Culture
LittleVillageMag.com Prairie Pop
The Sounds of Silence Harmony Festival promises to balance stillness of mind with sonic solace for the soul. BY KEMBREW MCLEOD
I
n one memorable scene from the Woodstock documentary, young music fans and counterculture kids are introduced to yoga poses and breathing exercises in a field, and the 1969 festival kicked off with a speech by a renowned spiritual teacher and yoga adept. My mind immediately flashed back to that when I first heard about the upcoming Harmony Festival, subtitled Music, Movement and Mindfulness. “That was a big moment for yoga in America,” said festival co-organizer Sarah Driscoll. “Swami Satchidananda Saraswati starting the day with inspiration and movement—I can’t think of a better way to start a festival [than] with a community yoga practice. Stretch your body and prepare your mind for a busy day, set the intention to take care of yourself, too.” Driscoll grew up in Ladora, Iowa and has been a fixture of the music community in the region since 1997, when she formed the band Greener. They regularly played four-hour gigs that allowed her to develop her style and stage presence. She released a solo album, Darlin, in 2004 and was a member of the Diplomettes, which joined forces with the Diplomats of Solid Sound in 2008, right around the time when Awful Purdies asked her to join their band. Both groups are still going strong. She opened Breathing Room Yoga in Cedar Rapids in 2016 and has previously led early morning yoga classes for events such as the Grey Area music festival and Make Music Day Iowa Corridor. Harmony Festival is a synthesis of all of this activity. “I had helped with Cedar Rapids yoga festival Fields of Yogis for the last couple years,” Driscoll said, “and I’m always into live music, so it seemed natural.” Its roots grew from an idea that her friend Natalie Brown floated about a weekend of sound healing, music and yoga, which made immediate sense to Driscoll because all these things require entering a flow state where one can’t overthink. She has known Brown for years through the music scene, she said, but “more recently she got into yoga, went to India and started doing sound healing, so we started working together in that realm ... She’s professional and kind—just the type of person I’d like to organize a festival with.” For this first year, they decided to keep it simple and eventually grow it over time. Brown, a composer, educator, sound healer and multi-instrumentalist, has practiced yoga throughout her adult years, but music has been part of her life since she was young. She began violin lessons at age 4 at Preucil School of Music in Iowa City, where she was the one swaying back and forth, caught up in the music, as her peers were planted in place, sawing away with laser-guided focus. Music, movement and sound naturally converged for Brown at an early age, which set her on a path that led her to her current practice as a certified teacher for the Sound Healing Academy in Cedar Rapids. She spent years as a full-time music teacher, directing two string orchestras and a full symphony orchestra as well as teaching group lessons at two middle schools—along with playing in the bluegrass
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HARMONY FESTIVAL Czech Village, Cedar Rapids, Saturday and Sunday, July 17-18, $111 Theme: Mental Vibrancy
Community Events July 17 at 8 a.m. Keynote Class w/ Marsha Nieland—Yoga Class July 18 at 9 a.m. Community Yoga and Sound Healing w/ Natalie Brown and Sarah Driscoll Breakout Sessions July 17 at 10 a.m. Yoga + Puppies w/ Cynthia Dennis (Yoga Class) via the festival
Dharma & Divinity: Finding the
July 18 at 11 a.m. Brunch featur-
Way to Your Inner Light w/ Beth
ing live music w/ Awful Purdies &
McClelland (Yoga Class)
friends
Gathering at the Gazebo—Safe Talk
Other Events
About Disaster w/ Julie Jack and
July 17 at 12:30 p.m. Harmony
Wendy Stokesbary (Lecture)
for the Heart w/ Darcy LeFevre & Annie Taylor (Yoga + Sound Bath)
Mantras, Affirmations and Mindfulness for Wellness w/ Natalie
July 17 at 5 p.m. Sound Healing
Brown
Collaboration ft. Natalie Brown
July 17 at 2:30 p.m.
July 17 at 7:30 p.m. Social Hour ft.
Flourishing or Languishing? w/
food from the Full Bowl
Betsy Rippentropp (Yoga Class) Sound Healing w/ Cheyanne Carroll Trans & Q-munity Yoga w/ Zachary Rochester (Yoga Class + Lecture) Live Music July 17 at 12:30 p.m. Kevin Burt & Big Begonias at Bo Macs July 17 at 5 p.m. Deb Talan at Bo Macs July 17 at 6:30 p.m. Getting Synchronized w/ Jason Snell Andrew Hallinan
