vocal River class in Hilo. The first class was full. Feels right to bring it home!

 Our music/culture building project, Ha Lau Leo Nani, is prime in our every thought. We are negotiating the    complicated permitting process and feel more than ever that we are meant to build this creative community space. Not daunted, except occasionally, by the difficulty factors. We hold all of you who contributed in our grateful thanks. We are moving forward always. Please hold us in your thoughts and come visit. More details soon!
 
My sister Barbara died on Feb 15 in hospice in Phoenix, AZ, supported by her sisters and daughters. Being a mash unit nurse in the Viet Nam war was a defining event in her life. Bless her and all the other veterans who return home holding  devastating memories in their cells.
Bless all the life and death that comes every day. May the moment of birth and the moment of death be understood as part of a continuing journey or as my friend Samantha says, “It’s a round trip ticket.” We need a way to hold the grief and joy that floods through us on a daily basis. 
Music is a great healing.force. I just keep singing.


Dec 1, 2014
I have dreamed about a tour in which Janne comes with me while I teach and perform; to photograph, video and be my support while both of us enjoy the pleasure of traveling together. We were fortunate to enjoy exactly this kind of deep experience this past fall 2014, and now are able to share these memories of the world through music, conversation and images.
At a long awaited garden gathering in Santa Fe, in the fall with the yellow of the birch trees, I sang for Colleen Kelley in exchange for a huge and wondrous elephant painting that hangs above our bed in Hawaii. I realize that being able to sing as ceremony is for me a fulfillment  of all I believe about the power of music. I felt that magic as I sang in Colleen and Jonathon's garden. Afterwards I met other artists of many disciplines who found their way to Santa Fe often leaving behind careers of power and speed for the space and big sky calm of New Mexico. 
I understand that urge in my own life as I think about building the music teaching studio on the farm. It feels appropriate and timely as I turn 70 next year and all of me hungers to continue teaching but to make it easier on my body in order to concentrate on the music. I will continue some travels around the world as it is so much a part of my life, but traveling half the year is not appropriate or healthy at this point in life. Balance is called for. I want to encourage all of the singers to come to Hawaii for the intensive teacher trainings and to be part of the community that is being built around the world. 
 
Returning to Berklee College in Boston for an Artist in Residence reminded me that the young singers are hungry for this improvisation work. They light up. Their voices remember that technique and skill are meant to be partners with improvisation which enables intuition and spirit to contribute.
 
New York is full of great singers who want to study, bless them. I love teaching there. Thank you Lauren for your help and all the others who make the community strong there! And a gig with Tim Ray on piano reuniting us after some years. What a skilled and heartful improviser. It was a deep pleasure.
 
In Rome I met with the All The Way In singers of 2014 who did indeed go all the way in. October was our final session for the series and they exceeded my vision with their music skill, their generosity and their big dreams. Rome provided the ancient palate for us to dig deep and not be afraid. Bows of gratitude to iMusic School Rome for all your efforts with special classes and producing the splendid ATWI concert in the perfect funky and theatrical venue. 
 
The students in Utrecht remind me why I do this work. Why I travel these crazy miles and why I want to bring it home so more of them can find me,  I asked them what they think about when they improvise. They said; when will it be over, what did I do wrong, why am I so scared and on and on like that. By the end, they were rushing to the stage to improvise, they cheered when I came back from lunch, they hugged each other and encouraged one another with collaborative zeal. Wow, it was amazing. My heart broke open with the desire for them to have more of this musical success so they remember why they sing. If I can train more teachers in my studio on the farm, I can send them out to teach and train others and spread the word that music improvisation changes lives and grows beautiful music.
 
Paris took my heart and mended the broken places with her beauty. The singers there are new to this work and responded so enthusiastically that I got energy instead of feeling drained. Thank you Kay for organizing with so much heart. Janne and I got to be visitors in Paris as well and partake of the beauty of the Seine, the museums, the shop windows, the patisseries and all the small, quiet streets. We had a great day walking with Laurel and Tosh from Vancouver, old friends in a new world of beauty. Sunset watching the Eiffel Tower light up while we stood on a bridge over the Seine and felt how blessed that moment was. Had a wonderful Circle Sing and gig on a houseboat with Andy Emler, a kind of trailblazing improviser/pianist who felt immediately like a old, wild friend. Perfect l closing to the Paris adventure.
 
In Koln I had a last teaching organized by wonderful Nina, a generous student/teacher who sees the power of this work. Three precious final days in Europe with eager students. When we work with group led exercises like Shape Shifting, I can feel an aha come over the group as they realize that improvisation can move in chords, in rhythmic variation and harmonic diversity led by our group musical intelligence and generosity.
 
The last two weeks in the Bay Area of California was coming home where Janne and I both lived for many years, culminating in a ceremony/party out in Point Reyes at the wetlands park and then Toby’s Feed Barn. Lots of food, music, poems, children, family and old friends. Couldn’t be better to speak our vows with starlings murmurating overload and then sing one of our favorite love songs with our community out in the open air. That’s what friends are for.
 
The close of the tour was two Stra Love 25 gigs with 9 original members of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra. What love, what voices, what crazy wonderful times together in rehearsal and on stage. Thank you!
 
