click on the link below for details about a yoga and singing retreat in the most beautiful location. hope to see you there…SAMOS_SEPT2010

I’m currently leading three regular singing groups in London. They are held at people’s homes in different areas of town, from 8pm to 10pm on weekdays. The numbers are 8 to 15 people per workshop. Most people are regulars but we admit drop-ins. The workshops happen 1 to 3 times a month, the schedule is variable and subject to my touring and work away from London. There’s a Tuesday group in Finsbury Park N4, a Wednesday group in Forest Hill SE23 and a Thursday group in Swiss Cottage NW3. You are very welcome to join, please email grozenthuler@yahoo.co.uk.

Here’s a description of what can happen at a group workshop:

We’ll begin the session by ‘sounding’ rather than singing, as a way to ease off the pressure to make ‘beautiful’ sounds and dissolve any judgement about one’s own singing abilities. Journeying through a range of sounds from noises to ‘sung’ notes, from long sounds to percussive ones, from fiery warrior’s shouts to soothing whispers, we’ll use sound as a tool to share, discover, connect, expand, energize, release… Visiting sonic places we haven’t explored before, we’ll experience Being both through the sound we co-create and the shared silence that enables rhythm to happen.

‘Sounding’ will hopefully lay the foundation for a safe, friendly space to explore and develop our singing voices. We’ll share songs with inspiration from diverse musical traditions from around the world (African, Gospel, Maori, Taize, South American, Eastern European) aiming to expand our musicianship and sense of rhythm and harmony. There will be simple rounds, soothing chants, vibrant harmony songs, some foot-tapping music from different corners of the planet, and whatever else emerges… an invitation to have fun while we share the bliss of collective song.

Anybody can use the voice as a way for consciousness- expansion, energetic transformation and physical well-being, and simply for dropping into a space of ‘listening’ in companionship where the unspeakable is shared and there’s no need to ‘explain’ anything. Beware, we might end up creating gorgeous music together!

To achieve this they organise and support seminars, jazz courses, world music courses, workshops and performances around the world. I’ve been teaching for the GMF since 2005 and their courses are an amazing opportunity to improve musical skills, meet other musicians and listen to first class performances every evening of the courses!

here are the courses programmed for 2010. You can visit the GMF website for more info and to enrol.

Global Music Foundation International Festival of Music and the Arts

Dunmore East, Ireland

17 – 23 June 2010

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International Summer School and Jazz Festival

Krk, Croatia

3 – 7 July 2010

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International Jazz Workshop

Saarwellingen, Germany

8 – 13 August 2010

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Tuscany International Jazz Summer School

Certaldo, Italy

17-24 August 2010

is deeply related to surrender.

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Surrender what and surrender to what?

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Surrender the ways in which we present ourselves to others or to ourselves -which have to do with our beliefs.

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Surrender the ways in which we guard ourselves or protect ourselves from whatever we don’t want to invite in our experience -which also have to do with our beliefs: ‘This is good/this is bad’

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So when we surrender our beliefs about what’s good and what’s not good for us,

or the ideas we have about how others perceive us, when we drop the guards and the presentations,

then we can start tuning into the true intelligence of the body.

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Surrendering to the intelligence of the body means remembering the wisdom embedded in each cell

and in the space between the cells.

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The same wisdom that permeates the earth.

The same wisdom that keeps the Universe going.

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Surrendering means allowing the body to be in harmony with whatever situation.

Symmetry, descent, lengthening, expansion.

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The muscles and the stories held in the muscles get tenderized

so that the bones can sing the song written in the minerals that made them.

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