musical alchemy concert ~ costa rica

Reflecting on this 2009 San Jose event is a very enjoyable experience - both for us, and for everyone we have since spoken with who was there (including a couple who came up to us at the organic markets the next morning and a car pulling up on the street as we walked from the markets because the driver just had to say thank you!)

It never ceases to amaze us just how elegantly both synchronicity and synergy happen - and that's exactly how it was with this concert.

There has been a magical, effortless unfolding of this event right from the start - since our friend Leonardo felt inspired to organise a concert and then felt further inspired to connect us with Carlos 'Tapado' Vargas. Tapado is a highly respected and popular Grammy award winning Costa Rican percussionist who has similar Spiritual understandings of music and sound healing as we do and who has been experimenting for some time with the power of music like Tibetan bowls, gongs and tuning forks within his music performances for healing.

There was an incredible synchronistic flow to weave us all together in the first instance, though best we keep focus on the event or we'll be here all day!

By the second rehearsal we had unexpectedly grown from three to six performers! By which time the promotional posters had been spread around the city featuring just three of us, so it made for a nice surprise and bonus for the audience.

Apparently, after seeing the poster Marianela and Juan Pablo contacted Leonardo to ask if they could participate in the concert - they felt so drawn to it they felt they just had to be there.

Unbeknown to us, Camilo also had seen the poster and when he saw the hang he got in touch with Tapado and asked if he could come along to rehearsal to meet us and play with us. Hanghang being as rare as they are, he was keen for his hang and mine to meet and have a conversation! So when we turned up at rehearsal with Tapado, Marianela and Camilo there, there was quite a feeling of expansion! Camilo had not asked to be in the concert but the world just wouldn't have turned on its axis if we didn't include him, so then we were six.

What they brought to the occasion is beyond measure. All heart-felt, all in beautiful flow, all improvising and definitely enhancing the event in terms of entertainment, energy and healing. There was a great deal of humility and respect and appreciation between us all for the experience, for what each of us brought to it and for the greater consciousness that co-created it all with us.

Marianela's improvisation singing combined incredibly well not only with the didgeridoo (that her husband Juan Pablo played - and how!), but also with the F# drone flute and Camilo's erhu (Chinese violin). Camilo's hang is also an integral hang so the hanghang danced a magical dance together.

At different times we had various combinations of instruments and voices, including inviting the audience to sing some harmonies with us.

There is so much more we could share about it, but words just don't convey enough. Our YouTube videos offer some sense of what it was like - though the sound that filled the theatre was something that needed to be experienced in the theatre for the full effect.

It was really lovely to have so much wonderful feedback from the audience, through their enthusiastic applause and their many comments - all affirming that it was a profound and beautiful peace, healing and entertainment event.

For us it was a privilege beyond measure.

There are some videos on our YouTube channel of this concert.

Maia, Tapado and Camilo improvising with integral hanghang and a fabulous bamboo percussion instrument from Tapado's incredible 'box of tricks'.

Leonardo - MC on the night and the instigator and organiser of the concert. That's accumulating a ton of good karma!

Marianela sings, with Pratika-Sahayak on flute and Camilo on erhu. All improvised (the whole concert was).

Tapado in his 'palace of percussion'...with sounds of Australia a wonderful bonus on the night - Juan Pablo playing didgeridoo.

Thank you to Alba Molina for helping us out by taking photos for us in very difficult conditions and with our little camera which was not even close to being up to the task!

Our slide show of Pratika-Sahayak's photo art with beautiful quotes about peace, unity and harmony added a lovely, visual enhancement and an opportunity for deep reflection.

"Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends."

Alphonse de Lamartine