Song Village Collaborators

Karly Loveling, creator of Singing Heart Harmonies in Eugene, Oregon, brings songs to life in her heart and community, honoring the pleasure and the pain; encouraging breath, connection, healing, and expression through songwriting, community stewardship, and the uplifting gift of harmony. Karly’s songs are heartfelt layered songs that are well-loved by Community Songleaders as catchy, accessible, well-written songs with clear and beautiful messages. Website

Offering Mindfulness, Medicine & Magic through Song ~ Amanda is a singer, songwriter, community leader, teaching artist, mother and ever-evolving human. In a lifetime devoted to music she has brought song to the thresholds of birth and death, life rituals, spiritual centers, recordings, festivals and performances through out the West Coast and parts of Europe. She is passionate about supporting the rebirthing of ourselves into a more beautiful sustainable world. Website.

Aaron Johnson (he/him) is an earth builder, teacher of closeness, and activist. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He has made a lifelong commitment to use the skills he possesses to end racism. In addition to using intimacy and closeness to blackness as a primary means to that end, the tools he frequently uses are speaking, teaching, singing, photography, filmmaking, and minimalism. Aaron leads a mentoring program called Turn It Up Now that focuses on elevating the power, talent, love, and work ethic of youth. He believes that deep connection is one of the most powerful tools one can use in dismantling racism. Website.

Trevor is an award-winning songwriter who lifts spirits, heals hearts, and inspires courage. He’s collaborated with hit songwriters, appeared on cable TV, and inspired congregations around the country with his positive message songs. The music video of his song “Love Yourself” received over 100,000 views on FB and the video of his song “Yes We Can” received over 50,000 views on Youtube. Trevor leads retreats that will liberate you from the costs of not fully loving and respecting yourself…. such as compromising your self-respect to please your partner, or settling for relationships that frustrate or disappoint you. Website.

Sarah Bentley (she/her) is a song catcher, song carrier, and community song leader, based in Austin, Texas. She gracefully weaves the art of embodied singing, mindful movement, ritual, and communal prayer into her circles. Sarah incorporates practices to build personal and community resilience to provide a rich and healing experience. She has a beautiful way of creating a space where everyone feels safe expressing their voices. Website.

Victoria Angel Heart stands in the power of her name as a messenger of love through meditation, sacred music, and embodied intimacy work. She holds space as a conduit of love and instrument of grace, and catches and shares meditations and songs of the heart. She regularly facilitates sold-out events in the Bay Area, and has recently launched the Hearts In Harmony Song Circle.

Rooted deeply in Santa Cruz, CA, Heather has devoted her life to revealing the essence of Love through singing. She is a spirited chant and song circle leader, renowned vocal coach, acclaimed songwriter and recording artist known for her soulful voice and passion for community building. Website.

Kira (she/her) is a song-carrier/choir leader/songwriter residing in Bend, Oregon. With a passion for building rich tapestries of sound with parts and harmonies that are accessible to all, she brings her heart to nurturing fun, connective, and soulful experiences. She leads Voices Rising Community Choir and at singing gatherings around the country. Kira attended the Ubuntu Network’s Community Choir Leadership Training & Lisa Littlebird’s Songleader Flight School. Website.

Kjersten Hallin is an Earth lover, mother, artist, musician, and visionary of Swedish/Norwegian ancestry, born near the Great Lakes, on Anishnabe, Lakhota, Dakhota land. From there, she has “troubadoured” far and wide for the past 20 years, raising her children and performing original music as a live-looping songstress known as Magic Mama, Eco-edutainer. She has recorded 3 full-length albums of singer-songwriter style music and is now in the process of capturing her original catches for a group-singing style collection. Kjersten leads CommUnity BlesSings song circles on Kalapuyan land, in and around the Willamette Valley of so-called Oregon, in humble gratitude and deep bows to the Altar of Love. website.

Aimée (Port Townsend) is a musician, song-leader and storyteller. She has an invigorating teaching style, and “got pocket” percussion and guitar skills. Aimée’s work as a song-leading and storyteller have woven her into an ever widening community of cultural shifters around the country in the realms of sustainable agriculture, alternative education, community living, healing, creativity, and spiritual exploration – all of which are reflected in the songs that she carries. As a song-leader, Aimée has been an integral part of the Singing Alive! gatherings and often co-leads with Laurence Cole. Facebook Page.

