February 2024 New World Newsletter
 2024 HappyLunarNew YearThe Year of the Wood Dragon Friday, February 9 in NYCLive Music * Fashion * Refreshment * A collaboration with our friends at Lucky Selectism retail in Meatpacking, NYC Celebrate the New Year with us!and shop Pre-Valentine’s Day for your special someone Feb 9 2022 | 5p – 10p Dear Friends, The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is a time of celebration and renewal in Chinese culture. It marks the transition from one animal sign to another in the Chinese zodiac. On February 10, 2024, we will enter the Year of the Wood Dragon. The Dragon is a majestic and lucky creature in Chinese folklore, symbolizing bravery, creativity, and innovation. According to the Chinese horoscope, 2024 is a year full of potential and opportunities for personal growth, professional success, and social impact. As the Artistic Director and Founder of a global grassroots piano festival, reading this brings me great hope and excitement for our May 25 – June 2, 2024, Fourth International Stretto Piano Festival, and for my personal music career developments which have been gestating for some years including the long-awaited February 29th release of my EP, Take Me to The Sun (yes, it’s happening this time!). A private party collaboration this Friday, February 9 at Lucky Selectism in Meatpacking, NYC is near capacity after a quick text invite outreach from Lucky’s owner, Heewon Kim and me. Email me if you’d like to join us for music, bubbly, and fashion from 5 – 10 pm that evening! We will do our very best to include you with your RSVP – I’ll put you on the list and send you the address in response. Please join us in welcoming the Year of the Dragon! Celebrate and enjoy a set of romantic songs including Doin’ Good, refreshments, fashion, and fun for everyone! Heewon Kim, owner of Lucky Selectism, is the host with the most ~ his store has a great vibe and look, plus some plum fashion eyewear, clothing, and jewelry whenever you choose to stop by. It’s a perfect place to find a Valentine’s gift for that special someone.  We are thrilled to have Wines by Wei providing sparkling wine for our guests and new friends. Thank you, Wei!  This will be a fun night with a new band. I’m delighted to introduce drummer Jackson Bernstein, pianist James Bally and upright basssit Killian Winn, lower right~  Designer and entrepreneur Heewon Kim has a beautiful store with vintage-style eyeglasses, fashion jewelry and clothing. Come over and take a look just in time for Valentine’s Day.  We moved my little red Schoenhut grand piano into Lucky Selectism’s retail space…  … Killian, James, and Jackson will be playing with me for a fun party there. Insight Timer  My Favorite App Some of you might be familiar with Insight Timer, which has attracted over 6,000,000 members from all over the world who use it to meditate. I was introduced to this amazing app by a dear friend during some dark days of the pandemic and it has made a wonderful difference in my life and meditation practice. Insighttimer.comJoining Insight Timer, Offering Tracks to You I now have four free tracks available on Insight Timer for your listening pleasure when you go to my page on the app. I am just beginning and enjoying the ride. My first Plus track will be available for Plus members i.e. yearly subscribers to Insight Timer. The track is the new, Ambient Remix of Mi Corazòn, exclusive to Insight Timer for an indeterminate time, a pre-launch related to my EP, Take Me To The Sun, which will be released on February 29th on all platforms. Kudos to the great Peter Rafelson for producing this remix and for our collaborative years together. I’ll announce the release of The Ambient Remix of Mi Corazòn, exclusive to Insight Timer, via a news blast as soon as it’s available on Insight Timer. One of my meditation teachers, the brilliant and visionary Tom Evans, appreciated my presence and reviews of his meditations and courses. After hearing my music, he wrote to me and suggested that I provide musical and other tracks for the Insight Timer global community. I am honored to be part of this phenomenal portal. See Tom Interviewing me here or in the video link below. Insight Timer is a wonderful online meeting place. The high frequencies and vibrations generated by the tracks, warm friendly people who have only good intentions for humans, the natural world, our planet Earth and all its inhabitants, are promoting peace and harmony. I find it to be an unusual blessing. Hannah’s Insight Timer PageSouls Colliding: Tom Evans Interviews HannahTom and I have been exchanging stories, music, and life lessons for the past few months. I am delighted to be part of his circle, to have learned new types of meditations from him, and to understand his orientation to both the esoteric world and our “real” world. He often talks about the meaning of souls and what our souls’ callings are. We laughed on a Zoom call when I said “Souls colliding!” and he decided that could be the title to his new podcasts and interview series. I hope that you, too, can benefit from Insight Timer, from Tom and the other great teachers. I also listen to Jack Kornfield, historic recorded talks by the late Thich Nhat Hanh, fellow musician Andy Hobson, Mark Guay, and