Welcome to episode #44, A Séance for Strings, featuring Iowa-born child prodigy, psychic violinist, composer, music educator, and author, Florizel von Reuter (1890-1985). Following an immensely successful career touring American and Europe as a

#43 - The Prayerful Organist - Irma Glen

Aug 8th, 2021 46m 24s

Welcome to episode 43, "The Prayerful Organist," featuring radio celebrity, virtuoso organist, Religious Science minister, and early pioneer of "new age" music, Irma Glen (1908-1982). After successful vaudeville music tours in her adolescence,

#42 - The Coloratura of Celestial Choice - Amelita Galli-Curci

Jun 21st, 2021 51m 28s

Welcome to episode 42, "The Coloratura of Celestial Choice," featuring Spanish-Italian American opera singer, Amelita Galli-Curci (1882-1963). Through her opera career she accrued international renown and fortune, but this was cut short by a vo

#41 - The Ghost Dance - Wovoka

Jun 3rd, 2021 41m 59s

Welcome to Episode 41, "The Ghost Dance," featuring Native American prophet Wovoka (1856-1932). A descendent of the Numu language family and Paiute tribe in Nevada, Wovoka had a vision in 1889 in which he visited heaven and communed with the sp

#40 - The Prophet of Swing - Vincent Lopez

Apr 6th, 2021 43m 33s

Welcome to episode 40, "The Prophet of Swing," featuring Portuguese American pianist, bandleader, numerologist, and metaphysical philosopher Vincent Lopez (1895-1975). Raised in an extreme Roman Catholic home, Lopez left the monastic path for r

#39 - The Everlasting Gospel Revelation - Sister Gertrude Morgan

Mar 12th, 2021 35m 43s

Welcome to episode 39, "The Everlasting Gospel Revelation," featuring preacher, painter, and musician, Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980). Raised in a poor Baptist family in Alabama, a series of divine revelations lead Sister Morgan to paint, s

#39 - The Everlasting Gospel Revelation - Sister Gertrude Morgan

Mar 12th, 2021 35m 43s

#38 - The Black Hawk Chant - Mothers Leafy Anderson and Catherine Seals

Feb 14th, 2021 48m 17s

Welcome to episode #38, "The Black Hawk Chant," featuring Mother Leafy Anderson (1887-1927) and Mother Catherine Seals (1874-1930). Coming from Chicago to New Orleans, Anderson founded her own church, which fused spiritualism, Catholicism, and

#38 - The Black Hawk Chant - Mothers Leafy Anderson and Catherine Seals

Feb 12th, 2021 48m 17s

#37 - Singing for the Orishas - Merceditas Valdes

Feb 7th, 2021 39m 13s

Welcome to episode 37, "Singing for the Orishas," featuring Afro-Cuban Santería/Lucumí singer, Merceditas Valdes (1922-1996). Raised in a musical household alongisde Yoruba and Cuban traditions, Valdez took to Afro-Cuban Lucumí music and religi

#36 - The Mahatma of Manhattan - Louis M. Eilshemius

Jan 10th, 2021 35m 25s

Welcome to episode 36, “The Mahatma of Manhattan,” featuring painter, author, publisher, and composer, Louis M. Eilshemius (1864-1941). Now marginally known for his idiosyncratic paintings of nudes and landscapes, Eilshemius spent most of his l

#35 - The Quantum Heart - Harley Gaber

Dec 30th, 2020 1h 32m

Welcome to episode 35, “The Quantum Heart,” featuring composer, multi-media artist, and tennis player Harley Gaber (1943-2011). Gaber’s music was deeply informed by his study of Buddhism and Taoism, as well as his lifelong interest in quantum p

#34 - Service Through Sound - Evelyn Benham-Bull

Dec 11th, 2020 39m 12s

Welcome to episode 34, "Service Through Sound," featuring composer, author, Theosophist, and music therapist Evelyn Benham-Bull (1897-1983). Almost entirely forgotten, Benham-Bull was an active composer in the 20s and 30s before shifting her fo