Everywhere we went, Janne and I were gifted and honored in our love. Our legal marriage ceremony will take place in Hawaii on the farm, in the studio, next fall, 2015. Hope many of you will be there.
Big times. Almost lost my mind. and yet what a blessing. Now to build this music barn on the farm.
Please be part of this vision. Please contribute generously. Be part of the music.
 
Feeling blessed and full of song. Rhiannon





September 3, 2014
Each year, Sept. comes as a surprise. We thought summer would last forever. 
Here we are preparing for the change of season on Equinox and remembering schedules and new projects, school time and the approach of harvest on many levels. I hope for you that summer was a kind of bounty and that you can hold that grace as fall enters.
The world is turbulent beyond what seems possible. With each day there is more war, more tension, death from unnatural causes with more separation and distrust. Please do all you can in your community to stand tall for equality and generosity. 
Powerful new inventions and collaborations exist side by side with all this rancor. For example a car that runs on ocean water. The inventive minds and hearts continue no matter what and perhaps because of it all. Keep singing while you stand for peace. 
I am home for the month of Sept. preparing a fundraising campaign to build a music temple here on Leo Nani Farms where I can teach and perform, a pavilion to hold all kinds of artistic, cultural, farming, healing events. Bless the conjunction of art, farming and food. These basic collaborations have the power to remind us to keep believing we can create community where we live. May the music hold us all in every place around the world.
Starting in Oct. I travel to Santa Fe, Boston, New York, Rome, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Paris, Koln and the Bay Area of California. More details on that on this website. Please hold me in your prayers during this travel with my dear partner Janne who is about to become my wife, or I her wife, both of us becoming married mates. How wonderful to think of this after 25 years together. We will be informally married in several places so we can be with many of you. Feels important to be in ceremony of love at this time.
The earth is always below us and sky is always above. Of that we can be sure.
Blessings to you all,
Rhiannon  
 
Summer 2014
Dear planet earth spinning in the height of spring with all of us spinning as well. Doesn’t it feel so full, powerful, tremendous, out of control and fecund right now?
Leo Nani Farms is thriving with long awaited rains. Everything wants to be weeded, seeded, mulched, pruned, fed and planted. With a new guest hale, WWOOF (World Wide Opportunity on Organic Farms) cottage and barn addition, we are on the brink of wonder here. Making new spaces has created new possibilities. Our fully outfitted outdoor kitchen is ready for farm to table dinners including guest chefs and cooking classes. Next comes the music teaching and performance studio. I stand in that spot in the pasture every morning to sing my prayers. Turns out to be the perfect place for the music to live on the land. Bamboo kit house in the works. Fundraising coming soon.

And time for me to get out into the world and make music. I leave for Europe on June 9 visiting Rosenheim and Koln Germany as well as Castricum and Amsterdam Holland. I will end with a performance with singers friends in Dusseldorf. July 11 and 12  I will be in Vancouver in concert with more singer friends and finish the tour at dear Hollyhock on Cortes Island BC from July 13 to 18. Lucky me to continue to travel and fertilize with music.
I hope to meet you at one of these sessions or that you find a way to come to Hawaii to sing in the new studio which we plan to up and resonant by 2015.

Life is continuing to require deep faith, trust and forward motion. The more of us operating in full faith while singing, the better. I wish you a beautiful spring with the full bloom of summer on the way. 

Stories on the planet right now are hard to hold, the kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria, the missing Malaysian plane, the ferry boat in Korea loaded with young ones, the senseless shootings, mining and landslide disasters, sherpas in avalanche, all the disasters and trauma that exists full on right beside the grace. How is it possible to hold all that? We understand that we are connected to all of it and to one another. We know that.



Here in Hawaii are two sailing canoes, traditionally outfitted and guided in an ancient Polynesian understanding of navigating by stars, waves and currents. The Hokule’a and Hikianalia set sail this week from Hilo harbor traveling for 3 years around the oceans of the planet in a spirit of oneness and aloha. We are so proud of these navigators and the crew who travel our connecting waters spreading peace and ancient knowledge. I hope you might follow them and encourage the understanding of our oneness—in troubled times. www.HOKULE’A.org   

Please keep faith and keep singing. A hui hou, 
APRIL 2014
With the farm safely in the hands of Janne and Floyd, I am on the road again, first trip since November.I have had the blessing of five days with my three sisters. How often does that get to happen? Wonderful and precious.Friday I fly to Bloomington for several days of teaching, book events and performance through Janiece Jaffe and her musical community.
Then Miami Beach where I have never been, to visit chef Andrew and singer Kate.
Atlanta after that for special group teaching organized by Elise Witt and Gayanne Geurin with dear friends and family.
Finally to The Outer Banks in Duck the town, not the darling creature of the farm, where WeBe3 will teach a rare US residential workshop. You still have time to sign up for that and be with us in the glamorous spring right on the Atlantic coast. Imagine all the music springing up! We will focus on improvisation but there are always songs and the study of form, Circle Singing, vocal percussion jams, gospel and small ensemble work where you can try out all these skills. Joey, David and I are eager to work together and meet you all. Don't miss this musical, collaborative, community time at the beach.
On the way home, I will stop in the San Francisco Bay area to be part of the memorial for Gwen Avery at the Claremont Women's Cultural Arts Center. Boo Price and Linda Tillery are putting it together with a wonderful roster of musicians who love Gwen. That will be an evening to remember and to remind us of the treasure of Gwen.Then I am home by early May. Back to the farm. Living my blessed double life as musician and farmer.
Hope to see you out there in one of those places. 
Enjoy spring.
A hui hou,
Rhiannon 
MARCH 2014
Mahalo nui for all your birthday wishes. I feel all your generosity & it is a healing for me. Today I am 3 weeks post hip surgery. Using canes but standing tall. Slow & steady recovery. Standing at Laupahoehoe Point near the magnificent Pacific. Grateful for Janne, my surgeon, the blessing of Hawaii & all of you. See you somewhere soon, singing!