Colleen Porter of Song and Sound for the Soul (@songsoundsoul) is a 20+ year music educator and playwright turned conscious songwriter, music activator, vocal alchemist, and sound guide to bring souls back into resonance with themselves and into harmony with each other. At the House of Song and Sound in Sedona, AZ she leads song circles, songwriting, holds healing sessions and retreats. She directs the yearly Singing the Soul Alive in Sedona on Fall Equinox weekend and leads circles in other places around the US. Website.

Tim (Santa Cruz) is a songwriter and original instigator of Song Village. His band, Just Love, has recorded four CDs of sweet/vulnerable/spiritual songs. You can hear some at the Just Love website.

Hannah Mayree (they, them) is a song leader with a background in many styles of community and group songs. Driven by their love of harmony and rhythm, Hannah loves to share their creative practice with community in order for the music to come to life. Their latest project entitled Sings to the Sun & Moon has been an ode to the connection between the ceremony of birth and song. Website.

Yuri Woodstock wants life to become more of a musical. A teacher of simple back-pocket songs, as well as complex layered polyphonic compositions, there is always a right song for the moment, and for the group. The goal is to maximize enjoyment and interconnectivity for the singers in the experience of vocal harmony. Yuri Leads the Hark! Community Choir in Asheville, NC, and attended the Community Choir Leadership Training in Victoria., BC. Website.

I check the box next to avid gardener, earth-care witness, justice advocate, educator, comedy lover! I’ve enjoyed teaching, performing and recording music for 25 years- soul-jazz-world-blues-folk and have led singing at public venues, hospitals and schools. I teach private lessons, workshops, at interfaith gatherings, and inter-racial couples & families retreats. I am the Resident Friend at a Quaker Meetinghouse up in Pomo territory and currently lead the Pacific Pop-up Quaker Choir. Website.

Katie Sontag (she/her) writes and teaches nourishing songs that celebrate self love and remind us that all feelings are welcome. At Katie’s song circles, you will laugh, cry, make new friends, and feel better than when you came. Her music has been described as “a big hug.” Katie’s songs have traveled all over the country. She is also a singer/songwriter and a seasoned performer. Website.

Caitlin Wild lives and loves in Santa Cruz as a Wilderness Guide, Wholeness Coach and bridge to Wild Soul. Weaving the teachings of the wild ones, the power of song and the spontaneous healing that comes from being outside together, she is in devotion to the Beauty Way. She loves nothing more than singing the praises, griefs and beauties of being human while being in awe at the wild miracle of life!  website.

Kaitie Ty Warren is a songleader, teacher, writer and performer. Passionate about waking people up to their joyful potential in body, voice and harmony, Kaitie is dedicated to creating safe, communal spaces for humans of all ages to play and get silly together while creating beautiful music. She teaches speech for people with Parkinson’s, directs The Living Room Choir, teaches voice lessons, and writes, records and performs music, prose, and audiobooks. website

Amy (Santa Cruz) is lead singer for the band, Just Love, and co-creator of Song Village. You can hear Amy sing at JustLoveBand.com

Debbie Nargi-Brown (Santa Cruz) relies upon drumming, dancing, singing, and the creation of a safe place to ignite joy, passion, and a sense of community in her workshops. She embraces and embodies the healing and sacredness of the songs and dances. She writes songs for the heart, for healing, for transformation, for love, for grief, all those things that connect us as human beings. Website.

i am a listener, a song, body, plant and community tender. one who savors each day and the connections, ups downs and all arounds within them~knowing that the next day is never a given. trying to do my part in tending the seeds of a future i pray for. website

Marv (he/they) leads two weekly community choirs on unceded Coast Miwok land in Marin County, CA. He loves the magic of singing together, magic that can connect us deeply and uniquely with each other and exquisitely bridge so many divides in this more-than-human world. He is passionate about co-creating spaces for singing that are safe, welcoming, and easy for anyone to join in and feel alive, well held, and uplifted. Website.

