Celtic music improvised with contemplative energy.
Beautiful things can happen when we listen.
That Which is Heard creates a space in which the beauty of music quiets the noise without and within.
श्रुति
Watch and listen
We hope you enjoy our improvisation “Little Star,”
from That Which is Heard, Volume 1
Music to console and restore.
श्रुति
The noise of the world can deafen us to ourselves and to each other.
Music offers sanctuary to help us listen, reflect, and recenter.
श्रुति
Join us in this ephemeral space.
Let us play for you.
Musicians
-
flutes - whistles - shruti box
Eliot is one of the foremost Irish musicians in North America. Critics say that his “intuitive sense of melodic and technical variation make him one of the most creative and dynamic musicians in the contemporary world of Irish traditional music,” and “one of the finest uilleann pipers in the history of Irish music in America.”
He has performed for the National Heritage Awards, for President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton at the National Endowment for the Arts Awards, for Irish President Mary Robinson, Irish Ambassador to the United States Sean O hUigin, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, President of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams, and other heads of state.
Eliot has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Constitution Hall, the Library of Congress, the National Building Museum, National Geographic, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral (Dublin, Ireland), Sterling Castle (Sterling, Scotland), and the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, MD).
Learn more at eliotgrasso.com
Artist Statement
Musical improvisation has the power to unite disparate elements into a harmonious whole. It teaches us that if we listen to ourselves and to one other, distinct voices can blend into something that transcends the sum of its parts.
From music, we learn that wholeness is beautiful.
Music also teaches that wholeness is a process involving reflection and dialogue, balance and care. The moment another voice speaks, we make room and share the space.
True dialogue invites us to both give and receive. In a hard world, beauty does the good work of softening us, making us open to receive good things and ready to give good things.
That Which is Heard is an improvised musical dialogue in pursuit of wholeness meant to restore and console.
Our hope is that our music will encourage and enliven you in your own journey.
-
fiddle - voice - shruti box
Internationally acclaimed Scottish fiddler and violinist, Brandon Vance, is the recipient of Scotland's 2017 Royal National Mòd "Sutherland Cup" in Scottish Fiddle, Charleston, South Carolina’s 2021 “Dan Rory MacDonald Memorial Prize in Fiddling” sponsored by the Clan Donald Lands Trust, as well as being the youngest to win the U.S. National Open Scottish Fiddling Championship in both 1999 and 2001.
Learn more at brandonvance.com
What’s a shruti box?
In our research on Indian classical music and music thanatology (music for end-of-life patients), we encountered the shruti box, a metal-reeded drone box from India whose name, shruti (श्रुति), means That Which is Heard in Sanskrit. The word also refers to the smallest interval or pitch that the human ear can perceive.
A shruti box has three chromatic octaves worth of drone options (that’s 36^36 combinations of drone notes) that we preset and can adjust during performance.
The vibrating metal reeds that generate the drone of the shruti box convert any room into a richly resonant sonic space.