MESP 2006 Principal Biographies

Pathways to Peace Through Spiritual Dance

Peter Vallance

Peter Vallance was born in Scotland and is based at the Findhorn Foundation community where he focalises the Sacred Circle Dance Department. He teaches traditional circle dances from the Balkans, Turkey, India, the Middle East, Roma and the Celtic Traditions. He has choreographed many well known dances including the Pilgrims dance which celebrates the Black Virgin of Montserrat.

As a storyteller Peter tells traditional stories from many cultures. Stories of spiritual quest are central to Peter’s storytelling. He is a member of the Scottish Storytelling Centre and travels internationally with his work.

He leads Sacred Journeys to Ireland, Scotland and Bulgaria.

Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Neil Douglas-Klotz)

Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D., internationally-known scholar of religious studies and psychology, is author of Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom, The Hidden Gospel, The Genesis Meditations, The Sufi Book of Life, Blessing of the Cosmos and co-author of The Tent of Abraham. A former departmental head of comparative spirituality at Holy Names College in California, he now lectures worldwide. He is co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and currently lives in Edinburgh, where he directs the Institute for Advanced Learning. He founded the International Network for Dances of Universal Peace in 1982 and is a senior teacher of the Sufi Ruhaniat International through which he has led spiritually rooted peace-seeking journeys to Russia, Eastern Europe, Syria, Jordan, and Israel.

Alice Fateah Saunders

Iona Kelli Sellars

Iona has been dancing the 5 Rhythms since 1994. She has trained with Gabrielle Roth and is an accredited 5 Rhythms teacher. She has also studied Expressive Arts Therapy incorporating movement, art and writing as tools for healing, transformation and creative expression. She has a passion for flowers and gardens and has a PhD in Botany. Her love for dance and music has been lifelong.

Pathways to Peace Through Spiritual and Musical Practice

Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Neil Douglas-Klotz)

Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D., internationally-known scholar of religious studies and psychology, is author of Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom, The Hidden Gospel, The Genesis Meditations, The Sufi Book of Life, Blessing of the Cosmos and co-author of The Tent of Abraham. A former departmental head of comparative spirituality at Holy Names College in California, he now lectures worldwide. He is co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and currently lives in Edinburgh, where he directs the Institute for Advanced Learning. He founded the International Network for Dances of Universal Peace in 1982 and is a senior teacher of the Sufi Ruhaniat International through which he has led spiritually rooted peace-seeking journeys to Russia, Eastern Europe, Syria, Jordan, and Israel.

Peter Vallance

Peter Vallance was born in Scotland and is based at the Findhorn Foundation community where he focalises the Sacred Circle Dance Department. He teaches traditional circle dances from the Balkans, Turkey, India, the Middle East, Roma and the Celtic Traditions. He has choreographed many well known dances including the Pilgrims dance which celebrates the Black Virgin of Montserrat.

As a storyteller Peter tells traditional stories from many cultures. Stories of spiritual quest are central to Peter’s storytelling. He is a member of the Scottish Storytelling Centre and travels internationally with his work.

He leads Sacred Journeys to Ireland, Scotland and Bulgaria.

Beth Bahia Cohen

Beth Bahia Cohen is a master of the violin and various bowed instruments from the Middle East and the Balkans who loves to show the beauty of traditional music as well as their differences and similarities across cultures. She has studied and performed with violinists from Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, and more. She performs and teaches throughout the U.S. and Europe and has played with Led Zeppelin and Itzhak Perlman, among others.

MaryCatherine Burgess

MaryCatherine Burgess is currently a part-time chaplain at the University of Edinburgh, where she recently completed a Ph.D. in Religious Studies; other degrees include an MA in Religious Education, a Masters in Human Relations, and an MSc in Celtic and Scottish Studies. MaryCatherine brings extensive experience in group facilitation, retreat work, feminist spirituality, teaching, shamanism, psychodrama, music, Mystery School, and the creation of rituals that incorporate the expressive arts.

Latif Bolat

One of the most distinguished Turkish musicians in the United States, Latif Bolat has since 1979 given over 500 concerts, lectures, and workshops throughout the world. Playing the folk and spiritual music of Turkey on a traditional instrument called a baglama (saz), he performs solo and with his Ensemble at many universities, museums, cultural and spiritual centres each year. Born in the Turkish Mediterranean town of Mersin, he has degrees in folklore and music, as well as advanced degrees in business, Turkish history, and Middle East religion and politics. He is co-translator (with Jennifer Ferraro) of the forthcoming book, Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey.