many others. It’s eye-opening, heart-opening, and mind-opening! Tom is a storyteller, modern-day mystic, and ambient composer. He loves taking the esoteric, the unknown and hidden, and making it exoteric, known, and understood.Listen to his meditations if you want to create more time, see the future, tap into unlimited ideas, and to open your heart, mind, and soul. His courses on the app: Your Soul Path, The Magic of Numbers, The Art of Timefulness, Mindfulness for Busy People, and The Business of Mindfulness will change your world. His stories will take your mind to places wilder than your wildest imagination. His music will calm your mind, heart, and soul. Tune in to his immense repository if you would like to tune out. Tom Evans Website Tom Evans on Insight Timer NEWS from My Friends Opportunities with Stretto Piano Concerts  Cynthia Revesz Meditating with a group is a powerful and nurturing experience I highly recommend. Here in NYC, I have the good fortune of knowing Cynthia and attending her monthly group meditations for the past two months. In her words, “Spiritual, mental, and emotional self-care are vitally important for your wellbeing! In this time of great changes on the Earth, with the atmosphere of instability, uncertainty, and aggression, valuing your spirit—that within you that knows the oneness of all things—is more important than ever. When our inner environment is a place of peace, love and well-being, the energy of that ripplesout through our lives in our physical health, how we relate to others as human beings, and how we take care of the planet.” Click here to Join the Next Group Meditation with Cynthia Cynthia’s WebsiteSteinway S Piano For Sale My friend, James, is selling his beautiful 1954 Mahogany baby grand piano – Model S, Serial No. 346306 for an excellent price, $7500. Located in New York City, 5 feet long, an excellent choice for a New York apartment or house in the Tri-State area. Email James about the piano  GRATITUDEto our donors  THE INTERNATIONAL STRETTO PIANO FESTIVAL MAY 25 – JUNE 2 2024 is an exciting year for Stretto and we encourage you to know more about us and the groundbreaking concerts we produce and inspire. Stretto Piano Concerts WebsiteStretto Piano Concerts and The International Stretto Piano Festival were created to provide unique concert platforms offering pianists a choice of key size. This serves the ever-growing demographic of global pianists who wish to play pianos with narrow “stretto” keys. Influenced by her work with Steinway & Sons over decades and the enthusiasm and productivity of fellow pioneers in this field, Stretto Piano Concerts Founder and Artistic Director, Hannah Reimann and the Stretto Piano Concerts team aim to fill the void on concert stages for innumerable musicians who wish to play challenging and stretchy piano repertoire that they cannot play on wide conventional keys. In addition to this, stretto pianos help cure and prevent injuries and offer children, for the first time in over 100 years, piano keys that fit them. SPC and the global stretto movement have already inspired three piano manufacturers to make new pianos with narrow keys. STRETTO PIANO CONCERTS DEPENDS ON YOU! Dozens of stretto pianists — including some of the biggest names in the field — are thrilled to be performing at the 2024 festival. We still need a little more than $100,000 to support these artists and keep the machinery and momentum going for 2024. I write again to ask for your support in any amount, $100 to $5000 or more, so we don’t lose a beat over the next five months as we rent a space and plan the promotion and publicity to reach our greatest audience yet. Please spread the word about Stretto to anyone you think would benefit from these amazing pianos and support our unique efforts and concerts!~HannahGratitude to Our Donors & Supporters  David Amram honoredat our upcomingFourth International Stretto Piano Festival May 25 – June 2, 2024 We will feature works by esteemed American composer David Amram for a special live event in NYC, the exact date to be announced soon for the upcoming 2024 Stretto Piano Festival. Works will include his Sonata for Piano (1960) which he wrote during his post as the first resident composer at Lincoln Center appointed by conductor Leonard Bernstein, plus other works that include piano. Alexander Calder and David Amram knew each other before Calder’s passing in 1976 and the connection continues. Alexander S. C. Rower and Elan Gentry have helped fund this endeavor with a generous donation of $5000. Please join them and add to this wonderful contribution so that we can rent an amazing concert hall and move forward with flying colors! Click here to see David Amram’s websiteandClick here for his Wikipedia Page CLICK THE DONATE BUTTON BELOW This year’s festival will feature LIVE, IN-PERSON CONCERTS GLOBALLY including NYC, Dallas, Bayreuth, Germany, Latvia, Stuttgart, Germany and more locations, TBA Many exciting developments are happening globally regarding narrow-key “stretto” pianos. Amongst these is the production of stretto instruments by three piano manufacturers who now offer them on their websites — Steingraeber Piano in Germany, Klavins Piano in Latvia and Hailun Piano in China.PLEASE DONATE   MORE GRATITUDE |