FEBRUARY 2104
Great News!! Shapeshifter Lab was selected by DownBeat Magazine in the Feb 2014 issue as one of the 150 great jazz venues in the world.  And the New York City Jazz Record has picked two of the performances Shapeshifter Lab presented in 2013 as best performances of the year: Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Matt Garrison Trio, and... Rhiannon.

January 16, 2014
Just returned from ten days of singing and swimming at Hale Kai on the Kona side.

Sixteen singers from Denmark, Belgium, Brazil, Montreal, Georgia, Michigan, Oregon, Florida, California, Vancouver, New York, El Salvador. Wonderful singers filled with ocean sounds, dolphin swims, whale tails slapping, Pele sightings, turtle honu and all the rest that Hawaii inspires in abundance. Lucky us and we felt it. On the last morning we sat at dawn on the lava singing our prayers and telling how we were quenched by Ho'okena. The place name where we lived means quenched in Hawaiian. They each answered in ways that I will hold as the year unfolds so that I remember that I too was quenched.

In February, I will go to Honolulu to have my left hip replaced so that I will then have matching titanium in both hips. I am enthusiastic to return to full strength and feel the power of 2014 welling up on this first full moon of the year. I will post the exact date for the surgery as soon as I know it, hoping for your prayers and songs to guide me through and hold my surgeon steady and strong.

December 2013

Here we are again at the darkest time of the year, snow blankets many parts of the world including the Middle East. It has been a wild ride of a year this 2013 with so much good, and just so much to handle. True?
Time for introspection, integration and slow down, slow down time to drink in the quiet of wintertime.
Meanwhile all the various holidays approach with gatherings that call for socializing, public events, going, going.
Not sure what is the reason for these conflicting notions, but it is certainly human.
For me Solstice is my favorite, the holiday I can most treasure and count on. They call it Makahiki here in Hawaii. The ceremony that speaks of a winter fire, writing all that I am willing to let go of. Saying it out loud, burning that letting go into the fire, watching the flames, singing into the middle of the heat. Writing all that I welcome into this next year, going beyond the first layers that are obvious to what is most important so that I must call it in because I know that naming helps to make intention real. I bury those words written on paper with my deep regard, in the earth out in the pasture of my little farm Leo Nani. 
I stare into the fire. So grateful to have a new chiminea that sits out under a lanai called the Overtone House, out there in the pasture where I can appreciate the night sky and be covered in case of rain. But open, wide open, like my dreams these wintery nights, like our hearts all cracked and broken open from this wild life.

Wishing you all grace and ease to ride the waves that are surely ahead and all around.E ala E.
Rhiannon

 















This time of year calls on us to be wide open even though it is cold many places and dark more than light, and full of challenges of the season but still we can be wide open and let our hearts feel what darkness can offer. What the depth of quiet and black night can teach us.
And then let the singing begin.
May your holidays of all kinds bring you community, beautiful surprises, good food, nurturing, blessings, quiet, deep dark sleep that restores and no end of music to slay the dragons.
Mele Kalikimaka and happy Makahiki in the time of Solstice because the seasons surely know their way around and dark will turn to light once again.
With my heart full of song no matter what, 
November 2013
From Rhiannon: 
Scorpio time. 
Letting go time.
Store up healing and reserves for the winter. So much energy this year has been devoted to Vocal River, my new book about improvisation.  Many travels and events. So much enthusiasm and love coming back to me in abundance.
Just finished All The Way In for 2013. We spent a wonderful final week in Montreal surrounded by the fall leaves and the artists of this beautiful city.
Thanks to McGill for bringing us in for a session to work with advanced music education students. That conversation put us all on alert to the myriad ways that improvisation is moving into education. I bow to the singers who just completed this year long course. What stunning transitions, growth, musical excellence and collaboration. Thank you all. And to our collaborators and friends in Montreal, once again you have exceeded my dreams. Merci beaucoup.
Followed by New York City, never a slouch in the wonderful department. You thrilled me Brooklyn! Thank you for Shape Shifter Lab, for hosting workshops and a powerful performance. Allison Miller put together a great band and she and Rachel gave me a sweet home for those days. Now I know what people have been telling me for years. You gotta feel Brooklyn. 
Thanks also to Manhattan, Lincoln Center and SueAnn for hosting workshops and making my eyes pop with the thrill of the big city.
I have one more trip out this year, to the San Francisco Bay Area. A reunion of All The Way In singers from 2009 to 2013 at Asilomar in Monterey, Yoshi's performance as part of an evening honoring Mark Murphy and the scholarship in his name at the Jazz School, book event and teaching at the Jazz School in Berkeley, and finally WeBe3 concert at Freight and Salvage with wonderful hometown guests. WeBe3 has been longing to sing in the Bay Area and the Freight is the perfect venue. Joey, David and I met in the Bay Area and now that we live far apart and tour mainly in Europe, it is a big deal to come home to the Bay. I hope to see you there. Pack that house!
Now that I live on a farm in Hawaii, those trips out give me inspiration and infuse my mind with new ideas and great music.I feel increasingly that improvisation really is a river. Really is a rich part of human collaboration. Let's get in that river together.

