Greetings! Bonjour! Cliquez ici pour les pages en français!
A warm welcome to you from the Harmonic Presence Foundation.
We're the principal organization supporting the music, ideas and teachings of David Hykes, visionary founder of the Harmonic Presence work.
Our Foundation has served since 1975 the global need for ever-greater awareness about the nature, causes and sources of real Harmony, in our life and in the universe.
We continue to share research, discoveries, teachings and practices about the deep relationships
between sacred sound, listening awareness and meditation practice, healing harmonization and well-being.
David Hykes is a recognized pioneer and supporter of global sacred music and respected teacher of musical spirituality and of contemplative practice.
He is an award-winning composer and singer, and founder of Harmonic Chant (harmonic singing),
a universal contemplative music practice based on the natural harmonic presence at the heart of all musical sound and listening.
He is well-known for his sacred music collaborations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Gyuto and Gyume Monks,
seminal recordings of Harmonic Chant and his group The Harmonic Choir, and for his films scores in the Buddha Dharma world,
for Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoché's "Travellers and Magicians" and John Bush's trilogy "Journey Into Buddhism."

Click here for the current calendar of David's concerts and teachings in the US and Europe
from September through November, 2008, with other concerts and teachings to be announced.

"David Hykes has opened a new dimension in music, bringing us the music of the spheres." -- Lord Yehudi Menuhin

David's unique voice and guided musical journey of the past 33 years toward the heart of the world's wisdom traditions
have made him one of the visionary wake-up callers regarding the deeper nature of the crisis of harmony in today's world.

His calling is to share, inspire and encourage knowledge right here on earth of of the great Harmony-- from the music of the spheres to the deepest vibrations of mind and heart,
and its resonant relevance to our need to find harmony in life on Earth.
His call, one might say, is for a global warming of the heart.

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, and practices which help the re-attunement to it.
Through the uniersal 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.

And here are two of David's videos on YouTube:

"Spectral Path";

and

"Harmonic Opening"

David has returned to Europe for the summer 2008 program of
Harmonic Presence seminars and retreats July 15-20 and August 15-17 at the center in France, and August 3-8 in Denmkark.

For information, you can e-mail us,
or call the Foundation office in the US at +1 203 843 3524 or in France at 011 33 9 52 56 74 69.

Click here for the current July through November, 2008, calendar,
with other concerts and teachings to be announced.

"David Hykes's music is haunting and transporting. It takes you some place like the Sahara desert,
somewhere completely otherworldly. It transports you to the Ancient Time.
While searching for music for my film 'Travellers and Magicians,' I listened to so much music.
But I always came back to David's. From the moment I heard it, there was no doubt."
--Revered incarnate Tibetan lama Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

David Hykes is an award-winning composer, singer and recording artist,
and founder of the global sacred music called Harmonic Chant (harmonic singing),
which he has developed and shared around the world since 1975.

Harmonic Chant, a deep 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 11 albums of his music, the concerts around the world with his groups
including The Harmonic Choir, 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.

His work as a healing accompanist to those facing serious or life-threatening illness
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.

"David Hykes has opened a new dimension in music, bringing us the music of the spheres.
It is the music of overtones which hold sway throughout the universe
and govern all spatial and mathematical relationships. As music, these wondrous sounds
retain an extraordinary mystery, for they do not belong to man.
They have not to be worked by him and must make every listener feel humble and yet part of the great System.
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.

For information, you can e-mail us,
or you can call the Foundation office in the US at +1 203 843 3524, or in France at +33 9 52 56 74 69.

David's 11th album, with The Harmonic Choir, is called HARMONIC WORLDS and is available here:




David recently offered a benefit concert in Boudhanath, Nepal, in honor of the 10th anniversary of the Rangjung Yeshe Institute,
directed by one of his gurus, the Tibet Buddhist reincarnate lama, Tulku Chokyi Nyima Rinpoché.

Inspired by this occasion, and his recordings of the amazing huge bell
at the Boudhanath Stupa, David has begun a series of new Dharma Music compositions
which include the resonances of the mantra-covered bell.
He offers you the chance to listen to the first composition of the series,
called "First Attunement," which you can download here.

