Native American Flute Player

Running Windhorse came to me on a cold January day in Minnesota in 1994. It was love at first sight. The craftsmanship was readily apparent as I was drawn toward the exquisitely carved horse head which looked as if it were running through the wind, hence the flute's name.

Running Windhorse and I have travelled long distances together. When I lived in the Twin Cities, I belonged to a group which travelled around the country and the world to sacred places to help heal the earth and to learn from its different energies. I have such incredible memories of the moments we played together in such beautiful and holy places.

We played at the treasury building, carved into the stone cliff itself, in Petra, Jordan, at night fall, in a room, more like a cave, which echoed the sounds out into the narrow canyon. Just hours before that, we played on the top of Mount Aaron, at the burial place of Aaron, Moses’ brother, with a 360 degree view of the desert mountains around us. We played in the Golan Heights of northern Israel, standing on top of an ancient stone circle. We played in a cave in southern Oregon, and another cave in South Dakota where the melodious waves bounced off the walls forming voluminous sounds which vibrated all the cells in my body. And the very sad tune which emerged in Solomon’s Mine beneath the city of Jerusalem, where countless slaves suffered and died cutting rock to build the city above it.

The flute's creator, Jeffrey Chapman, was born and still lives in Minnesota, USA. An artist and a Teaching Specialist at the University of Minnesota, he explains that an Ojibwe elder taught him the art of flutemaking. The elder told him, "I can't teach you how to play, but I can teach you how to make one."

We played on the shore of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, where the air was pristine clear and the energy perfectly balanced. We played in the Redwood forests of Northern California where the sound was absorbed into the thick crevised bark of the giant trees. Of course, we played in the north woods of Minnesota and in the driftless area of southern Wisconsin, in my sister’s A-frame cabin, where high knotty-pine ceilings enlarged the sound. And once we played for the 100 Eagle Feathers Hoop Ceremony at the Minneapolis convention center for the Search Institute's annual conference. And once we played for a friends’ wedding, on a beautiful crisp autumn afternoon in a Hennepin County Regional Park. And last summer (2003), we played in numerous locations in Southern California, Nevada and Utah for an audience of ancient bristlecone pine trees.

Which reminds me of the times we played in Southern California, hiking in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, just Running Windhorse and I, surrounded by ravens, wild boars, giant cactus, mountains and star-filled night skies. And then there was the time amidst the old olive grove in Israel, and in the windy Gobi Desert in Mongolia and at the small village in central China for an audience of metasequoia trees. And I can't forget the training I held for healers in Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya, with meditative assistance from Running Windhorse. And other times, too numerous to recall.

I am available to play at appropriate events where there is a desire for a soulful, extemporaneous sound. Wooden flutes sound at home in places of nature. The sound of this flute facilitates a strong connection to the earth and a deep state of relaxation. All music will be original, unique and formed by the place and the event and my emotions which are elicited from them. I currently live in Geneva, Switzerland.