As the Hopi prophecy says:
You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh hour. 
Now you must go back and tell the people this is the hour and there are things to be considered.
 
This could be a very good time. For now is like a river flowing very fast.
People will respond to it in very different ways.
There are those who will be afraid and try and hold onto the shore. There is no shore.
They will feel that they are being torn apart and they will suffer.
Know that the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the crumbling shore,
Push off into the middle of the river,
Keep our eyes open and our heads above water,
See who else is in the river and celebrate,
The River Knows Where She’s Going.
 
Be well in the fall, let go as best you can, take very good care of yourselves and sing,
August 2013

Well hurrah, Vocal River is here! Beautiful, shiny, even better than I dared to hope graphics and photographs.
I believe in it. Thank you for your patience and support, buying copies and encouraging me all these years.
Let me hear what you think. Thank you!
 
July 2013 

The tour in Europe with WeBe3 was wonderful starting with a fabulous a cappella festival in Aarhus, Denmark. What a great theater, audience, support, teaching. Hope to go there again. It was a magical time. Then great gigs and teaching all around Germany meeting many new singers and working with generous producers who believe in WeBe3 and put their efforts on the line to grow this music. We ended in gorgeous Losone, in the Ticino area of Switzerland. Always this place gives a heartening feeling of home as we returned for our 8th year. Thank you all.

Now I am home in Hawaii for the month of July. I have never spent July in Hawaii in all these year of coming here. Turns out it is wonderful weather with rain at night, sunny days with big puffy clouds toward sunset turning pink and orange. The Trade Winds blowing just enough. Gotta say, it is pretty wonderful and everything is growing wow!
Next comes All The Way In in Point Reyes in August. Lovely to sing with the group there and have time in that dramatic environment where I lived for 20 years. Another homecoming.
All through the fall will be Vocal River book release events with Jan E Watson by my side as we celebrate her photos in the book and my 7 1/2 years of writing this book about vocal improvisation, how it touches so much in life. Hope to see you somewhere around the Mainland.
I am feeling gratitude for my life that combines farming and art. I am one lucky woman.
I hear the deep conversation currently pulsing around the country about racism, about kindness, about diversity. I feel the huge battle with Monsanto and other corporate promoters of GMO and test fields that surround our little organic farms and the whole planet. I see the connections of these apparently different issues of these times. We are all in this together. No racism or poison food will go unnoticed. We are all in this together. Our joy and grief are one. My happiness is bound up in the events of the world. I can't falter in my pursuit of music. Music is part of the message of kindness, of understanding that we are all in this together.
Stay strong, living and singing in community. That can save our lives.
Please take good care of yourselves and those around you.
A hui hou.

Love to you all in summer
wherever you are, Rhiannon
 

April 2013
Merrie Monarch hula and cultural festival in Hilo, Hawaii this week. Always in spring, filling the air and the town with dance, music and culture. Thinking about all the music festivals around the world that hold, promote and share culture.
I got chicken skin during the whole opening ceremony on Sunday while the halau scattered sea salt,  ocean water, then blew 30 conch shells, with 30 drummers powering up the energy, all ages speaking the language of Hawaii and singing with a kind of power that made me gasp. Help me remember how much we need this everywhere so we never forget that art can hold culture. And culture is the glue of community and humankind.


My tour with Shizuno Nasu to Japan has been postponed for family reasons, but we will return to Japan within the next year. I am still reverberating from our trip last spring.

In May I go to Europe with WeBe3 beginning in Aarhus, Denmark for an a cappella festival that puts us squarely in the middle of vocal culture. Hurrah for that! We'll be in Europe for a month singing and teaching. 

The 3 of us share a fierce belief in the power of improvisation and the community that grows naturally out of that. Please look for us in Europe. Details on the Tour page of this website.

In August WeBe3 will be back with Bobby at Omega for the Circle Singing extravaganza. Christiane and Judy will be there teaching as well. Every year I meet great people from around the world who want to improvise and build circles of singers.

And through it all is the 2013 All The Way In. We met at Hale Kai on Hawaii Island in March and will meet again in August in Point Reyes, CA. Singers from around the world sharing the study of improvisation and the power of music.

The dear Vocal River book will be available for pre-sale by May and copies available in your hands by summer. It is swirling in my head now which is a good sign that it is the primary thought of each day.

So may all of this hold culture because that is the food of life. We need all the diversity of music and dance. We need it.
I'm off to another of performance of hula.