The Harmonic Presence work brings to life teachings and practices for deep harmonization, attunement and communication,
based on a universal music available to all. You are more than welcome to participate in our programs,
and you can also help by making donations to the Harmonic Presence Foundation,
our not-for-profit organization based in New York and France.

Hykes's landmark collaborations since 1975 exploring sacred music, contemplative practice and healing sounds
have included projects with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Gyuto Monks,
the Gyume Monks, and many other practitioners and teachers.

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.

You can make a donation to us in support of our work here:

This year marks the 25th anniversary of "HEARING SOLAR WINDS,"
Hykes's landmark album with The Harmonic Choir, which launched the contemporary harmonic and healing sounds movement,
has inspired countless listeners, singers and "sound healers", and remains the best-loved overtone recording of all time,
with over 300,000 copies sold to date.

Among the most widely-influential recordings of sacred sounds in sacred space ever made,
"Hearing Solar Winds" opened ears world-wide to marvelous new realms of harmonic sound.

"Hearing Solar Winds," and Hykes's 10 albums since, including the recent HARMONIC WORLDS,
continue to inspire thousands of listeners around the world
in seeking finer attunement to harmonic realms of sound and spirit.



The Harmonic Presence teachings have ripened through intensive retreats, seminars and research
conducted around the world over the past 33 years.
The Harmonic Presence teachings offer an integral, non-dual approach to recognizing reality in this life,
through attunement to the deepest principles of Harmony-- that which resonates everywhere, from the heart to the heavens.

Recognition and attunement to those deep harmonic principles can come through meditative awareness training,
sacred sound work, and healing harmonization practices. Then awareness and compassion awake within.
We can find and cultivate the purest harmonics of our being-- the light in the mind, the love in the heart,
and the universal resonances of the body attuned.



The principle forms of Hykes's work are concerts and "Harmonic Meetings" with public groups;
Teachings, retreats, seminars, workshops, and presentations in different countries,
including his main retreat center near Paris, France; and recorded music and teachings.

David Hykes also offers a Harmonic Presence online study program,
dedicated to helping motivated students around the world maintain contact
and develop their practice in their own lives.

The online program is also dedicated to helping individuals around the world
who are struggling with or recovering from serious or life-threatening illness.

You can read some texts about Hykes's'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.

HARMONIC PRESENCE & HARMONIC CHANT Teachings in Europe:

David is continuing a new cycle of Harmonic Presence/Harmonic Chant teachings at Pommereau,
the beautiful retreat center in France, July 15-20 and August 15-17, 2008. You can request more information or apply to register here.

David will be giving the 9th annual English-language Harmonic Presence summer retreat
by the sea again this year in Denmark, August 3rd-8th, 2008.
Last year's retreat was full.

HARMONIC PRESENCE & HARMONIC CHANT Teachings in the USA:

David is teaching again at the ever-magical Esalen Institute, Big Sur, Calfifornia, November 23-28, 2008. PLEASE NOTE: The Esalen Institute area and Big Sur region have suffered terrible wild fire threats and damage the past week. Please remember in your prayers this magical place and the devoted and exceptional people who keep the Esalen and Big Sur vision alive.



You can check the Calendar for further information about concerts, teachings, retreats, workshops and seminars,
and/or download a brochure.



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 (including leading teachers of the Gurdjieff Work and Tibetan Buddhism) 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 a recent $50,000 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.
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The best-known dimension of our work, Harmonic Chant (harmonic singing),
reflects thirty years of study and practice of wisdom and healing traditions,
including Tibetan Buddhism, the Gurdjieff Work and Advaita Vedanta;
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 $50,000 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.



You will soon be able to order again all the David Hykes & Harmonic Choir CDs here...stay tuned...

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...

The main "harmonastery" of the Harmonic Presence work is Pommereau,
a 12-century Cistercian site and park in the forest just 90 minutes southwest of Paris, France.
It's a magical and ancient part of France, 20 minutes north of the Loire River, near castles and forests, lakes and fields.




For any and all information write Harmonic Presence/France or call +33 (0)9 52 56 74 69 or +1 203 843 3524.

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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.