Healing Music massage music

Ruth Cunningham

SACRED LIGHT by Ruth Cunningham and Diana Stork

Original compositions of musical prayers and visionary improvisations, performed by Ruth Cunningham, singer, flutist, sound healer and former member of the acclaimed vocal quartet, Anonymous 4 and Diana Stork, harpist, composer and Director of the award-winning Festival of Harps (sm) and the Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble.

FROM THE MUSICIANS:
“It was really a very beautiful experience making this CD, Sacred Light. We found
this beautiful space in St. Stephen’s Church in Belvedere, CA and we just filled it
with music.The album turned out to be almost half improvisation, just inspired by
the space and by our working together and offering prayers.”

“I love the work I’m doing now as a sound healer because it uses all the skills that I have worked on throughout my life: singing, flute playing, keyboard, harp as well as spiritual practices that I have engaged in for many years. While I was in Anonymous 4, I only used my voice; now I’m creating music live for individual clients and workshops, reiki circles, yoga classes and massage. When I work with people, I encourage them to use music more consciously and especially to use their own voices as a tool for transformation, healing and connection to spirit. Music, sound and vibration are amazing tools and I think in times to come, peoplewill realize more and more what a powerful gift they are for both healing ourselves and the planet.” – Ruth Cunningham

“Buddhism has enabled me to combine my music and my spiritual life. The first composition on Sacred Light, “As Long” is a Tibetan Buddhist prayer that I use on a daily basis and Great Ocean was written in honor of the Dalai Lama. Composing the music for Sacred Light and then improvising with Ruth, Cheryl and Dan during the recording session at St. Stephen’s enabled me to express my spiritual aspirations in ways I could never have imagined.”

“The harp is such an ancient instrument – it’s used in Asia, Africa, South America, Europe – yet people today are rediscovering it’s therapeutic merit. Listening to harp can help awaken you, it can unleash your creative problem solving ability, or it can help you relax and find comfort and solace. A lot of new age music blends electronic instruments with traditional acoustic ones. Sacred Light is all acoustic, just voice, harp, cello and flutes. It is music for tranquility, meditation and contemplation. The simplicity and purity of it—no synthetic or electronic enhancements – really seems to appeal to people involved in healing professions.”
– Diana Stork FESTIVAL OF HARPS

REVIEWS:
“Ruth Cunningham, Diana Stork and friends have created a calm ray of peace for
the spirit in SACRED LIGHT. This album brings harmony and gentleness to the
mind and calls forth the colorful image of light through sound.”
–Don Campbell, composer, author, The Mozart Effect

“The intuitive weaving of the healing voice and timeless instruments guide listeners
to a state of deep peace, and sacred stillness. Ruth Cunningham and Diana Stork
create a safe container for deep rest and relaxation.”
–Pat Moffitt Cook, director of the Open Ear Center, author, Shaman,
Jhankri & Nele and Brainwave Symphony

“Warmth and sunshine and pleasantness, together with peace and tranquility and
contentment! Put them all together and you have the personality of the beautiful
D, SACRED LIGHT! It is like a massage for the soul!
–Nina Black, Manager, Golden Bough, Pacifica, CA

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS:
Diana Stork has been well known in the international harp world for nearly two decades. Beloved as a performer in sacred and world music ensembles (the Maihar Orchestra of Ali Akbar Khan, Geist, Twin Harps, Musica Divina) throughout the SF Bay Area; she is also much praised for her efforts in promoting the harp. Director since 1990 of the award-winning multicultural harp concert series FESTIVAL OF HARPS(sm) and the BAY AREA YOUTH HARP ENSEMBLE since l999; she also co-produced the "Harpestry" CD series on Imaginary Road/Polygram which became a PBS Special in l999. She has composed dozens of scores for healing recordings and videos with people such as Andrew Harvey, Dr. Charles Tart, and Dr. Meir Schneider. As world peace becomes an ever more urgent concern, she finds she is devoting an increasing amount of her work with the harp, be it composing, teaching, performing, or recording, to the service of helping others.

Ruth Cunningham is a classically trained musician and a sound healer. She combines these skills to create intuitively improvised music that connects people to the healing and spiritual power of music. She also collaborates with other healers and musicians in a variety of settings. Ruth is certified as a cross cultural music healing practitioner (CCMHP) by the Open Ear Center located on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and . . . sound healing workshops.

She currently has two recordings of healing music, Sacred Light, with harpist Diana Stork and Ancient Beginnings, which is part of the Open Ear Center’s "Music for Healing" series.

Ruth was a member of the acclaimed women’s vocal quarter ANONYMOUS 4 for ten years. With them, she performed in concerts and festivals throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East and made ten recordings – nine of medieval chant and polyphony for harmonia mundi and one, Voices of Light by contemporary composer Richard Einhorn, for Sony Classical. In the spring of 1998, she left ANONYMOUS 4 to explore other musical repertoires and to work in the field of sound and healing. Ruth Cunningham received a B. Mus. In Performance of Early Music from the New England Conservatory of Music and has studied Cross-Cultural Music and Healing with Pat Moffitt Cook at the Open Ear Center.

Ruth’s experience as a performer is extensive and includes the following:

• The soloist in the November 1998 world premiere of Patricia Van Ness’ The Voice of the Tenth Muse, for soprano and chorus. In June of 2001 she was a soloist in Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light at the Kennedy Center.

• A freelance singer, baroque flutist and recorder player, performing with groups such as
Pomerium, Ensemble for Early Music and the Waverly Consort.

• Ruth Cunningham was the featured guest in a one hour special titled, “Holiday
of Healing” on the nationally syndicated, NPR radio show, “Harmonia”. Ruth was
interviewed by show host, Angela Mariani and two tracks from Sacred Light were
aired.

• Ruth Cunningham volunteered her musical artistry on a regular basis over a six
month time period at St. Paul’s Church Chapel, a rest and recovery site in lower
Manhattan for Ground Zero workers.

• Ruth Cunningham sang and played several times during services at the Cathedral
of St. John the Divine in NYC, as part of the Visiting Artists Series.

• For two consecutive years, Ruth and Diana played for the Womens’ DreamQuest
at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA

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