Songs of
Mother Europe
A 10-week workshop series
to explore the ancient songs and sounds of Europe!
October 20th - December 22nd
Every Thursday @ 9:30am-11:30am PST / 12:30pm-2:30pm EST / 5:30pm-7:30pm GMT
(Open to anyone, including those who want to connect with their European roots)
In these modern times we are so privileged to receive cultural wisdom from all over the world, and yet,
so many of us yearn to remember our own people's ways.
Learning the old songs is one profound way to reawaken this memory in our hearts and bones.
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Greetings Fellow Earth Walkers,
This Songs of Mother Europe series is intended to connect you more deeply with your ancestral remembrance - in visceral ways - through learning the old methods of singing.
We know that song has the power to awaken ancient memory.
My prayer is that this series will do just that.
10 song carriers will point us back to our indigenous European roots through the teaching of old songs and ways of singing.
What's Included:
⇻ One Opening Call and one Closing Call w/ Hanna Leigh (IG: @hannaleighsong) - October 20th & December 22nd
⇻ 8 Singing & Storytelling Workshops with Guest Teachers - 2 hours each - on Thursdays, October 27th through December 15th @ 9:30am PDT/PST)
⇻ 3 Bonus Sessions w/ Hanna Leigh & Guest Teachers (on Tuesdays: November 1st, 15th & 29th @ 1:30pm PST)
⇻ A moderated community sharing forum (not on FB)
COST: $315*
Early bird pricing of $275 extended until October 17th @ Midnight PST
*Payment Plans available on registration page
A bit about me...
My name is Hanna Leigh (@hannaleighsong), and I feel blessed to be facilitating this workshop series for it's third round. The original inspiration to create this course came as such a clear calling, and it's been a delight to welcome so many others who are also called to trace the old pathways of song.
I am a Singer-Songwriter, Doula, Vocal Embodiment Guide, and devotee of this precious, living Earth. I also practice Holistic Pelvic Care™ and uterine massage. Raised in California, I have found home in Maui, Hawaii, on the sacred lands of the Kānaka Maoli, as well as in Oregon, on the ancestral lands of the Clackamas & Wasco peoples. My ancestry comes most recently from Scotland, England, Germany and Norway.
My music can be found on Spotify.
Throughout my adult life, I’ve gathered songs from diverse world traditions and have received the gift of attending many ceremonies of indigenous peoples.
Several years ago I began more actively seeking connection to my own ancestry.
Luckily, I have a mother who is passionate about genealogy and has uncovered a lot of information from the past eight generations.
Still, my soul has yearned to go even further back, to a time when my people still communed intimately with the living world, and knew how to sing the songs of Nature.
A note about the term "Mother Europe"...
The term "Mother Europe" is inspired by a beautiful essay entitled “Reclaiming our Indigenous European Roots,” which was written by Lyla June, an Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer. The essay itself brought me to tears the first time, as I felt a palpable presence in the room while reading it.
Throughout most of my youth and 20s, I was interested in, and traveled to, almost every continent on Earth. . .except Europe.
In her essay, Lyla calls Europe - “The Great Sacred Motherland of Europe”. When I read these words, I was brought to tears. Something shifted in me. I began to tune into how those ancestral lands may have been before their own colonization.
What could life have been like when our people still lived in deep connection with the natural world? When they still communed intimately with water, stone, wind and fire?
What songs did they sing?
Many may have forgotten the old ways, though gratefully there are those still keeping the skills and songs alive, and others of us who are relearning them.
May our time together help us to remember our own motherland.
COST: $315*
Early bird pricing of $275 extended until October 17th @ Midnight PST
*Payment Plans available on registration page
Through the songs and sounds shared by our guest teachers, may the living reality of earth and ancestral belonging be rekindled within you.
OUR TEACHERS:
Opening Call w/ Hanna Leigh
October 20th
Join us for our Opening Call, which is a time to ground into our journey together, and hear from the community about what has inspired us to join this series at this time.
As well as teaching some basic vocal embodiment techniques, Hanna Leigh will lead us in a guided meditation to connect with a circle of our wise ancestors, so that we may listen and receive their songs and messages.
Polyphonic Songs of Ukraine
October 27th
Inna Kovtun is a folklorist and ethnographer, a researcher and collector of folklore traditions, a performer, and an educator. She is the highly regarded musical and artistic director of the “Rozhanytsya” folk ensemble based in Kyiv, the lead vocalist of the international project “EDK”, and the lead singer of the ethno-rock band “Astarta”. Inna is also the Deputy General Director of the Kyiv Municipal Brass Orchestra. She has performed and given workshops all around the world.
Nadia Tarnawsky received a Fulbright award in 2017 and has taught Ukrainian village style singing in workshops for the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York, the Kitka Women's Ensemble, Village Harmony, and Dunava, among others. In 2011, she was granted a Traditional Arts Fellowship from Artist Trust and an Artist Support Residency from Jack Straw Productions. Nadia sang with Ensemble Hilka of New York in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster in Ukraine.
