SOUNDS OF COMPASSION...
The Harmonic Presence Foundation is dedicated to sharing
the essential practices and teachings for recognizing and realizing
the true nature of harmony inside and out universe,
including its utterly fundamental presence in the human mind, heart and body.
The quality of its reverberations depend on the level of our listening, attunement,
and practice of one of life's most essential skills-- the art of accompaniment.
"The music of the spheres" includes the ultimate reality of the inner spheres,
which resonate as experience, contemplation, communication and understanding.
The result at each stage of accomplished practice is "well-tuned being."
The starting point is always the search for self-knowledge--
how to listen, and how to listen-in to the deeper music,
silence and harmony of inner being.
With that ongoing discovery, we become better and better "first responders" in the present moment,
learning to compassionately accompany the music of all spheres.
We are devoted to sharing as widely as possible
the creatively inspired, deep and joyful Harmonic Chant,
developed with David Hykes since 1975,
as well as the Harmonic Presence contemplative awareness practices
linking music, meditation, the mind, and healing harmonization.

.... We had a very inspiring tour and pilgrimage to India,
including time in Dharamsala at His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Namgyal Monastery,
and then in Bir, at Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's wonderful Deer Park Institute .
We were then in Delhi for ten days, where we offered a week of
Harmonic Chant lineage concerts with the Harmonic Choir,
as well as Harmonic Presence teachings and seminars
in and around the International Festival of Sacred Arts in Delhi.
(An article about our visit appeared in the Times of India.
You can read it here.)

...

David Hykes, the wonderful Sufi singer and composer from Delhi, India,
Dr. Madan Gopal Singh, the brilliant young Qawwali singer, Dhruv Sangari,
and the Harmonic Choir
have had wonderful musical meetings of mind and heart since 2010,
during the International Sacred Arts Festival in Delhi,
and have given soaring concerts together in New York, Bordeaux, France, and Australia.
There will be more joint concerts of their "Sufi Music and the Harmonic Spheres"
in India and the US, and we will soon have news about recordings
of the wonderful concerts.

"The Harmonic Presence Foundation offers concerts, seminars, retreats, teachings and residencies all over the world,
spreading a form of knowledge which joins the sciences at their most intangible level,
where what appears as matter turns out to be pure energy.

This music which David Hykes brings us, from the harmonic series, being, as he says the musical DNA,
the source of all the music we know, which gives us life,
also provides an extraordinary 'Genesis Chapter' for musical education at all levels."
--the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin, renowned violinist and yogi.

Here are two videos of David Hykes in concert in Paris on YouTube:

"Spectral Path";

and

"Harmonic Opening"

David Hykes served on the faculty of the Mind and Life Institute,
which brings together leading neuroscientists and contemplative practitioners
with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other spiritual teachers to study the transformation of the mind and brain through meditation.
He gave the closing evening concert with his group,
The Harmonic Choir, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their breakthrough album,
"Hearing Solar Winds," the best-selling overtone album of all time.

You can read some texts about David Hykes's work by spiritual and cultural luminaries here,
and you can read testimonials from some of the many people who have studied with or received healing sounds work by David Hykes
and have had deep musical, meditative and/or healing experiences here.
David Hykes is a renowned and award-winning composer, singer, and widely-respected researcher of contemplative music practice.
He has been teaching the contemplative and spiritual awareness practices called the Harmonic Presence work since 1980.
He has had the honor to contribute his universal sacred music in festivals, Cathedrals and spiritual
centers around the world, and especially to projects and events in service to:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Gyuto and Gyume Monks, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoché, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoché
and the Rangjung Yeshe Institute, and Tsoknyi Rinpoché.

Feel free to contact us with any questions or for more information
by e-mail or phone: the Foundation office in the US at +1 631 907 6290 or in France at +33 9 52 56 74 69.

Since September 11, 1981, our Foundation, founded at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine,
has served the aim of sharing a universal contemplative music of our time.
To serve the cause of better inner and outer Harmony,
we share our work, research, discoveries, teachings and practices about the deep relationships
between primordial and sacred sound, listening awareness and the mind,
meditation practice, healing harmonization and well-being.

David Hykes is a recognized pioneer and
respected teacher of musical spirituality and contemplative practice with over 30 years of experience.
Harmonic Chant (harmonic singing) is a universal contemplative music practice
based on the natural harmonic presence found at the heart of all musical sound in the universe
as well as deep in the heart of our listening consciousness.
Collaborations over the years have included events with His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
the Gyuto and Gyume Monks, concerts in sacred spaces and retreat teachings in over 20 countries,
as well as many film scores, including major Buddhist motion pictures,
such as Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoché's "Travellers and Magicians" and John Bush's trilogy "Journey Into Buddhism."
He is an award-winning composer and singer whose 12 albums of music,
beginning with "Hearing Solar Winds," his landmark album with The Harmonic Choir,
have been the single most important west source of inspiration
for the harmonic sounds movement world-wide.