Te Martin facilitates oral tradition singing classes and workshops that focus on song as a tool for collective liberation, somatic regulation, and ancestral connection. Te served as co-organizer of Thrive Street Choir in the san francisco bay area for six years, is a student of Gaelic song and the Irish bodhrán drum, recently launched “Murmuration: A Sebastopol Community Choir”, and released their first professional music video and EP of original songs, “Water & Bones”, in 2021. Website.

Elise May is a songleader, community builder, and co-leader of Song Circle Magic in San Francisco. Her mission is to cultivate more joy, belonging, and togetherness in humanity through the healing medicine of song. She weaves in wisdom from her songleading teachers Phoenix Song, Lisa Littlebird, Reya Manna, and more. She loves organizing magical musical gatherings, and regularly sings in prayerful/ceremonial spaces – and wherever else song is asked to be! Website.

Kid Beyond is a vocalist, songwriter, songleader, beatboxer, and Buddhist teacher of heartfulness and mindfulness. He offers music as medicine — a joyful, playful, soulful alchemy of expression, connection, and healing. He’s led circles nationwide for 20 years, and has returned to songleading, inspired by his former partner Lisa Littlebird. He’s played Coachella and many other festivals, opening for Imogen Heap, Michael Franti, James Brown, Ray Charles, Neville Brothers, and beyond. Website.

With a background in nutrition, culinary arts and mindfulness, Jenny supports people to use plant based, whole food nutrition and singing as a pathway to peace within the body. Her background includes a Masters degree in Nutrition and training at the Natural Gourmet Institute of Food and Health in New York City. She’s been instructing whole food, anti-inflammatory cooking classes for more than 15 years and loves inspiring people to Eat Well, Be Well and LOVE Every Bite! You can find her singing second soprano in The Agape International Choir, the alto melody in Jenny & The Sarahs and trying out all of the parts in her kitchen. Website.

Kele Nitoto is a second generation African-American percussionist and singer. Born and raised in the Oakland Dance Culture, Kele Has studied with Masters of many styles, becoming proficient in West-African, Congolese, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Peruvian, and Afro-Haitian traditional musics. Over the last 25 years, Kele has performed throughout the country in dance companies, bands, and teaching workshops and classes, summer camps, spiritual and workplace retreats, and for countless ceremonies and celebrations.

Saro Lynch-Thomason (she/her) is a song leader, folklorist, documentarian, and illustrator living on the occupied lands of the Cherokee in what is now called Asheville, traditionally known as ᏙᎩᏯᏍᏗ (Togiyasdi). She has studied and taught folk songs from Appalachia, Scotland, England, the American South and beyond for over 15 years. In recent times, she has been teaching pagan folk practice through the vehicle of song, combining historic animist knowledge with contemporary parts songwriting styles. Website.

alinahh cedar tigre ever (ki/ker) grew up singing (& dancing) in community at home and in synagogue. Ki leads the Meadowlark Community Chorus, a new youth chorus, monthly Songcircles, and Nigun Circles (Jewish wordless chants). Founder of the Faerie Kin (stilt-walking eco-theatre musical faerie troupe), and Singing Alive Appalachia/Earth Song Rising (communal song gatherings). Ki is a cloth weaver, natural dyer, earth craftsperson, visual artist, singer, songwriter, puppeteer, avid forager of original Earth garden food, bird lover, flower kisser, queer gender-free wild child. Currently, ki lives on Catawba & Cherokee (Tsalagee) land, aka Earthaven Ecovillage in the southern Appalachian mountains of western north carolina. In the past, ki lived in the bay area and was the co-founder of two ritual (and mostly song-based) communities: Queer Minyan and Pardes Rimonim (a Jewish feminist Earth-based multicultural community).

Gretchen Sleicher is a singer/songwriter and longtime songleader living in Port Townsend. She’s worked extensively with Joanna Macy, and loves weaving group singing and harmony-making into Work That Reconnects practices.

Maggie Wheeler is a passionate singer, prolific songwriter, choir director and workshop facilitator. She has been teaching her vocal workshop “Singing In The Stream”for over 30 years, creating interpersonal harmony and internal harmony through the powerful act of creating vocal harmony. Maggie directs the 100-voice Golden Bridge Community Choir in Hollywood, an inter-generational, non-auditioned choir now in its 17th year. While Maggie is known internationally for her work as an actress it is her song leading that feeds her soul. website.