*Bonus Session*
Samhain Ceremony w/ Tara Wild
November 1st @ 1:30-3:30pm PDT
Tara Wild is a women’s educator, storyteller and songstress, focusing on uplifting nature-based feminine wisdom & ancestral teachings from Ireland & Britain.
She's the creator of "The Roundhouse" which is an online membership community that lovingly guides women into nature-based feminine wisdom from the Irish traditions. She also runs courses, ceremonies, and workshops that serve thousands of women every year. She's trained as a Women’s Moon Circle facilitator with Moon Mná based in Dublin, Ireland, as a Keening & Breathwork facilitator, and as a Priestess of the Rose.
She journeys to Ireland & Britain regularly for pilgrimage, and currently lives on the ancestral lands of the Ute and Arapaho people in the mountains of so-called Colorado (USA).
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Tarantelle and Healing Chants
from Southern Italy
November 3rd
Alessandra Belloni is an award-winning tambourine virtuoso, singer, dancer and actress, born in Rome, Italy and committed to preserving the strong and rich traditions of her culture. She is the author of the book "Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna” published by Inner Traditions - Bear & Company, and also the Artistic Director, Founder and Lead Performer of "I GIULLARI DI PIAZZA", an Italian Music, Theatre and Dance Ensemble who is Artists-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. She is also the designer of a line of signature series Italian tambourines made by Remo. She is the only woman in the U.S. and in Italy who specializes in traditional Southern Italian folk dances and percussion combined with singing that she learned in Southern Italy.
"Our songs travel the earth.
We sing to one another.
Not a single note is ever lost and no song is original.
They all come from the same place and go back to a time when only the stones howled."
- Louise Erdrich
Greek Music:
A Journey Beginning in Ancient Times
November 10th
Assimina Kouris is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who grew up in Greece and has a passion for sharing the songs and culture of these lands. She facilitates traditional Greek singing workshops, sharing traditional folk songs and education around the different regions of Greece.
Assimina recently published her debut album “ΚΑΛΕΣΜΑ” (Kalesma), a calling for people to remember their roots, and a praise for nature and Mother Earth, combining the influences of her travels, indigenous people and music she has met, from around the world.
*Bonus Session*
Vocal Exploration &
Community Sharing Call
w/ Hanna Leigh
November 15th @ 1:30-3:30pm PST
This session will be an opportunity to share our experiences, dreams, insights, etc., for the purpose of connection and integration.
There will also be guided vocal opening exercises to connect with the sound currents of our ancestry, and experiment with bringing through new songs.
The Power of Kulning:
Ancient Nordic Herding Calls
November 17th
Karin Lindström Kolterud lives in Sweden and is a carrier of the kulning tradition of her Scandinavian family roots. Growing up surrounded by folk music, it has always been a natural part of her life.
In 2015, while studying at the Royal Academy of Music, she conducted a research project exploring kulning for healthcare and wellness. The positive results of this project further strengthened her passion for sharing the art of kulning.
Over the years she has given kulning and folk song performances in a cultural-historical environment at Skansen, at company events, parties, in churches, and more.
In 2011 she began holding her own courses in kulning and folk singing, both online and in person on Swedish and Norwegian farms.
An Irish Song for the Samhain Season
November 24th
Mary Mclaughlin is a singer/songwriter/teacher who is steeped in the Ulster Gaelic song tradition of her native Ireland where she was born and raised.
Mary records, performs, and teaches workshops in Irish singing, technique, and Gaelic song and culture. She has toured extensively throughout the UK, Ireland, and North America, teaching and performing at Celtic/Irish camps. She has recorded five CDs to international acclaim, written two songbooks, and completed a Ph.D. in Irish Otherworld Song. Her particular expertise is in the Keen, Gaelic Christmas songs, and Fairy Song.
Drawing from the Gaelic Well
December 1st
Margaret Stewart (Maighread Stiùbhart) is a renowned Gaelic singer from the Isle-of-Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, with a career spanning approximately 30 years and three studio albums to her name. She is a native Gaelic speaker and has a great passion for the songs and culture of her homeland. As well as her musical performances, in collaboration with some of the cream of Highland and Irish musicians, she is also in demand as a mentor, teacher and lecturer on various themes of Gaelic song and related history. Margaret has amassed an impressive repertoire of songs and a goodly number of those relate to the music of the great Highland bagpipe. She has recorded two seminal albums with pipers Allan and Iain MacDonald ('Fhuair mi Pog' and Colla Mo Rùn') and a solo album (Togaidh mi mo Sheòlta) on the Greentrax label. Margaret will offer songs and history relating to early beliefs and customs of the Gaels, focusing on their relationships with the land, water and the elements.