A hui hou.

Love to you all in spring wherever you are Rhiannon


February 2013
I've been on Leo Nani Farms for 4 months. The benefits are enormous for my body and soul. Not to mention we have made great progress with our tea and cacao crops. They now seem like enthusiastic teen-agers with growth hormones. Tender green leaves are sprouting and we are finally settling into good organic management with masses of banana leaves and stalks as well as huge bundles of composted green all around the plants like blankets. Thank you for your encouragement. Beautiful food ahead.
I fly on Wed, Feb 13 to San Francisco just in time to participate in V Day, One Billion Rising flash mobs and a ceremonial performance that evening in honor of women and children and bringing an end to violence against us all. Please join wherever you are!
After that I fly to Atlanta to visit Rhyan, my precious hanai daughter. I will also do a one day workshop there and with help from local singers, jump into the music life of Georgia. See details
Then a 4 day workshop with WeBe3 on the Outer Banks right on the beach so we can sing improvisation into the wintery Atlantic. Don't miss it. Details right here.. Righteous and special event.
The tour ends at Ithaca College in upstate NY for 3 days of workshops and performances, some open to the public.
I fly home just in time to go Kona side and meet the All The Way In singers of 2013 for the first time.
Entering an exuberant musical time after a sprouting farm time. What could be better? Contrast and compost.
Vocal River is at line edit, beautiful illustrations being chosen and final details being revealed. What a process! The book will be worth the wait. I promise.
Keep the faith through winter wherever you are. Come singing if you can and remember
Rise, Dance, Strike for all the women of the world.
A hui hou, Rhiannon

January 2013 Mele a Hakuwale Big Island of Hawaii
Went swimming at Ho'okena in the Queen's Bath with the singers at 10 AM Hawaii time. We sang long tones in the rhythm of the waves, then E Ho Mai and The Turtle Remembers. Then we saw our first whales jumping out in the deep. We jumped or dived into the perfect ocean waters for the intention of the freedom of all beings. One of the singers said that she heard the metaphor that every time you go under water and resurface you can be reborn. I took that to heart. Somehow even on this remote part of this remote island, I am feeling connected to the planet and these activities more than ever. May our swim in the Arms of the Mother be for all.

A hui hou, Rhiannon

DECEMBER 2012
Thinking about generosity.
The generosity of winter rain that refreshes, pours, inundates. Or snow that falls and covers and buries and softens into silence.
The generosity of darkness. We know we need that internal quiet, but we are so busy. Winter comes and flattens us into staying home at night or falling under the awkward spell of flu and cold. We have to stop. The nights are so long, we have to sleep. Waking in the middle of the night with strange dreams that require pondering. Working out something that we might never take the time for in the bright light of day and busy careers and lives that demand multitasking.
The generosity of cycles that teach us more than we want to learn sometimes. Death, decay, rebirth only after standing in the hallway for awhile. Shifting paths that do not allow us to see the way ahead, but only trust.
The generosity of friends and family that see us through these times when we are sick or confused or slow or droopy. Everybody goes there, so why not just let it be. Let the great dark generous night of winter sit in our hearts and tell us stories that we will understand by and by.

And then in January, why not take a break from all that winter brings and come to Hawaii? I'll be singing at Hale Kai January 8 to 18 at a workshop called Mele a Hakuwale, To Sing and Improvise. We live together on a lava beach around the corner from a deep swimming bay. We sing, we eat and walk and talk. We sing some more. We teach each other that generosity comes in all forms and we deserve to fall into warm water after hours of singing in circles that pull us further and further into the light of improvised song.
Come on! Why wait! Come this January! No more hesitation. Believe in the generosity of life.
Hope to see you there.

NOVEMBER 2012
Home on the farm as winter--Makahiki--comes on.
Looks different here in Hawaii
but the seasons change none-the-less.
In the Mid Atlantic states, the times are so severe in the path of Hurricane Sandy. All of us feeling the fury of that storm as we watch the news and hear the stories from our friends and family. I send my love from out here on Hawaii Island where the volcano--Pele--is heating up dramatically. Janne and I went to Halema'uma'u crater the other night to watch the firey clouds and see the power of her surging up out of the depths of the caldera. Feels all a part of the same turbulence.
I am home for the winter after amazing touring adventures in Japan, Europe, Canada and Mainland US. Next year promises more traveling, so for now, I am storing up energy and the stillness of dawn here at Leo Nani. I get up in the morning to release the ducks and chickens out onto the farm. Their enthusiasm for life and the colors of dawn are making music inside me.
Janne and Floyd built me a studio downstairs so me and Stella the Steinway can have space to create while we wait for funding to build the temple studio up the hill in the pasture. All things in time!
Working with an agent to get my book out into the world. Steady on!
Janne and I are juicing for life and health.
And today I am VOTING for Barack Obama!
Be well in these short days, these long nights. We need the power of the darkness to teach us what we sometimes cannot see in the light.
A hui hou,
Rhiannon

It's October now (2012). I've been home on the farm for two weeks and now headed out for one more tour this year.
All The Way In meets for our third and final session this year in Montreal. The collaborations with local artists will include videographers, painters, dancer, accordionist and acoustic bass just for starters. Montreal treats us well and we are eager to give back. 16 ATWI singers from around the world join me as we explore the passion and artistry of this great city.

