Leila Adu
“A Jewelled Net”: Music, Mindfulness, People and Planet!
Music, mindfulness and the inner space between online and stage presence enable intentionality to internet use, in its many shapes and forms. Music is one of the canaries in the coal mine of the information age and its creation, education and industry is in a constant state of flux. Music and mindfulness enable us to attain realistic, sustainable and empathetic short-term and long-term personal and community futures of interconnectedness, equality and wellbeing for people and the planet.
A long-time involvement in international music communities, composition performance, recording, and most recently Phd scholarship in the US, both teaching music at Princeton and prison, have given Leila insights into music’s wealth, outside of a financial growth model. Her academic research into music producers in Ghana, shows how the internet accelerates new ways of making music, as well as homogenization of rhythm and harmony, creating new collaborations alongs with musical neo-colonialisms.
Through tales from musicians around the word, Leila investigates ways that mindfulness in music in the information age can assist those who invest in the planet and its inhabitants, including ways to increase attention span, the joy of playing, human closeness and encourage interconnectedness in micro and macro communities.