*Bonus Session*
"Being Home: Integrating lineage and body to be your most whole self"
w/ Kate Powell
December 6th @ 1:30-3:30pm PST
Kate Powell is an intuitive, wisdom keeper, and guide for embodied Presence; supporting humans in becoming more whole and available to their heart’s fierce and tender aliveness.
The founder of Wild Sacred Journey, Kate weaves thousands of hours of training and experience in movement, awareness practices, and energetic healing/coaching modalities into her private & group work, podcast, and retreats - all to invite the remembering, repair, and activation of ancestral and evolutionary magic for a wiser, more relational future.
Having taken the last two rounds of Songs of Mother Europe, Kate knows the grief, wounds, and profound joys that unfold in our bodies as the songs and sounds move through us. She can’t wait to gather, together, to integrate and deepen our journey in ways that help us be more at home and more human.
THE RAW BONES IN HER BUNDLE –
Singing the Bronze Age Mother Tongue
December 8th
Carolyn Hillyer is a musician, artist, writer, and workshop guide who lives on a thousand-year-old farm in the ancient belly of the mist-veiled wild moors of south-west of England. She draws inspiration for her work from the raw beauty, untamed spirit and primordial memory of the ancient earth and the untamed spirit of the sacred paths that women walk upon it. Her creative offerings form a textured weave of books, women’s workshops and festivals, song albums and concerts, paintings and art installations, traditional drum making, and the tending of wild sanctuary on Dartmoor. She travels widely with her work, teaching in Japan, Canada, USA, Russia, throughout Europe and the British islands. Her books include the Weavers’ Oracle, Wild Litany, Sacred House, Book of Hag and her original exploration of the Proto-Celtic Bronze Language, Her Bone Bundle. Carolyn now teaches an online program called the Weavers’ Trail.
Understanding and Practicing Yoik
December 15th
Jungle Svonni is a Sami (indigenous people in Northern Europe) from one of the most isolated reindeer herding districts in northern Sapmi, about 200km north of the Arctic Circle. He has lived many years in other parts of the world, such as Greenland and South America. Jungle went to the Amazon in his mid-twenties, where he studied shamanism and plant medicine for seven years to recover knowledge that became lost among his own people due to Christian laws. Any practice related to shamanism, such as having a drum or practicing yoik (Sami singing style), was persecuted in ways also including the death penalty.
In 2014 Jungle himself became persecuted in Sweden, one of the colonizing countries of Sapmi. He became the first Sami shaman to win over a European Government, after centuries of persecution of shamanism in Sapmi.
Elin Kåven is a Sami singer, songwriter and yoiker from Karasjok. With close to 20 years as a Sami artist, she has seen how yoik has been received in different parts of the world. As an adult, she decided to dig deeper into the yoik, and found a connection to nature and her foremothers and forefathers through the practice. She has been sharing the practice of yoik online for the past several years, including co-creating an online course with Jungle Svonni.
As a recording artist, Elin Kåven's music combines Sami mythology with pop, rock and ambient soundcapes.
COST: $315*
Early bird pricing of $275 extended until October 17th @ Midnight PST
*Payment Plans available on registration page
FAQs:
Q: Is this an online offering or in-person?
A: This offering is happening online through Zoom, with teachers joining us from several different countries.
Q: What if I can't attend live? Will the calls be recorded?
A: Yes. They will be recorded and sent out soon after each class.
Q: Can I sign up for just one or two of the workshops?
A: No. The nature of the content delivery is that you purchase the entire course.
Q: Will I have "lifetime access" to the calls?
A: You will have access to the recordings for up to one year, and possibly longer.
Q: Do I need to have prior singing experience?
A: No, all levels are welcome.
Q: Will I be made to sing in front of others?
A: No. There will be a Q&A time during each call, though no one will be "put on the spot".
Q: Are refunds available?
A: No. Due to the delivery of course content, all sales are final.
An excerpt from Lyla June's essay
"Reclaiming our Indigenous European Roots":
But one day, as I sat in the ceremonial house of my mother’s people, a wondrous revelation landed delicately inside of my soul. It sang within me a song I can still hear today. This song was woven from the voices of my European grandmothers and grandfathers. Their songs were made of love.
They sang to me of their life before the witch trials and before the crusades. They spoke to me of a time before serfdoms and before Roman tithes. They spoke to me of a time before the plague; before the Medici; before the guillotine; a time before their people were extinguished or enslaved by dark forces. They spoke to me of a time before the English language existed. A time most of us have forgotten.
These grandmothers and grandfathers set the ancient medicine of Welsh bluestone upon my aching heart. Their chants danced like the flickering light of Tuscan cave-fires. Their joyous laughter echoed on and on like Baltic waves against Scandinavian shores. They blew worlds through my mind like windswept snow over Alpine mountain crests. They showed to me the vast and beautiful world of Indigenous Europe. This precious world can scarcely be found in any literature, but lives quietly within us like a dream we can’t quite remember."