PADMA SOUNDSYSTEM

NPR To The Best of Our Knowledge 11/11/07

Dharma Days, Yoga Nights Listen  

C/Net MusicDownload.com  December 2006

"Those in need of some spiritual focus could do worse than to follow a chap whose name translates as "immutable wisdom." Speaking of muting, you won't want to do it to Dorje's thick, hypnotic soundscapes. Their didgeridoo-drenched phrases are scientifically engineered to alter your consciousness." Visit site

University of Arizona Wildcat November 2006

Sound Healing - Padma Soundsystem performs sounds that heal with guided meditation and chanting. Far out, it sounds really soothing and mellow. If you're searching for some spirituality in your life, this event is for you. Alexandria Kassman

Yogi Times Los Angeles September 2006

Visit Site 

Rave India Magazine June 2006

iBHAJANS ON YOUR iPOD 

THE WORLD'S FIRST SPIRITUAL HEALING PODCAST
Practically every major record label with a spiritual music catalog is flogging healing music as the next big thing; and much of it is based on good marketing sense as it is on scientific evidence. As many hospitals in India have begun ‘musical healing’ programs (the Apollo Hospital in Madras being a pioneer in the field), other far less traditional distribution channels have picked up on Indian spirituality as the new podcast frenzy. Among the first in line are Yeshe Dorje and the classical cellist Nancy Green, who have created Padma Soundsystem an online site where they combine elements of classical cello, Indian raga, Tibetan Buddhist mantras and harmonic overtone vocals to offer their healing podcasts. Weekly sound yoga sessions by the group are recorded and offered online for ‘transformative energy healing’ as the group likes to call it.

JUNE  2006: Tucson Weekly

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Arts/Content?oid=oid:83046

The Simpler Life

Nancy Green finds a more grounded existence by combining cello and yoga

By JAMES REEL

Nancy Green

But a year ago, she gave up the academic life and stopped traveling around. Right now, if you want to hear her live, you can find her every Wednesday night playing for a yoga class.

This is not one of those stories about how the mighty have fallen. Green is very carefully guiding her career in exactly the direction she wants.

"I took a leap into the abyss," she says of her decision to leave the UA a year ago. "With my son graduating from high school, I've had a feeling of crossing the finish line--all these years of single parenting took a lot out of me. I wanted to live a life that was more grounded. I wanted to do more playing, but I don't want to do a lot of jetting around."

Now, that can be a problem; it's hard to make a living as a cello soloist if you hardly leave Tucson. Green's strategy is twofold.

First, she's throwing herself into making more recordings, many of them with her cousin, pianist Frederick Moyer, on his own JRI label. Green has already recorded some of the standard repertory; a critic in Fanfare magazine wrote of her version of the Brahms sonatas, "Green's playing is nothing short of rapturous, and pianist Moyer attends with such rapport that both voices are as one. This is music-making of the highest order." But there's a finite amount of cello literature by big-name composers, so she focuses more on neglected figures like Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Anton Arensky, whose complete cello music she has already recorded, and early Romantic composer Ferdinand Ries, of whom Green has become a big fan. ("It's like having more Beethoven sonatas," she says.)

Second, she is finding ways to integrate her musical talent with her longstanding interest in health, meditation and shamanistic studies. Hence her appearance at Yoga Oasis every Wednesday as part of the acoustic world music duo Padma Soundsystem, playing what the group's Web site (www.padmasoundsystem.com) calls "healing music, music that was specifically created to alleviate stress and boost the body's immune system" using "ancient Tibetan Buddhist mantras and the even older sacred tradition of Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound."

Green's musical training was quite traditional, and she has an impressive pedigree. She studied at Juilliard with Leonard Rose and Lynn Harrell, and performed in the master classes of Mstislav Rostropovich. She won several prizes and other honors, including a Rockefeller grant to study in London with Jacqueline du Pré. She remained in London for some time, though she also studied in Germany with Johannes Goritzki, whom she calls her "real guru" and credits with awakening all the musicality in her. But back in London, she says, "I felt trapped, and finally a huge health crisis catapulted me back into this country."

