Community Artist / Deep Listener / Sound Therapist / Performer

Deep Listening® is a series of practices developed by renowned US composer-performer-activist-feminist Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016) together with Heloise Gold and IONE (exploring Sounding, Moving and Dreaming).
In Pauline’s own words:
‘Deep Listening is a multi-dimensional practice created with the intention of heightening awareness of sound and sounding to connect profoundly with sensations, feelings, memories and dreams. The ultimate intention is the expansion of the consciousness of listening.’
Pauline Oliveros, ‘Sounding The Margins’ p. 196

I grew up as an artist in the milieu created by explorations in the US by Pauline and other artists and parallel preoccupations here in the UK. I trained with Community Music working with John Stevens on his ‘Search and Reflect’ method, with similar engagements with Listening, attempting to leave behind ego when improvising, addressing balance within group musical settings (both volume and space-taking), use of the Body and Voice as prime Sounding tools, an ability to truly connect and Reflect in group musical conversations.
Pauline’s work floated around me, as indeed did opportunities to properly engage with her, which I sadly did not take up at the time. I suppose I just wasn’t ready to ‘hear’ what she was offering me, because when I signed up and began my first Deep Listening ® Intensive 1 in 2018, two years after her death, I felt like I had found my Practice home. The creation of community, the focus on the Body, the space to engage deeply on a Dreaming level.
Intensive 2 studies finish with the creation and running of a Study Circle, and for my cohort this co-incided exactly with lockdown in March 2020. Since we were already studying in Zoom we immediately took the Study Circle sessions onto Zoom and what only needed to be a run of 6 sessions for the course requirements turned into 18 weeks straight of gathering weekly. It became an important and safe space for the whole group during very difficult emotional times and cemented for me what a deeply connecting and meaningful practice Deep Listening truly is.

Following the end of the Deep Listening Study Circle, I have found myself returning time and again to offer classes in Zoom, when the time is right, often under the auspices of Intercultural Roots.