Jennifer Ferraro

A poet, artist and performer, Jennifer Ferraro is co-translator of the book Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey (with Latif Bolat), forthcoming in 2006. She is also author of the book of poems Divine Nostalgia (2002). She teaches poetry and writing at universities and in workshop settings and performs poetry with devotional dance with the Latif Bolat Ensemble and elsewhere. She is a student of the Sufi path under Pir Zia Inayat Khan and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Carolyn Sparey-Fox

Carolyn Sparey studied violin and viola both at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College in Manchester, before launching her career on the British music scene. For two years she worked closely with Alfred Deller, the renowned counter-tenor, involving extensive tours of the USA, Canada and France, and regular recordings with Harmonia Mundi.

Carolyn also appeared regularly on the South Bank (London), on BBC Radio 3, and on the British concert scene both as soloist and chamber player, as well as performing regularly with the London Sinfonietta, the Academy of St Martins in the Field, and the English Chamber Orchestra. She also became a member of Yehudi Menuhin's chamber orchestra, involving many recordings and tours to Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe.

She became Principal Viola with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra during its early years, and performed as a soloist in Bach's Brandenberg Concerto No 6 for BBC television. It was at this time that she became involved with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, performing Bruckner and Mozart quintets both for BBC Radio 3, at the Wigmore Hall, and on tour in Italy. She was also a member of Alan Hacker's Music Party, with which she gave the first performance of Harrison Birtwistle's clarinet quintet.

As Principal Viola with the BBCSSO, Carolyn featured as soloist on Radio 3 in Harold in Italy, Berlioz, Mozart's Symphonia Concertante, and Benjamin Britten's Lachrymae. With the Chamber Group of Scotland, she performed the UK premiere of Penderecki's String Trio and Clarinet quartet.

Since leaving the BBCSSO, Carolyn has begun to make her mark as a composer, her quartet heralded as 'truly an inspirational, moving, and challenging addition to the 21st century quartet repertoire' by Alan George of the Fitzwilliam Quartet, who gave the first, and subsequent performances. Her virtuosic viola solo, Les Planchistes de Paris, which is a celebration of skateboarding, has also been welcomed enthusiastically, and her piano solo, Field, inspired by Anthony Gormley's sculpture of the same name, has become part of pianist Katherine Durran's repertoire.

Rebekah Gronowski

Rebekah Gronowski is a member of Sukkat Shalom – the Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community. She has spent a lifetime teaching in schools and colleges in England, specialising in Music, Religious Studies and the teaching of English as a second language to children of many nationalities, including Arab and other Muslim children. As well as her teaching qualification, she holds an Honours Degree in Divinity (BD Hons) from the University of Edinburgh (Faculty of Divinity), which she obtained after her retirement, and is currently doing an MSc by research into 'Medicine, Magic and Religion: Healing in the Ancient Near East'. She is very active in areas where there are issues of discrimination and inequality, as well as working towards initiatives for the improvement of facilities and treatment for the victims of substance abuse and the improvement of specially-designed housing for wheelchair users.

Rebekah is very active in her own Liberal Jewish Community – she is a member of the Religious Affairs Committee, Musical Director and, until recently, was a very active member of the Synagogue Council.

Rabbi David Rose

Rabbi David Rose is Rabbi to the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation

Davod Azad

Davod Azad was born in 1963, and raised in Azarbajan (Iran).
He started initially to explore the wonderful world of Iranian classical music on his own. After his first encounters, he advanced to study music under the guidance and supervision of Persian masters on vocals and multiple instruments including Taar, Sehtar, Tanbour, Rabab, and Daf.

His work is based on long and intensive studies of the past masters of Iranian classical music. He has many publications such as the studies of the school of Tabriz Tar and the Hormozey style of Setar.

He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Mastering in the Iranian Classical music, the Azeri folk music, the Ancient Persian music, and the Persian Sufi music, specifically influenced by the music of the Ghajar period in Persian history, a pure classical Persian Music form which to this date has remained undiluted by Western or other styles of Music.

The Classical Persian Music which Davod Azad plays is based on the ancient Modal system of Persian Classical Music. The Persian Classical Music is one of the oldest and purest forms of music in the world today. Its unique style is based on 12 Modes or Dastgaahs. The nearest Music forms to Persian Dastgaah is that of the Indian Raga.

In his latest work "The Divan of Rumi and Bach", he joins Iranian Traditional music with Bach's famous melodies. The free and flowing form of Iranian improvisation is fused with the discipline and structure of the Western classical style, overcoming the initial apparent inconsistencies, to yield a deep and profound unity between the forms - an indication that these vastly different traditions have evolved from a single source and essence.

Davod has played in well over 100 concerts in Europe, Asia and in 2004 in Australia. He has performed live for BBC, German and the Austrian Radio 1.

For further information regarding his past work and his upcoming concerts please see his web site at, www.davodazad.com

Subud

Subud (pronounced /subud/) is an international spiritual organization. Members report that through the practice of the latihan they connect directly with the divine (mostly described as God, with the most common variation being "the great life force").