Our Foundation organizes international seminars, retreats, concerts and festivals,
sharing global teachings which explore the deep nature of harmony in mind, life, and the universe, along with practices which help our re-attunement to it.
Through the universal contemplative music called Harmonic Chant, mindfulness and meditation training, and healing harmonization practices,
we share inspiring ways of opening the heart, clearing the mind, and harmonizing the body.
Our events are a way to bring people together inside and out, for deeper harmony, healing and understanding.
Our work is for all those seeking deeper awareness and attunement to essential nature of harmony in oneself, life, and the universe.

David Hykes and the Foundation work actively in support of the quest for greater global harmony and respect for human rights.
Therefore we strongly endorse the quest of the people of Tibet for basic human rights, both political and spiritual.

Deeply devoted to the ideal of religious freedom,
the Foundation has offered sacred music to projects and events with His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
the Gyuto and Gyume Monks, the Nuns of Nagi Gompa and Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Tsoknyi Rinpoché,
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoché, and others.
David has been on television news programs twice recently in France, on behalf of the Tibetan cause,
and continues to offer concerts for Tibet on a regular basis.

As an offering to your listening, here is his composition "Prayer Song for Tibet," (copyright Harmonic Presence Foundation 2008 all rights reserved)
from a recent concert in France for the organization Solidarité Tibet.

Harmonic Chant, a fusion of sacred chant
and overtone-based "throat-singing," reveals and explores the essential harmonic nature
of contemplative mind in relation to the music of the spheres.


Hykes's music and teachings explore the harmonic nature of vibration
found at every scale in the universe, for harmonics are to musical sound what the color spectrum is to light.
They are the vibratory DNA of all music in this resounding Creation,
from the still-echoing harmonics of the Big Bang, to the harmonics of stars. Closest to home, we can discover the deep chord
of our own being-- the harmonics of mind, heart and body.

The 13 albums of the music, the concerts around the world,
the retreats, international seminars and master classes
in many countries the past 33 years continue inspire,
help, and reattune thousands of listeners, musicians and contemplative practioners.
David's work as a healing accompanist to those facing serious or life-threatening illness or problems
is more and more coming to the fore.
You can read testmonials and articles about David's work and music from listeners, patients,
spiritual teachers, leading cultural figures and yoga teachers here.

Because of our Foundation's devotion to events that foster the growth of authentic knowledge and direct experience of essential Harmony,
especially in ways that connect Mind, Meditation, Music and Medicine,
we have hosted seminars and retreats with leading spiritual teachers like revered Tibetan Buddhist lama
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoché and the Nuns of Nagi Gompa from Nepal.
We also support the enlightened and compassionate activities of the renowned lama Tsoknyi Rinpoche
and his Pundarika Foundation, and the amazing Nangchen Nuns.


Our project in New York, the first wave of our Festival entitled "Resonance and Radiance: Sacred Music, Sacred Mind",
brought together practitioners of traditional and contemporary sacred chant
to explore the emerging relationships between mind, music, meditation and medicine.

You can download the brochure here.

David will be giving the 13th annual English-language Harmonic Presence summer retreat
by the sea again this year in Denmark, July, 2012.

Again, for info about concerts, teachings, retreats, workshops and seminars, you can download the brochure here!.
< br>

Some of our other spiritual and interfaith activities include
contributing original Harmonic Chant and Mantra compositions to the three recent films of "Journey Into Buddhism" by John Bush,
endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, distributed by WGBH/PBS around the country and abroad.

We have also released a concert DVD, " HARMONIC MEETING",
an evening with DAVID HYKES AND THE HARMONIC CHOIR, filmed live in Paris, and now available for on-line order!

Harmonic Chant and the Harmonic Presence work have been nourished
by over 3 decades of retreats, experiences, research and intensive sharing
and collaboration by David Hykes with The Harmonic Choir and other musicians.
Perhaps the main mystery of the flowering of the work is explained by the extraordinay nourishment,
blessings and challenges received from both great spiritual teachers
(especially from Tibetan Buddhis and the Gurdjieff Work)
and great musical mentors (including Yehudi Menuhin and Sheila Dhar).

In a larger sense, "The Harmonic Choir," the living sound of this exact and exacting work,
includes the thousands with whom the work has been shared since 1975, and the thousands of musicians, "sound healers" and others
inspired indirectly by the harmonic vision.

The Wisdom traditions and teachers of Tibet, India, the Gurdjieff work, and the West remain important influences and inspirations.
David has a long immersion in Eastern and Western spiritual studies,
sacred music, cosmology, and yogas of sound.

Hykes was the first westerner to connect deeply with the "throat-singing" traditions of Mongolia, Tuva and Tibet,
but Harmonic Chant has evolved along a unique new songline path and employs
a unique set of ideas, techniques and principles.

David started laying the groundwork for the modern harmonic and healing sounds movement as a young musician and spiritual student in New York in 1975,
the year he created The Harmonic Choir, the western world's oldest and pre-eminent overtone ensemble.
His most direct influence and supporters were his root guru, Lord John Pentland of the Gurdjieff Foundation,
and the Honorable James George, retired Canadian ambassador and also an eminent Gurdjieffian and distinguished spiritual authority.

