Leah Hokanson
I'm a lifelong adventurer of music, sound and listening—as a community choir leader, group facilitator, certified sound healing practitioner, composer, singer/songwriter and pianist. I am co-founder (with Lynette Jackson) of Sound, Belonging & Wholeness (soundbelongingwholeness.com), offering programs that explore vocal sounding and intentional listening as portals to Presence, healing and transformation.
I also direct the Song Keepers Women's Choir (Gabriola), am Music Direct at First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo, and I offer monthly Contemporary Ecstatic Chanting workshops at Bethlehem Centre (Nanaimo). I have studied with many esteemed vocal artists and sound healing pioneers including Chloé Goodchild, David Hykes, Jill Purce, Rhiannon, and Karina Schelde.
I have composed and recorded three volumes of “Diamond Chants": popular musical settings of ecstatic poetry by Rumi, Hafiz, Hildegard of Bingen and others. Several Diamond Chants have been arranged for 3-part choral ensemble and published with Cypress Choral Music (cypresschoral.com).
I have also written, produced, and performed two albums of original songs: Facets (2019) and Portals (2021).
Visit my bandcamp page at: leahhokanson.bandcamp.com
Lynette Jackson
Decades of service as an adult educator, program “midwife”, and spiritual spelunker have afforded me myriad opportunities to engage spiritual principles in innovative contexts. I have facilitated graduate-level leadership training programs delivered in Africa and the Middle East, as well as innovative collaborations with tribal councils, post-secondary institutions, federal and provincial governments, non-profit organizations, personal and professional growth centres, and organizations as diverse as Apple and the World Bank. I devoted eleven years to residency in a Canadian spiritual centre, exploring both Eastern and Western maps of consciousness with leading-edge teachers.
Along the way I have earned an honours degree in English literature and certification as a sound healing practitioner, yoga teacher, clinical hypnotherapist and lay counsellor. I was awarded the Governor General’s medal for academic excellence and have undertaken diverse graduate studies in Child and Youth Care and International and Intercultural Communications.
I continue to delight in lifelong learning in the intertidal zone where science and spirituality meet.