#33 - The Godmother of Music Therapy - Eva Augusta Vescelius

Dec 8th, 2020 32m 16s

Welcome to episode 33, "The Godmother of Music Therapy," featuring opera singer, New Thought philosopher, and pioneering music therapist, Eva Augusta Vescelius (1853-1917). After co-founding the family-run Vescelius Opera Company and touring th

#32 - The Queen of Number-Vibration - Sarah Joanna Balliett

Nov 30th, 2020 28m 59s

Welcome to episode 32, “The Queen of Number-Vibration” featuring New Jersey author, feminist, and pioneer of American numerology, Sarah Joanna Balliett (1847?-1929)—though she is better known by her husband’s name as Mrs. L. Dow Balliett. Synth

#31 - The Oracle of the East Village - Harry Smith

Nov 5th, 2020 42m 10s

Welcome to Episode 31, “The Oracle of the East Village,” featuring filmmaker, painter, musical ethnographer, and occult magician, Harry Smith (1923-1991). Smith is best known for his influential 6-LP Anthology of American Folk Music, as well as

#30 - The Prince of Darkness - Prince Massard Kurzhene

Oct 31st, 2020 21m 46s

Welcome to episode 30, The Prince of Darkness, featuring Lithuanian-American composer, film scorer, violin prodigy, and band leader Prince Massard Kurzhene (1900-1989). Having graduated from a Russian conservatory and begun touring Europe at th

#29 - The Magic Rustling - David Lynch

Oct 18th, 2020 1h 8m

Welcome to episode 29, The Magic Rustling, featuring renowned filmmaker, painter, and musician David Lynch (1946-present). From Eraserhead to the latest season of Twin Peaks, Lynch has forged a dream-soaked art so abstractly unique that it spaw

#28 - A Sound Within - Louise Landes Levi

Oct 9th, 2020 43m 16s

Welcome to episode 28, A Sound Within, featuring Buddhist musician, poet, translator, and world traveler, Louise Landes Levi. She has translated renowned mystic writers such as Mirabai, René Daumal, and Henri Michaux. She's released over a doze

#27 - Dance of the Seven Rays - Torkom Saraydarian

Sep 11th, 2020 40m 38s

Welcome to episode 27, “Dance of the Seven Rays,” featuring Armenian priest, author, teacher, and composer/performer Torkom Saraydarian (1915-1997). Raised in Turkey, he survived the Armenian genocide to become a minister in the Armenian Aposto

#26 - The High Priestess of Delphi - Eva Palmer-Sikelianos

Aug 7th, 2020 38m 4s

Welcome to episode 26, “The High Priestess of Delphi,” featuring composer, choreographer, master weaver, and Sapphic feminist, Eva Palmer-Sikelianos (1874-1952). After almost founding a lesbian artist colony on the Greek island of Lesbos with f

#25 - The Dawnbreakers - Russell & Gina Garcia

Jul 27th, 2020 46m 32s

Welcome to Episode 25, “The Dawnbreakers,” featuring Russell & Gina Garcia. Raised in Oakland, CA, Russell Garcia (1916-2011) was a world-renowned composer, arranger, and conductor, working for decades with jazz icons, as well as for major Holl

#24 - The Song of the Violet Flame - Lotus Ray King

Jul 23rd, 2020 41m 55s

Welcome to Episode 24, “The Song of the Violet Flame,” featuring harpist, composer, and religious leader, Lotus Ray King, aka Edna Ballard (1886-1971). Raised in Chicago, Ballard got into metaphysical literature and harp playing as a teenager.

#23 - Music of the Gods (Hip Hop & the Five Percent Nation)

Jul 17th, 2020 38m 36s

Welcome to episode 23, Music of the Gods. Rather than focus on a single artist, this episode explores the role of the Five Percent movement in the origins and development of American hip hop. Founded in 1967 by Clarence 13X, having left the Nat

#22 - The South Side Shaman - Kelan Phil Cohran

Jul 9th, 2020 1h 4m

Welcome to Episode 22, The South Side Shaman, featuring trumpeter, harpist, composer, teacher, community activist, and astronomer Kelan Philip Cohran (1927-2017). Early on, Cohran joined the cosmic discipline of Sun Ra’s Arkestra for two years.