Once she'd recovered and gotten her bearings, she learned of an opening on the UA music faculty. She got the job in 1995, but she admits that what pulled her to Tucson wasn't so much the UA as the opportunity to attend a series of workshops here with Carlos Castaneda, who wrote extensively on his personal experience with Native American shamanism; his first and still most popular book was The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge.

"I was obsessed with his books," says Green. Indeed, she ducked out of her first UA faculty retreat early so she could attend a Castaneda workshop.

Today, those interests rather than a music professor's ambitions are guiding her career. Once Green was free of the UA, her first inclination was to play Bach's solo cello suites at local spas. But soon she found a method of producing "healing" music in a way that connected more securely with her spiritual beliefs.

After hiring local publicist Lewis Humphreys to spread the word on her latest classical CDs (including a reissue of her feisty recording of the Brahms Hungarian Dances), she learned that Humphreys was also a musician whose health and spiritual beliefs nicely intersected with hers. Together they formed Padma Soundsystem. Instead of performing Bach, she spends a lot of time playing room-filling drones on open strings.

"It doesn't use my cello playing the way I've been trained," she admits, "but it ties in with my other interests. We're creating sounds that benefit people as they're lying there being worked on. We're using music as a healing energy."

Says Humphreys, "Nancy had never done any improvising, so at first, she was a reluctant partner."

"At first, I was absolutely set on Bach," Green says. "Bach is so healing and harmonious." But she quickly caught on to what Humphreys had in mind, even though it forced her to abandon much of her classical mindset.

"Classical music is about tight control," Humphreys says. "But in what we're doing, we have to abandon all thought and expectation."

Yet Green hasn't permanently cleared her mind of classical-music precepts. Her recording with Moyer of the Rachmaninov sonata has just come out, and in the works is a disc with UA pianist Tannis Gibson of challenging sonatas by Hungarian composers. When asked to describe her style in the classical mode, the first name Green brings up is Janos Starker. "We both have a tight, lean sound," she says. "But I'm more on the lush, rhapsodic side musically. I like to go out on a limb."

Padma Soundsystem achieves incredible results in live performance and podcasting of new music. Experience sound healing today!

(PRLEAP.COM) Tucson AZ May 15, 2006 Padma Soundsystem, a Tucson based acoustic world music group uses ancient traditions with modern technology to create extraordinary performances. Unique sound healing recordings are then released as podcasts from their website.

Padma Soundsystem is developing a new form of musical performance combined with the integrative healing arts. The audience is also the patient, and members lie down in the center of a circle formed by the artists/ sound healers. The experience is transformative and multisensory using Buddhist mantra, classical cello, harmonium, harmonic overtones, voices and percussion with Asian influenced sounds and rhythms.

Even if you cannot attend this ground breaking performance and sound healing in person, you can listen for yourself and explore its benefits. Visit www.padmasoundsystem.com and experience the profound sensory transformation of sound healing in your office or home today. Burn a CD to play in your car and avoid road rage. Free Download. Free Podcast. May all beings be happy, may all beings be free.

World's First Free Sound Healing Podcast Offered by Padma Soundsystem

(PRLEAP.COM) Tucson AZ April 17, 2006 – The interest in sound healing is increasing with its acceptance as an effective method to deal with the stress of a busy lifestyle. More and more people are seeking relaxation and transformation by listening to intentional healing music, music that was specifically created to alleviate stress and boost the body’s immune system.

Utilizing ancient Tibetan Buddhist mantras and the even older sacred tradition of Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound, padma soundsystem creates beautiful music and offers it as a free podcast at their website - http://www.padmasoundsystem.com/sound-healing-yoga-oasis/

Padma Soundsystem was created by Yeshe Dorje and the classical cellist Nancy Green as a way to combine their spiritual practice, musical talent and interest in the integrative healing arts. This is truly World Music with elements of classical cello, Indian raga, Tibetan Buddhist mantras and harmonic overtone vocals.

During weekly sound yoga sessions, various types of transformative energy healing are offered to participants as they listen to a live performance by the group. These performances are recorded and offered at the website as a podcast.

Please contact Yeshe Dorje if you would like more information or visit: www.padmasoundsystem.com