I meet WeBe3 (Joey Blake and David Worm and myself) at June Millington's IMA (Institute for the Musical Arts) recording studio in western MA where we will produce a new live album. Looks like the guests will appear as well. More on that later.
Then Boston, LA and back to the farm by October 25. See the Tour page of this website for details.
I will be home for 4 months finishing final details on my book Vocal River. I know you have heard that finish word before, but after my writing retreat, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that book is imminent!
As for Leo Nani Farms, we are working on building the teaching and photography studio here on the farm and all the other myriad projects coming into view. Have you noticed how life is speeding so that the difficult and blessed events are occurring side by side? Seems our task is to stay steady and healthy, give back, and move forward.
Wishing you the harvest of the fall in all ways as we prepare for the depth of winter.
Sending love and hoping to see you out there in the world somewhere or over here on Hawaii Island.
A hui hou,
Rhiannon

SEPTEMBER 3, 2012
I felt it in my bones and Mouth Magic at Hollyhock in August was transcendent. Ask any of the singers who were there.
WeBe3, Laurel Murphy and Will Hewett and 32 singers met for 8 days in this pristine setting, studying aspects of vocal improvisation and building community. In addition to bioluminescence swims at night, glorious weather, music sessions every day that included; Circle Singing, gospel choir with Joey, vocal percussion and looping with David, Vocal River exercises with Rhiannon as well as building a daily 15 minute vocal improv practice with Will and an evening of sound healing/meditation looping with Laurel, there was an outstanding session in the gardens of Hollyhock.
We were asked to sing while the painting class of Robert and Sara Genn worked on their canvases amidst the abundant flowers and greenery. It was a miraculous time as all 37 of us improvised for 1/2 hour without a hitch. Our conversation afterwards with the painters reminded me that art forms often benefit by being in proximity and remembering the common source of creativity. I thank Hollyhock for supporting this expanded workshop honoring their 30 years and to all the singers who came--hurrah for you and may we meet again very soon and often.
This was followed by Circle Singing at Omega with Bobby McFerrin, WeBe3, Judy Vinar and Christiane Karam and some 250 singers coming and going throughout 3 sessions. The challenge was to hear all the voices in this big group and practice circle singing and related vocal improvisation ideas until we became one big circle. Amazing how that happened, how generous everyone was with their time and ideas. There is no stopping this movement of the circle and the songs we create for one another. Deeper and deeper we go into the healing and techniques of circle singing.
I am full!
Now I'm headed out west to have a writing retreat and finish editing my Vocal River book. Wish me calm and inspired hours sitting in the quiet, typing away, unfurling all these thoughts and concepts so I can get the book out to you in the near months ahead.
All The Way In will finish in Montreal in Oct., possible WeBe3 recording and then I return to some months of farming on the Big Island where we are dreaming up the music/photography performance studio. Leo Nani Farms moves to a new level and invite you to come there for art and farming.
Hold that dream!

AUGUST 5, 2012
Home from an over the top journey to Europe with WeBe3. We performed 6 amazing concerts with Bobby McFerrin from Vienna to the Stimmen Festival. An exuberant experience singing with Bobby as WeBe3. Joey, David and I taught in Warsaw, Rome and Milan for the first time as well as working with old friends at the Stimmen Festival in Lorrach, Germany and OSA in Losone, Switzerland. I am still processing the sounds of music, the depth of experience and the deepening of friendships. We plan to be back in Europe next May. Ohhhh Europe you are so good to us!
You can find photos by Jan Watson from this trip on my website and various social media. They speak profoundly of the trip and these rich relationships. Thank you Janne.
If you have been thinking about coming to Mouth Magic at Hollyhock on Cortes island BC Canada, Now is the moment to step in. This will be wonderful. I feel it in my bones. WeBe3 plus Laurel Murphy and Will Hewitt and all of you in this magical place. We will Circle Sing every day and improvise in small groups so you get lots of personal attention and group inspiration. Don't miss this premiere event.
Much love in the music,
Rhiannon


July 1, 2012
Traveling in June to Point Reyes to meet the All The Way In singers for our second week together. A huge bonding experience living in two houses where we also had our singing studio. Cooking for one another and experiencing the beauty of the natural world there on the Pacific coast with local guests David Worm, Claire Peasley and Terry Garthwaite. We ended with a concert at the Dance Palace which was filled with song and improvisation for a full house. We meet again in Montreal in Oct for our final session. I am loving these 16 women!
Next to Jazz Camp West down Pescadero way. This is surely a meeting of the ohana--family. The organization that runs this camp, Living Jazz, is headed by Stacey Hoffman and Madeline Eastman who put together a faculty of the Bay Area's finest and guests from around the country who meet with instrumentalists, dancers and singers there in the redwoods where the trees guide us. I love it there as we fall into one another's hearts and the music goes on from waking to sleeping. Great concerts and workshops. Happens every year, the last week of June. I have been going there periodically since 1983. Such a gift!
Now I am in Europe with WeBe3 and Bobby McFerrin on a tour of Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Hope to meet you at one of these concerts or workshops. WeBe3 is thrilled to be touring with Bobby and doing some concerts and workshops on our own as well. We end in Ticino where we have been going for 6 years to meet Oskar, Costanza, Santuzza, Eloisa and all the singers. Yahoo!
All The Way In singers from Europe are gathering there for a reunion and then we give our final concert in Milano with Oskar and his choir.
I will be home in Hawaii by August 1.
Please consider coming to Hollyhock August 15 to 23 with WeBe3, Will Hewitt, Laurel Murphy. It will be an impassioned session with Circle Singing and the arts of vocal improvisation in that special environment on Cortes Island.
I am working to stay strong in all this touring. I am so grateful.

