Santa Cruz Retreat
This prime, one-and-only irresistible annual retreat offers a transformative activation through sonic resonance, deep chant, and original music made by participants from every corner of our glorious World! The extraordinary and only-of-its-kind Santa Cruz Vox Mundi retreat is pure magic. It is a complete musical experience. Everyone is welcome to attend this fantastic retreat. It’s time to gather and co-create beautiful music together. These powerful times invite radical transformation, raising awareness of the power of deep listening and collective collaboration. For 26 years, these retreats have been an invitation to bring out renewal and inspiration by Freeing Our Voices and supporting our artistic aspirations.
New Additions to the Schedule
- Meaning Making RoundTables
- Teacher Training Certificate Sessions
- Simple Recording Tools
- Social Media Video Making
- Crystal Bowls and Tuning Forks Voice Workshops
- Icaro’s natural instrument Chakapa Making and Playing Workshop
All included
Teachings, lodging, delicious food, extraordinary music collaborations, and trans-performances.
Participants can create their own getaway by choosing any workshop, or relax in the woods, swimming, hiking, making music with somone in the group.
How to register
- Request and complete the Registration form (Registration form is required)
- Make Payment: Venmo, Zelle, Wise, Personal checks, Paypal – Must add $30 dollars transaction fee – Internationa students only.
Venmo: send to @Silvia-NakkachKnapp
Zelle: 415-608-1535 payable to Silvia Monica Knapp
For Payment Plans Inquiries email voxmundi@yahoo.com
Personal Check Mail to: Silvia Monica Knapp, 8 Admiral Dr. # 421. Emeryville. CA, 94608
International students can use Wise, request detail information via email.
Cancellation policy
Payment will be refunded in full minus a 50 dollars administration fee two months before the day that the event starts. There will not be refunds if cancellation if notified after, unless an unpredicatable emergency is involved. This is providing that the faculty, the creative team, and the organizational budget have been already assigned and set. Thank you!
- Joy + a loving sense of unity
- Deep Listening + Co-Creation
- You + Infinite Sound
- Music + Unconditional Chanting
- Your Voice has a Heart + Let’s open it!
- Unlocking the creative potential of embodied sound
Why attend
- We are all waiting for the world to heal, but until it does, let’s share what inspires us the most: Chanting and Music-Making together
- You’ll share the emotional magic of the ragas and the medicine melodies from across the globe and embody the life within the revealing elegance of the ragas of India rendered with mastery from the source of pure lineage.
- The retreat immersion will reinvigorate your creative expression and so much more by awakening the shakti of your voice and breath. You’ll have a direct experience of purification through sound and connect with your true nature as a warm-hearted ‘feeling good’ person.
- You’ll expand your musical horizons, learn new practices and advance your professional development when you most need it.
- If you are drawn to the intersection between artistic expression, nature, and spirituality, this is a program for You.
Like no other voice journey, our 26-year-old retreat offers a delicate balance of voice/sound re-awakening and personal growth.
Who will benefit
- Experience Akhanda Swara – the uninterrupted current of sound that dissolves into silence
- Feel the resonance of tones that calm the mind and make it sensitive to divine intervention
- Learn more about the Dhrupad Chants as we’ll share the selfless search for the Infinite Sound through "call and response singing"
- Sound Immersions dedicated space and Alchemy Bowls available
We have gathered every Summer since 1998, wonder why?
There is a kind of magic that happens when this international group gets together! Always on the road to revelation, these retreats offer a plethora of opportunities to gain tools to empower your Voice as Sound and to enhance your Sound and Music Healing practice, and we revitalize our conviction towards any form of sound practice, trans-performance, or musical aspiration.
You’ll learn a handful of voice-centered practices and a new paradigm on how to approach the voice as sound to free your artistic expression from any conditioning. Open to all! You don’t have to be a “musician” or a “singer” to participate. You become a part of a vibrant international community of people that love to collaborate, sing, and music and sound healer.
Areas of study
- Mindful Breathing & Sound techniques facilitate the healthy flow of “prana” (life force)
- Human Tuning, Sound & Voice in Healing with Tuning Forks
- Deep Listening exercises to apply in any field
- A taste of ‘Karaj‘ and Dhrupad tuning practices
- Deep Listening exercises to apply in any field
- Vocal Cultures of Improvisation & The Voices of the Voice
- Medicine Melodies; The Voice of the Icaros and Sacred Chant
- Transformances by the participants and the faculty
- Subtle Movement exercises to release vocal tension
- Specific Hands & Arms Gestures (Mudras) that activate and refine tone and presence
- Voice Placement, Tuning, and Resonance Space Dynamics
- The Inspiring Voice of Mantra and the Indian Ragas
- Modern Extended Vocal Techniques
- Nada Yoga, Dhrupad Syllables, and Sentences that shape the tone and relax the breath
- Vocal Meditations practices that focus on melodic extension
- The Biosonic Body; Using the Voice with Tuning Forks
- The Voice in Shamanic Journeys
- The Voice of Afro-Brazilan Chants
- The Voice and Sound in Repertoire Development and building a music vocabulary
- The Voice in Thelepatic listening and Intuition
- Chanting as a Spiritual Path
The Flow of Each Day!
In the true spirit of Saraswati, the Indian Goddesses of learning and creative flow, the retreat unfolds through a gentle continuum of contemplative and expressive practices that support the development of a healthy voice and follow the path to living as a divine art.
Early Morning: Karaj-Tuning (expanding vocal range) Qi Gong & Yoga (optional).
Breakfast
Group Morning Session: The Art of Melody, Raga, and Yoga of the Voice, Repertoire Development, etc.
Lunch & Rest
Afternoon: Concurrent Workshops and Training (optional)
Group Evening Session: Raga Singing, Kirtan, Lectures, Sound Immersions, and Creative collaborations among participants.
Optional activities include
- Rhythm and Instruments instruction
- New Paradigm Sound Healing and Shamanic Journeys
- Promo-Video Recording and Private Voice Sessions upon availability
- Making new international friends
- Enjoy swimming and dancing in a divine pool
- Walks to the most powerful and precious park
- Treasure dharma shopping
- Delicious meals
- Surprised guests artist and live concerts
- And… Consider enjoyment.