Hykes was invited to Mongolia in 1981 (after 6 years of diplomatic hurdles),
and upon return to Paris, thanks to James George's intervention on his behalf,
received priceless teachings on sacred sound and breath from the late, great Tibetan master, Thuksey Rinpoche,
one of His Holiness the 12th Gyalwaung Drukpa's root teachers (from whom David has also received teachings).

Hykes, the Foundation, and the Harmonic Choir co-hosted events with the Gyuto and Gyume Monks in New York in 1985-86
and with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in California in 1989.

These early collaborations helped pave the way for the world-wide
renaissance of interest in so-called "throat-singing" and Tibetan chant. More recently, Hykes's interest in the Tibetan traditions came full circle
with the invitation of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's for Hykes to compose music for his feature film "Travellers and Magicians."

In addition to numerous grants and awards, such as the fellowship he received from the Flying Elephants Foundation,
David helps sustain the Harmonic Presence Foundation programs through his film music,
for films including "Travellers and Magicians"by revered incarnate Tibetan lama Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche,
"The New World," "Ghost" and "Dead Poets Society" and even "X-men: The Last Stand".

The David Hykes/Harmonic Choir concert in Paris at the Cité de la Musique,
in the series "Ecstase et Trance" (with Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Tony Conrad and many others),
included both a concert of Harmonic Chant and a Harmonic Meeting, an experiential session of Harmonic Presence work.
You can download the evening's program here.
< br>

The best-known dimension of our work, Harmonic Chant,
reflects thirty years of study and practice of wisdom and healing traditions,
including Tibetan Buddhism and the Gurdjieff Work,
twenty-five years years of retreats and workshops with thousands of students and friends all over the world;
and thirty years of sacred music-making with The Harmonic Choir and many other musical collaborators and artists.

David Hykes has collaborated with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Gyuto and Gyume Monks,
and religious and spiritual groups from a broad range of traditions.

For work "demonstrating singular creativity, passion, integrity and leadership, and inspiring reverence for the natural world,"
The Harmonic Presence Foundation was awarded a significant Fellowship from the Flying Elephants Foundation,
whose work is supported by the *"Ashes and Snow" exhibition of photographer Gregory Colbert. <

Hykes was the first musician to integrate the throat-singing of Mongolia and Tuva
with the Just Intonation movement of contemporary western music into a comprehensive musical system, which,
together with guided studies of meditation, sacred chant, mantra and sound yoga,
have allowed the vision of Harmonic Chant as a universal sacred music to gradually unfold.

Hykes' career began in New York in 1974 as an experimental filmmaker and composer at age 20
with the screening of his film "Moving Parts" in the Whitney Museum's New American Filmmakers series.
He founded The Harmonic Choir, the West's oldest and pre-eminent vocal overtone ensemble,
in 1975, and performed the first-ever Harmonic Chant music on film,
offered to the Gurdjieff Work for Peter Brook's film "Meetings with Remarkable Men,"
thanks to his root guru, Lord John Pentland of the Gurdjieff Foundation,
who oversaw David's exposure to enlightened Tibetan, Mongolian, Sufi and Christian teachers.
David was also was mentored by violinist and yogi Lord Yehudi Menuhin,
Indian raga singer Sheila Dhar, and his godmother from the Taos Pueblo,
who said, "we gave you the privilege to sing."

"David Hykes is an inspired musician whose ground-breaking and enlightening spiritual harmonies
are ecstatic to behold and yet also contemplative, woven of the divine light and pure energy
that dreams, prayers, and all beings, are made of.
It deserves the kind of listening, reflection and contemplation
which Tibetan masters call 'the Three Forms of Prajna (Wisdom),comprising a genuine Higher Education.
Listening to his remarkable music helps me stop and meditate, hear silent echoes of emptiness,
and feel closer to that Luminous Void from which all sounds arise." --LAMA SURYA DAS



Hykes was also inspired by the Western harmonic traditions,
from medieval chant to Just Intonation pioneers Hermann von Helmholtz,
Alain Danielou, La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Tony Conrad,
whom along with Steve Reich, Hykes reveres as Western inspirations.

It's important to remember, harmonics are universal!
Harmonic sound waves were part of the Big Bang and their echo, the cosmic background radiation,
still resounds, to the tune of some 400 million photonal vibrations per spatial volume the size of your body.

Harmonic Chant is part of a 14-billion year old tradition--the harmonic presence illuminating every nook and cranny of the cosmic space.
Those subtle waves of photonal warmth, the cosmic background radiation, still radiate across the sky in every direction,
in waves as wide as 2 full moons.

And at the other end of the infinite vastness of SCALE,
smaller than the tiniest particles, the first movement, the first vibration, the first stirring in the void
would be the harmonic resonance of the "strings" of String Theory,
their harmonic resonance being "none other" than the identity of the created particle,
of photon or neutron, electron or quark.

The universe arises from a harmonic process; the universe has a musical nature.

Our delightful earthling music is the echo and renewal of that original harmonic realm...

To hear David's many interviews on WNYC-fm in New York over the years with John Schaefer, you can go to the WNYC-fm archives.

David is often a guest as well on the WFMU-fm show hosted by Irene Trudel.