Rev Jenny Williams

Jenny Williams lived in the Taize community for a year, an ecumenical Christian community committed to reconciliation. She shares the songs from this community which seeks to build peace within the whole human family, through song, silence and sharing.

Alice Fateah Saunders

Pathways of the Heart

Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Neil Douglas-Klotz)

Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D., internationally-known scholar of religious studies and psychology, is author of Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom, The Hidden Gospel, The Genesis Meditations, The Sufi Book of Life, Blessing of the Cosmos and co-author of The Tent of Abraham. A former departmental head of comparative spirituality at Holy Names College in California, he now lectures worldwide. He is co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and currently lives in Edinburgh, where he directs the Institute for Advanced Learning. He founded the International Network for Dances of Universal Peace in 1982 and is a senior teacher of the Sufi Ruhaniat International through which he has led spiritually rooted peace-seeking journeys to Russia, Eastern Europe, Syria, Jordan, and Israel.

The Rt Revd Bishop Kallistos Ware

Bishop Kallistos is an Assistant Bishop in the Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), and also a monk of the Monastery of St John the Theologian on the island of Patmos. During 1966-2001 he was Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies at Oxford University, and he is an Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. His books include The Orthodox Church (Penguin Books), The Orthodox Way and The Inner Kingdom. He is co-translator of The Philokalia and of Orthodox liturgical books.

Prof James Morris

James W. Morris holds the Sharjah Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter and has previously taught Islamic and comparative religious studies at Princeton, Oberlin, the Sorbonne, and the Institute of Ismaili Studies in Paris and London; his lifelong studies of living traditions of Islamic spirituality have taken him to Iran, Afghanistan, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, and Southeast Asia. Professor Morris has published widely on many areas of spirituality and religious thought, including spiritual intelligence, the Islamic humanities (poetry and music), Islamic philosophy, Sufism, Shiite thought, the Qur’an, and the use of cinema in spiritual teaching; he frequently lectures and gives workshops on related topics throughout the Islamic world, Europe and North America. His most recent books include The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn ‘Arabi¯’s ‘Meccan Illuminations’ (Fons Vitae, 2005); Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation (Archetype, 2004); Ibn ‘Arabi¯: The Meccan Revelations (Pir Press, 2002); as well as the forthcoming volumes Knowing the Spirit (SUNY, 2006); and Openings: From the Qur’an to the Islamic Humanities.

Prof Nigel Osborne

Nigel Osborne studied composition with Kenneth Leighton, his predecessor as Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh, with Egon Wellesz, the first pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, and with Witold Rudzinski. He also studied at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, Warsaw. His works have been featured in most major international festivals and performed by many leading orchestras and ensembles around the world, ranging from the Moscow to the Berlin Symphony Orchestras, and from the Philharmonia of London to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has had close relationships with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, London Sinfonietta, Hebrides Ensemble and Ensemble Intercontemporain, Paris, and has composed extensively for the theatre, with operas and music theatre works for Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Opera Factory , Wuppertal, the Hebbel Theatre, Berlin, the Shakespeare Globe, the Ulysses Theatre, Istria, Radio 3 and BBC2. These include "The 7 Last Words", "Hell's Angels", "The Tempest", "King Lear", "Terrible Mouth", "Sarajevo", "Europa" and "The Electrification of the Soviet Union".

He is winner of the Opera Prize of Radio Suisse Romande and Ville de Geneve, the Netherlands Gaudeamus Prize, the Radcliffe Award and the Koussevitzky Award of the Library of Congress, Washington. Nigel Osborne has pioneered the use of music in therapy and rehabilitation for children who are victims of conflict, and is consultant for programmes in the Balkans, Caucasus, Africa and the Middle East. Recent projects include a new version of "Forest-River-Ocean" for carnyx, string quartet and electronics for the City of London Festival, June 2002; a new performing version of the opera "The Electrification of the Soviet Union" for Music Theatre Wales, to be premiered at the Cheltenham Festival, July 2002, followed by a tour in the UK, Norway and the Netherlands; "Medea" for the Ulysses Theatre, Istria, August 2002; a new commission for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, October 2003, and "A Song about Love", an evening of music and theatre with Vanessa Red grave and Birlyant Ramzaeva.

Subud

Subud (pronounced /subud/) is an international spiritual organization. Members report that through the practice of the latihan they connect directly with the divine (mostly described as God, with the most common variation being "the great life force").

