Communing with Music and Yoga

Frank Fitzpatrick 05/17/2012

I have been blessed with some invaluable resources in my life that have helped me feel more connected to myself, to a higher spirit and to the world around me. A few of the most essential ones that come to mind are music, mother nature, my yoga practice and my loving community – at home and around the world. This month I have been privileged to take part in a series of events that tap into and combine all of these sources of inspiration together.

On Earth Day, my friends Fabian and Tommy hosted the first annual Tadasana: International Festival of Music and Yoga on the Santa Monica Beach. I got to perform with Steve Gold and friends, along with Wah! and Hassan Hakmoun as part of The Healing Concert, as well to practice yoga by the ocean with my community of friends with my teachers Shiva Rae and Elena Bowers to the musical accompaniment of esteemed World Music artists including Idan Raichel, Vieux Farka Touré, Vishal Vaid and Karsh Kale. A few days later, I had the privilege of joining spiritualists Snatam Kaur, Deepak Chopra, Steve Gold and the Stoned on Shiva Band at a Music and Meditation Retreat called The Seduction of Spirit in beautiful Carlsbad, California.

Turning channels and the globe, I was off to Beijing to record the China National Orchestra and lead soprano Ying Huang, starting my days meditating in the gardens of the historic Friendship Hotel and practicing yoga and chanting with the monks at the amazing Jing’an Temple in Shanghai. After crossing back across the date line and great Pacific, I took my car out to the sacred grounds of Joshua Tree to perform Kirtan with my dear friend and teacher Saul David Raye as part of Shaktifest – a yoga and Kirtan festival in the dessert. It was a great place to again reconnect to community and ground with Mother Earth after the intensity of Beijing and Shanghai, though each stop along the journey brings its own opportunities and teachings for a deeper connection to the nectar of life.

In a couple days, after a grind, I will help lead the LA launch of a healing program called Yoga For Hope, where I will release a special edition of EarthTones’ Yoga Revolution CD entitled Music for Hope – both to promote and support alternative therapies for the prevention of and recovery from life-threatening diseases: once again emphasizing music, yoga, meditation and the gathering of a community of musicians, teachers and healers.

As I travel the globe for my work, I meet all kinds of amazing people.  I try to ask them all one question:  “If there was something that we could offer the children of the world – the next generation – to help them better cope with, stay in balance through and even flourish in the world we will leave behind: what would that be?”  The answers are as varied and fascinating as the people I encounter.  For me, it is the very same resources that I have come to embrace and have best served me : Music and Yoga.