With a playful simplicity Steven Walters invokes the most tender feeling level of the heart, moving you deeply — to joy and laughter one moment, unabashed tears the next. With deftly woven lyrics and masterful guitar work, his songs are offerings of humor, spirit and sweetness — serious music for the lighthearted soul.

Laura Sera is passionately committed to the healing and transformative power of song — it has beautifully awakened and expanded her life, and her greatest wish is for it to awaken and expand your life, too! She is the founder of Voices of the Heart singing circles, where she holds space for singers to free their creative voices and uncover the truths of their own hearts. She writes songs that restore our connection to ourselves, to each other, to nature, and to love. Website.

Laura Sandage (Davis) is a songwriter, performer, and ancestral healing practitioner. Director of the Free Range Singers and arts-in-community leader for 20+ years, she has the power to invoke the magical potency of song-as-ritual, as well as the presence and humor to invite singers into intimate connection with self and other through song and celebration. Website

Samara Jade is a modern folk troubadour – a writer, performer and leader of soul-centered songs that ride the crest of the unknown and are medicine for personal and collective transformation. A touring songwriter and composer, Samara has been catching, weaving, and/or midwifing singalong song beings, many of which are well crafted rounds and multi-layered parts with intricate harmonies and rhythms that invite singers to lean in to the subtleties of deeper listening and are seriously satisfying to sing together in community. Website.

Mark Growden is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, music educator, visual artist, and the founder and artistic director of SF SingFest, The Chromatic Community Music Center, The Calling All Choir, and The San Francisco Jaw Harp Choir. He has been facilitating community sings in North America and abroad for over 25 years. Mark has devoted his life to making music for other people and to helping other people make music for themselves. website

Melanie DeMore is Grammy nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director and vocal activist who believes in the power of voices raised together.  In her presentations, DeMore beautifully brings her participants together through her music and commentary.  DeMore facilitates vocal and stick pounding workshops and directs numerous choral organizations in the Bay Area.  Her involvements include: SpeakOut!-The Institute for Social and Cultural Change, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Obeah Opera in the Luminato Festival in 2019, and Kate Munger’s Threshold Choirs. She conducts song circles with an emphasis on the voice as a vessel for healing. Website.

Alan is a stumbling but sincere student of Love, and a long time practitioner of the Native American and Tibetan Buddhist ceremonial traditions. He has been blessed to open hearts to the Heart through song and music. He is a singer-songwriter and recording artist and core member of “Acoustic Medicine”. He founded the band, “Shabda” which precipitated the album “Dakini’s Playground” featuring Alan’s original devotional songs.

Alexa Sunshine Rose (Port Townsend) is a singer-songwriter, mystic, mother and artist. She holds a healing vibration with her original sacred songs, which are born from and for the Heart. Her songs bridge worlds; the inner and outer, the mind and heart, chaos and calm. Website.

Rob (Eugene) offers music formed from his experience as a song leader at Singing Alive (since its inception), as well as with Jewish Renewal services and Eugene Playback Theatre improv group. Rob is a Singer-Songwriter, band leader of the Northwest Express, event creator, Jewish Renewal leader, video producer and recording studio owner. 

In Love’s music takes you on a journey as we discover together how love is the most transforming force in the cosmos. Amanda dives to the core of her heart to conjure luminous lyricism with a touch of vocal and flute improvisation. She engages life as stage with a spirit of play, magic, and myth mysteriously weaving elements in the musings of the Now. Michael engages the soul in unity through his heart opening voice, lyrics and guitar stylings. Together their soulful harmonies and classic melodies will uplift your heart in All Ways.

Katie (Santa Cruz) grew up in Southern Indiana singing with Malcolm Dalglish, Moira Smiley, and Evie Ladin–her first mentors in music that showed her that singing happened with the whole body!  She currently leads family music classes in Santa Cruz, California for parents and their young ones and absolutely loves the relationships she’s made through these classes.  Katie loves to write her own songs, too, and specializes in creating & facilitating music that deepens connections to nature as well as always incorporating spontaneity & play.

