An accomplished singer, poet, art therapist, chantress and cantorial soloist, Scottsdale resident Pinna Joseph leads a multifaceted life steeped in artistic expression. Enchanted with music since she was a child, Joseph has taken voice lessons with a variety of teachers including Valley jazz artist Charles Lewis and Silvia Nakkach. The latter is an international singer, teacher, musical therapist and founder of the Vox Mundi Project, a school with a cross-cultural application of music for singers, teachers and therapists.
Joseph has also earned a certificate in “Yoga of the Voice,” an international organization developed to teach and preserve the richness of indigenous musical traditions, combining music and spiritual practice. Her monthly chanting workshops at Tempe’s Changing Hands Bookstore combine her love for sound, breath and rhythm in addition to reflecting the multicultural dynamics of chanting.
Currently the bookstore’s community programming director, Joseph is also the cantorial soloist at Congregation Rauch Hamidbar – a Jewish Renewal community in Scottsdale, where her voice resonates at the once-a-month Shabbat services and High Holy Days.
To expand her repertoire, Joseph has traveled to many countries, including Greece, Brazil and Hawaii, to learn Tibetan, Afro-Brazilian, Hindu and Sanskrit chants. During Joseph’s workshops, participants can not only experience deep relaxation, they can release tension and clear deep emotions while moving through sounds and connecting with their deepest feelings. In her workshops she uses a Shruti, a small portable wooden box similar to an accordion. Joseph’s voice becomes the conduit for deep and relaxing rhythmic expression, as participants begin to focus on the sounds, mantras and music. She typically begins with an invocation, a prayer used in many cultures to seek God’s presence or assistance.
“It’s a spontaneous chanting that connects me with the feeling of the chant, a deeper sense of myself and ultimately with God,” she says. “Some people do meditation to quiet the mind. My meditation is through singing and chanting. It’s like massaging yourself with your own voice.”
“Call and response” is a method Joseph frequently uses to engage participants. It is a technique shamans have used from the beginning of time to reflect a sacred unity with nature that heals the body, mind and spirit. “These are spontaneous sounds that can be wordless melodies or words of a particular chant,” explains Joseph. “I call them out and the class repeats them back, helping to learn without the written word. The melody is determined by feelings that arise from connecting with a higher sense of self.”
Joseph’s fascination with chanting began with a children’s book; in her 20s, she read How to Start a Day, a book depicting how people in different cultures start their day. “Some watched sunrises, others did drumming,” she says. “I felt the rhythm of the words very strongly. That connection led me to start stomping around a tree in my backyard and start chanting wordless sounds that matched that rhythm.”
Fifteen years ago Joseph discovered a teacher who would add a more mystical and deeper dimension to her musical career – Philadelphia-based singer and chantress, Yofiyah (Susan Deikman), who created the Kabbalah Kirtan. Consisting of Hebrew words with the underpinnings of East Indian music, the Kirtan is based on the chanting of sacred Hebrew texts and names of God.
“Yofiyah will take the words from the Bible’s Song of Songs and create a beautiful chant out of it,” says Joseph. “The Kirtan has a strong tie with Judaism. For me, religion is about binding back to the source, and for me, chanting helps me do that.” “Of all the aspects of music I am involved with, one of the most important parts is invocation,” says Joseph. “That is really my specialty. It helps me get more in touch with my intuitive self. It’s also a gateway to contemplation. I also feel very strongly that the singing and sounds are healing.”
Chanting workshops and private lessons: Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 S McClintock Road, Tempe | 480-730-0205 | changinghands.com