May 24, 2012
Wonderful, exquisite trip to Japan. Very soon I'll have photos and stories for you, but first I have gone on another journey.
This time to teach and perform with a master class in Corvallis, OR. Thanks Julie and Elizabeth for opening that door with all arrangements, the good and strong singers and for your generous hospitality.
Then on to NYC.
Final classes at Kate and Andrew's home in Soho which has been my home away from home for several years. They are going walk about starting at the end of June so we celebrated with a teacher's class, a final Circle Singing evening and a week-end Master Class. All of us treasuring the light, the big windows, the beautiful studio/home with great acoustics and the sense of community that has grown there.
I wish the NY singers a new beginning. I'll be fascinated to see who takes on the vocal improvisation next. All best wishes and bowing, bowing with gratitude to Kate and Andrew for all the food and music. May it come your way as you travel and grow new community.
Sunday night I sat in with Alison Wedding for her album release of This Dance with a wonderful band including string section. Rush to the internet to buy this album. It is crossing all kinds of musical boundaries with sophisticated, musical intelligence and passion. Congratulations Alison. We sang a duet vocal improvisation that rocked. Good surprise for everyone I think. Stay tuned for video.

May 24 continued...
Monday night I sang as part of an 80th birthday tribute to the incomparable Mark Murphy at the Blue Note. Lots of singers in attendance who both spoke and sang about Mark. Big treat for me as I don't often see and hear the East Coast singers, but there we all were with a great band and our common love of dear Mark. He sang as well, with the band and Tills Bronner from Germany on trumpet. Just so you know, Mark at 80 can still swing mightily and/or drop us into heaven on his ballads. For example, Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin, like no one, I mean, no one else. Beautiful night, great surprises on this tour with endings, beginnings and carryings on.
Stopped to visit with Rebekka Goldsmith and Alison Wedding both in Seattle where we are beginning to dream up curriculum for jr high, high school and college vocal improvisation programs and how to train teachers for those jobs. Much more on that as it unfolds.
On the plane headed for Hawaii and the farm.
Ahead is the Venus transit on June 5. All The Way In in Point Reyes, Jazz Camp West and a European tour with WeBe3 and Bobby McFerrin. I'm a lucky girl. I found my thrill (Joni Mitchell lyrics coming to mind).
Keep singing and believing and stay in touch.
With my aloha for all your music and sharing.
Rhiannon


April 10, 2012
Heading off to Japan April 11 with my brand new cd Spontaneous under my arm, for a 3 week collaborative performance tour with Shizuno Nasu. She lives in Volcano Village on Hawaii Island. We love improvisational work between the voice and the body, between dear friends. Our first trip together to Japan. We will be performing as part of ceremonies in Shinto temples and in performance galleries around Japan. My partner Janne Watson will be inspiring us with her photos on big screen and several Japanese instrumentalists will be joining us as well. For more details see the Tour page on this website. More news about the Spontaneous release when I return at the end of April. For now, get your fresh hot off the press copies on CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon and direct off this website. Spring has really arrived here in Hawaii. We are putting in the spring garden and watching everything turn into food and color. Now farmers turn into performers and off to Japan.

March 30, 2012 Spontaneous is here! In my hands and ready to come into yours. Very excited about the music which is entirely improvised in two live settings with audience: LA Sound Studio and David Friend Theater on the Berklee College campus in Boston. I am joined by long time collaborators and dear music friends Alex Acuna, Abraham Laboriel, Otmaro Ruiz and special guest Jetro DeSilva. This album represents the first time I have been able to express the power, inspiration and inherent song form of improvisation in performance. We came to the sessions with no plan, no charts, just our lives in music and our relationships with one another and the audience. The photographs are from Janne Watson and centered around Hawaii and the idea of spontaneity. Gorgeous work! As well as the beautiful graphic design by Suziroo and under it all the guru of live, mixed and mastered sound Peter Doell! Available on this site, on CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon and wherever I am touring this year which includes Mainland US, Canada, Japan and Europe. Feels like a completion of a cycle. I hope you will agree it is worth waiting for. I'm happy!

February 20, 2012 My new cd Spontaneous was submitted for manufacture. The master, the cd art, all the hard work and collaboration are now about to become manifest. So beautiful to come to this phase. Any of you working on long projects know what it is to finally, actually, really and truly finish a long awaited project. The new CD will be for sale on this website in March. Get 'em while they're hot!