Davod Azad

Davod Azad was born in 1963, and raised in Azarbajan. He started initially to explore the wonderful world of Iranian traditional music on his own by playing the music of Boroumand, Nay Davoud, Bigjeh Khani and Hormozi. After his first encounters, he advanced to study music under the guidance and supervision of Iranian masters on vocals and multiple instruments including tar, setar, tanbour, robab, and daf. His work is based on long and intensive studies of the past masters of Iranian traditional music. He has many publications such as the studies of the school of Tabriz Tar and the Hormozey style of Setar. Azad is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Mastering in the Iranian traditional music, the Azeri folk music, and the Persian Sufi music, specifically influenced by the music of the Ghajar period in Persian history, a pure form undiluted by western styles.

Jennifer Ferraro

A poet, artist and performer, Jennifer Ferraro is co-translator of the book Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey (with Latif Bolat), forthcoming in 2006. She is also author of the book of poems Divine Nostalgia (2002). She teaches poetry and writing at universities and in workshop settings and performs poetry with devotional dance with the Latif Bolat Ensemble and elsewhere. She is a student of the Sufi path under Pir Zia Inayat Khan and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Latif Bolat

One of the most distinguished Turkish musicians in the United States, Latif Bolat has since 1979 given over 500 concerts, lectures, and workshops throughout the world. Playing the folk and spiritual music of Turkey on a traditional instrument called a baglama (saz), he performs solo and with his Ensemble at many universities, museums, cultural and spiritual centres each year. Born in the Turkish Mediterranean town of Mersin, he has degrees in folklore and music, as well as advanced degrees in business, Turkish history, and Middle East religion and politics. He is co-translator (with Jennifer Ferraro) of the forthcoming book, Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey.

Prof Aziz Sheikh

In his capacity of Professor of Primary Care Research and Development at the University of Edinburgh, Professor Sheikh works with colleagues to further raise the research profile of the GP Section and Department of Community Health Sciences. Professor Sheikh’s background is as a GP and he also trained in epidemiology. He is editorial advisor to the British Medical Journal and the International Editorial Advisory Board, a member of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine and research advisor to the National Respiratory Training Centre. Prof Sheikh is also Chair of our Research and Documentation Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Sheelah Trefle Hidden

Sheelah Treflé Hidden has a Masters’ degree in peace Studies with a special interest in fundamentalism. She travelled twice to Albania with an Italian aid group during the war in Kosovo, has spent time in Northern Ireland observing the mediation process there and has recently returned from a prolonged period in Israel/Palestine where she was associated with both Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. She has given workshops and conferences in England, Australia and the United States. Sheelah Treflé Hidden is a member of the World Community for Christian Meditation and an Oblate of the Benedictine Order.

Elizabeth Carmack

Cambridge Music Conference "Music and the Word", the initiative of Elizabeth Carmack addresses the hazardous threat technology has on the performing arts and advocates "music as a source of spiritual renewal". "Music as spiritual substance and sustenance" defines the healing dimension of the Cambridge Music Conference, which was organised on the bicentenary of Novalis (1772-1801) under the epitaph: "Every illness is a musical problem - its cure a musical solution!". Although intended as a one-off event in 2001 the BBC World Service made a documentary on "The Esoteric Importance of Music: Educating and Healing the Spirit through Music" and because of its success conferences have been organised on such topics as "Music and Healing" in 2001, "Music and Oral Tradition" in 2002, "Music and Philosophy" in 2003, "Music of the Heart" in 2005, with "Music and the Child" arranged for 2007. "Music of the Heart" paid tribute to cellist Catherine Carmack (12 October '57-12 December '03), whose personal and professional values were the original inspiration behind the Cambridge Music Conference. With renown heart consultants from the Royal Bromptom Hospital the conference in 2005 was an effort to bring science and art together to explore how music influences the heart, but the focus unexpectedly shifted to the need for an active and inspired dialogue with the dead, which music can communicate. "Music and the Child" planned for 2007 will look at the pedagogical implications and influence of music education in the life and development of the child. Each year the Cambridge Music Conference has commissioned and premiered new works by composers Judith Weir, Nigel Osborne, Howard Skempton, Elena Firsova whose inspired compositions represent the ideas at the heart of each conference. Specialists have included Paul Hillier, Paul Robertson, and Heinz Zimmermann. Theatre of Voices, Okeanos, The Medici Quartet, and The Hilliard Ensemble are among some of the individuals who premiered new works at the Cambridge Music Conference within the broader context of Cambridge Summer Music Festival. Conference venues have been Trinity Hall and Clare College with Trinity College Chapel as the main concert venue. My talk will advocate the ideals at the heart of the Cambridge Music Conference focusing on The Alchemy of Music as a Healing Art. In the following discussion I would like to facilitate a workshop on the philosophical ideal 'dialogical thinking', which not only supports the idea of working consciously with music as a social art, but sees music potentially as a form of 'social renewal and regeneration of community'.