Yam & Jessi have been singing together wholeheartedly since 2017. Their unique style of soulful songs bottle the medicine of everyday life and serve it up with levity and groove. The duo currently resides on unceded Lummi territory (Bellingham, WA), producing and cohosting a podcast together about community singing called Bliss Is Ordinary, and are the founding members of the song collective Earth Practice. Website.

Roberta Kirn is a song leader, percussionist, and dancer who has been leading community singing for over 20 years. She is the founder of BeWellSing, through which she brings singing in community to as many people as she can. Her most important teachers have been Ysaye Barnwell and Bobby McFerrin. Roberta has traveled to Haiti, Africa, and Europe as part of her Song Exchange Project, teaching and collecting songs to share at home and wherever she travels. Website.

Sarah Nutting and Karisha Longaker (Sonoma County) are MaMuse: Ma as in Mamma ~ Muse as in the One who inspires. With deep roots in the folk and gospel traditions, and their hearts in the present, MaMuse creates uplifting music for the next seven generations to thrive on. Interweaving brilliant and haunting harmony with lyrics born of honed emotional intelligence, MaMuse invokes a musical presence that inspires the opening of the heart. Website.

Claudia Cuentas, (MA, SEP, MFTI) is an artist, educator, somatic practitioner and researcher. She has been singing and dancing since birth, inspired by sound, the healing arts and the ability of the human spirit to overcome difficulty and transform it into new life. Claudia comes from an Andean lineage of Peru, and for the last 15 years has combined her traditional healing practices with western approaches to work creatively with individuals, couples, families and groups. She offers one on one sessions and group work with elements of Andean sound healing, creative movement and voice embodiment. She has a trauma inform, social justice and cultural awareness approach. She is committed to working and supporting her BIPOC communities into health. Website.

Eric James DeAratanha is a composer and music educator primarily based in the Santa Cruz mountains. Eric’s music is hopeful and inspiring while grounded in deep life experience… sometimes delving into dark places to being rays of light and beauty.

Lakshmi (Fairfax) is an ecstatic multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and kirtan leader. She performs original and sacred world music regularly at festivals such as Bhaktifest, Shaktifest and Earthdance. She has performed with Jai Uttal, Krishna Das, Karnamrita, Geoffrey Gordon, Suzanne Sterling & more. She also teaches Vocal Sound Healing workshops and individual lessons. Website.

Ari Moshe is a musician/ astrologer living in his van home in the Santa Cruz area. His songs are a combination of personal poetry, ancient prayers and dream messages. His deepest wish and joy is to devote his life to sharing music and harmony. Ari Moshe is currently finishing up his first studio album to be released this year!   www.arimoshe.com/music.

Yari Mander is a drummer and rhythm facilitator, and also a K-8 music teacher, who has studied in countries in Africa and Latin America, who loves exploring the integration of voice, rhythm and movement to create connected and fun embodied musical experiences. website

Glen (Santa Barbara) is the lead singer/songwriter for Toad the Wet Sprocket and solo acoustic performer, touring for 30 years. I discovered community singing three years ago and in 2017 started my own circle, which has now expanded to two other towns. I have loved evolving my musical expression from performance to participation, from a spectator sport to an inclusive, immersive experience. Website.

Facilitators Craig Green and Cleo Keller are partners in propagating contemplayful communities. Craig is author of The Contemplayful Songbook. They are co-founders of Woodfolk House of Song, an intentional community and musical sanctuary in Charlottesville, VA. Website

Anthony (Marin) is a local musician and guitar teacher. He currently teaches groups of kids to play guitar in Marin county. In addition, he plays lead guitar and sings in the Gypsy Jazz Quartet, The Dukes of Manouche.

Michael (Santa Cruz) writes music for the soul that is meant to inspire and transform. After the sudden passing of his mother a few years ago, he started searching for meaning in his existence. The age old questions of, “why am I here?” and “what’s my purpose in life?” consumed him and so his spiritual journey began. His songs are meant to serve as positive affirmations to awaken the listener to the universe within. In February 2017, Michael embarked on a year long adventure of releasing one song a week for the next year. Facebook Page

Kate (Inverness) has been leading community singing for over 40 years. On March 21st, 2000, she founded the first Threshold Choir. Since that time she has facilitated the creation of a network of generous, bighearted singers and the collection of a huge repertoire of original songs that are offered at many kinds of thresholds; songs of spirit, inclusivity and truth. Retired now, Kate gets to sing even more at bedsides, jails, hospitals, political rallies and marches, community sings, song baths, airports, retreats and conferences. Website.

