Art & Wellness: Deep Listening with Keith Lay

Deep Listening® is a composer’s sound practice devised by the legendary composer and thought leader, Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016). It is open to everyone and devised to serve and expand our well-being, especially for those drawn to music and sound. DL meetings provide a safe space for musicians and composers to reframe their experience of sound, music, and performance as a group. The music we create together does not employ reading written music or require playing any instrument! It only requires an openness to listen in new ways: to nature, to others, and to ourselves.

Florida composer Keith Lay serves the group as its organizer, leader, and primary teacher. Our meetings are free to join, and optional donations go to support the Timucua Music Foundation. Meetings last 90-120 minutes and follow this structure:

• Warm-up : we get the blood flowing and re-orient our awareness with a little TaiChi and QiGong. No experience is necessary.

• Listening: this time includes Deep Listening guidance. It may take place outdoors and may include walking.

• Sounding: we perform Deep Listening pieces by Pauline Oliveros and the global DL community, including those of our own. These scores, using only text, give instructions on how the group is to create the music. Traditional music reading is not used, so creating music together is open to everyone.

• Dream Sharing: we talk about and optionally, share, our dreams with the goal of learning how to listen to them and within them.

Want to learn more?

Our Deep Listening group is a part of a larger network of DL groups across the globe.

The lead sponsor for Timucua’s Art & Wellness Series is:

Orlando Regional Medical Center, part of Orlando Health.