January 30, 2012
Mahalo for our time together at Hale Kai. Already your beautiful bell gift is hanging at the entry to Leo Nani Farms. We will probably drink the organic wine tonight. Resting a bit today and taking in all that happened. I am thinking of you all on your journeys home and would love to know when you safely arrive. You are always in my heart. Aloha mai. You were wonderful.

January 17, 2012
It is the eve of my annual vocal gathering, Mele a Hakuwale (To Sing and Improvise) on the Kona side of Hawaii Island. I haven’t taught or performed for 3 months. Quite remarkable for me. I have been a farmer. Now I gather my music books, cards, ideas and renewed inspiration to take to the 14 singers from around the world who join me there where the whales are singing/birthing. 2012 is beginning with power and requiring concentration to keep up. Much seems possible in the months ahead. Meanwhile it is a starry night here on the farm. All the animals are asleep and the night is alive with possibility. Here we go.

Dec. 5, 2011
Welcome to the new website. Please take a look around because each page is spunky with photos and new ideas. Notice especially that Spontaneous, my live, improvised album will be released in Spring 2012 as well as Vocal River; book, dvd and teaching cards. Huge push with the excellent guidance and collaboration of my new booking management: classactsontour.com headed by Margie Farmer of Baltimore. My Leo Nani Farms on Hawaii Island has 200 tea and 100 cacao trees planted, nourished and growing. Blessings on the music and the food of life.

July 28, 2011

Riding Eurail to Paris with WeBe3 headed for our last Circle Song, workshop and gig. Western Europe has received much rain this summer. The countryside is verdant, the crops growing well.

My tour began in Amsterdam in early July where All The Way In Europe had its 3rdand final week. It was beyond my dreams. Our acoustic bassist, Brice, our percussionist, Gunga, and our dancers Martine and Mati gave us wonderful collaborative opportunities and the chance to explore body/voice in innovative ways. All the 17 singers and the three co-pilots - Nicoline, Johanna and Chantal, gave their best and it was a beautiful closing but also an opening to all that can come next. I wish them all great success.

Before that I was in Hawaii for 6 months on my farm, Leo Nani (Beautiful Voice). My partner Janne and I have committed to this 8½ acres, to these ducks, chickens, cows, plants, each other and the aina (land) herself. We are in the midst of planting our major crops of cacao and tea. Our friend Floyd, who lives with us, contributes mightily to building and maintaining the structures and systems. We have also begun to receive WWOOFers (World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farming). We have lived with 2 young enthusiastic farm assistants so far. Their muscle and energy helped us get so much work done and taught us that our vision of sharing this land is real. It is taking everything we have to move forward, but it is a miracle of a place and the island and her cultures are inspiring and challenging. We are learning to fit in and contribute in a local community that is very supportive of us, teaching us what we need to know. We are home.

I taught the fall 2010 semester at Berklee College of Music in Boston prior to that. The way everything is evolving and moving, it seems important for me to be at home on the farm as much as possible, and so I have let go of my teaching position and will return to Berklee this coming fall as an artist in residence for 2 weeks. It was a difficult decision but my intuition guides me to trust that Hawaii is really the place for me for all kinds of personal and musical reasons.

My newest collaborator is Shizuno Nasu, improvisational, Shinto temple-trained Japanese dancer from Volcano Village, Hawai’i. Our performances are taking me to new places in body and spirit. Jami Sieber on electric cello and voice will join us for spring concerts on the Big Island. I continue to work with WeBe3 (Joey Blake and David Worm) and the Spontaneous trio; Abraham Laboriel, Alex Acuña and Otmaro Ruiz, as well as Jetro daSilva. My performance companions are soulful, skilled, free spirits, all of them.

I have found the editor for my book, Vocal River, and will spend some days with her this fall in Point Reyes preparing the book for presentation. I plan to find an agent and publish by next spring, 2012. My live improvised album Spontaneous, will be released in spring as well, on Wayne Wallace’s Patois Recordswww.patiosrecords.com. I am thrilled on both counts to be releasing these projects that are several years in the creation. And finally, yet another blessing, I have signed on with a booking agent, Margie Farmer of Class Acts on Tour, to help keep all the balls in the air! www.classactsontour.com

Back to July in Europe. I met up with WeBe3 after I left Amsterdam and we traveled to Germany, Switzerland and now France. Our collaborations are better than ever, I believe, and our friendship of 26 years is solid and growing. This is our 5th tour of Europe so we have the gift of having treasured friends here and watching singers blossom in this work. We will join Bobby McFerrin on August 28 for a week of teaching Circle Songs at Omega in Upstate New York, along with singers Roger Treece, Judy Donaghy and Christiane Karam. 150 singers from around the world are registered.

All The Way In, Hale Kai Big Island Retreat, Hollyhock 2011 and 2012, and our newHamakua Retreat are the classes arranged for the next year. Consider one of them now because in my dual roles as farmer and musician, my workshop offerings must become more infrequent. I treasure convening these gatherings and so I hope to see you there. Also, it looks like I will begin spending more time in Japan, Taiwan, Australia and other parts of Asia in the future. Makes sense from my Pacific Island home……

And so, may we meet somewhere soon singing!
Be well and create in these turbulent times.
Trust the song inside you.

Rhiannon