Lilianna has been teaching music for 25 years in grades K-8. Lilianna has played piano, Gamelans, the nay (a wooden flute), and Western silver flute. She also traveled to both South Africa and Ghana to study music with teachers she met and worked with in the states.

Laura is a Song Leader, Yoga Therapist, mother, and nature loving song-bird at heart who has been self-soothing with song since she can remember. She is on a healing journey of self-love, higher guidance, and empowerment, and has a passion for cultivating spaces of safety and belonging where people feel supported and celebrated to come as they are, using mediums of embodiment, intention, sound and song to more fully connect with themselves and with community on a soulful level. website. 

Val Byrne brings years of practice as a therapist to her circles, recognizing the power of self expression through song as a magical tool for transformation and healing. The simplicity of circle singing allows for participants of all levels, and this inclusivity is Val’s highest priority. Her musical background includes years of study and performance in college and in Heather Houston’s choir Yala Lati as a soloist and section leader. She has performed in Spiritual Centers, and has been part of numerous recording projects. She lives in Santa Cruz in a happy and cozy home near the beach, where the music and creativity are always flowing. Website

Juliana Murphy is here to be delighted. As a human on this planet, she seeks to cultivate the delight that is our collective birthright. As a singer/songwriter, and songleader, she delights in the power of song to reweave connection, culture, bodies, and beings. As a seeker and child of many cultures, Juliana is learning to delight in the paradoxical weaving of the lineages carried in her blood, bones, and heart. Website.

Lyndsey Scott is an artist and ritual-maker devoted to priestesSing the Heartland, (literal and figurative).  She catches and weaves sacred music to empower earth-based spiritual consciousness, and gathers soul circles that use Song and sacred listening to decompose oppressive scripts that get in the way of freely living the Love we are. Website.

Copperwoman was born to sing! Her most passion-filled moments are when she finds herself surrounded by a group of people singing with her. She “catches” songs that emerge out of the energy and common experiences of our growing beings. They inspire us with wisdom and insights and rise from a place of core connection. She has been gathering people to sing for decades, around campfires and singing gatherings that she calls CircleSong. Website.

Sara Stutz grew up singing in a musical family, studied music in college and eventually became a pediatric physical therapist, using song and dance to engage and encourage clients. Along the way, Sara has performed and co-directed musical theater, light opera, and garage bands and is currently thrilled to sing and help co-lead songs in The Living Room Choir, an Ubuntu choir directed by Katie Ty Warren in El Cerrito, CA. website

Ian Carrick’s teenage bandmates said he couldn’t sing. So, it is a miracle that today he gets to help folks enjoy singing. Ian co-directs Open Hub Singing in Central Oregon and leads singing for students, corporate groups, and recovering addicts.

Ian’s songs center on strong grooves and shimmery harmonies that go beyond major triads. He is falling in love with Irish music and hopes to weave it into songleading. Website.

Allison Jeanne Faust believes your authentic singing voice is the mouthpiece of your soul, and that everyone can sing. She is a classically trained musician, vocalist and songwriter who has studied and sang with Bobby McFerrin and Rhiannon. She has led song circles at Spirit Rock , Omega and in community centers and performance halls around Northern California. She directs the improvisational vocal choir Valley Voicestra in San Geronimo.

Jennifer (Berkeley) is a unique blend of singer/ songwriter, producer, and activist. Over the course of ten albums, she has developed and explored recurring themes with a rare wisdom. Her lifelong involvement in environmental, women’s, and other justice movements as well as an interest in Buddhism and earth-based spirituality are at the heart of her songwriting.  Website.

Michelle Namasya Carpenter is a lover of life and of all things Spirit. She is currently a Kindergartner teacher at Tara Redwood School. Namasya focuses on teaching mindfulness, peace eduction, and empowering children to make a difference in the world. Namasya is also a professional percussionist. Namasya likes to incorporate yoga, movement, percussion, and song into her classes. Her love for children, passion for Peace, and joy of song help to keep children engaged and excited to learn.