Mimi
O'Neill Biography
 Mimi
O'Neill, was born and raised in Pasadena, California. After winning
state-wide competitions as a young pianist, she decided her true love
was singing. In the early seventies, soon after high school, Ms. O'Neill
moved to Germany to continue her voice training. There she studied
with Kammersaengerin Elinor Junker-Giesen of the Stuttgart Opera,
who developed the "Zen of Sound." This method combined concentration
and meditation techniques used in Zen Buddhism with Western voice
technique.
Mimi
O'Neill continued her professional musical and artistic training over
a period of twenty-five years with teachers and coaches in the US and
Europe. In addition to her training on the piano, her teachers include
Viennese vocal coach Suzanne Szekely at the Seattle Institute of Allied
Arts; Spanish soprano, Professor Montserrat Alavedra, at the University
of Washington; and Professor Polyanne Baxter at Cal. State LA. Mimi
O'Neill has also been trained in theater, drama, language, and dance.
She is fluent in German and sings in Italian, French, Russian, Polish,
Yiddish, and Czech.
In
addition to her musical and artistic accomplishments, Mimi O'Neill is
a long time facilitator of contemplative disciplines and teacher of
transformational healing through sound. She is longtime student and
teacher of Sufism, a senior teacher and retreat guide in the Sufi Order
of the West, founded by the Sufi Master, Inayat Khan. During the 1970s
and 1980s Ms. O'Neill served as the spiritual director of a large and
active Sufi Center in Seattle, Washington, where she was a spiritual
guide. In the 1980s and 1990s she toured with her popular workshop "Healing
the Whole Person With Sound and Music" through many countries in
Europe and the United States. She is also a member of the Ridwahn School,
founded by A.H. Almaas. The Ridhwan School teaches the Diamond Approach,
integrating modern Western psychological insights into the ancient and
contemplative disciplines of Sufism and Buddhism. In
Albany, New York, she currently maintains an esoteric training program
called the "Universal Inner Life Path."
International
workshop and lecture highlights include:
- Healing
the Whole Person With Sound and Music: 1980-1990. A touring workshop
on transformation through music and sound, presented in Germany,
Holland, England, Belgium, and France for over ten years.
- Zenith
Institute - International Meditation Camp: French Alps, 1982-1990.
A summer-long, international, meditation and spiritual arts camp
in the French Alps where she was on the faculty teaching voice,
choir, meditation, and spiritual retreat.
- The
Symposium of Healing in Our Time: Chicago, 1980. Ms O'Neill lectured
with Steven Halpren and other musicians and spiritual teachers on
the benefits of using music and sound for personal transformation.
- Celebrating
the Arts for a Creative Life: Aegis Institute, The Berkshires, 1989.
Mimi O'Neill directed the conference and presented along with poet
Coleman Barks -- translator of Sufi poet Jelaluddin Rumi and pianist/composer
William Mathieu.
- Care
of the Voice, Care of the Self: Carnegie Hall Studios, New
York City, 1996-1998. A seminar presented bi-annually for professional
opera singers in voice training and the psychological/spiritual
dimensions of singing.
- A
Retreat in the Arts: Aegis Institute, The Berkshires, 1996: director,
facilitated retreat on creativity, combined with personal process
work.
- Sacred
Retreat in the Arts:
Abode Programs, the Berkshires, NY, July, 1999. Director, producer,
and main presenter.
- The
Heart of Religion: Religion as Relationship: Zenith Institute International
Meditation Camp, Switzerland, August, 1999. Co-presenter.
- Healing
from the Sacred Domain: A Sufi Perspective: Sufi Healing Order Conference,
Atlanta GA., 1999. A main presenter.
Writing
Credits include:
- "The
Star of India: The Sky is full of Many Stars"- an exploration
of the East/West musical heritage of the Sufi Master Inayat Khan,
his family, and other members of the Sufi community from 1885 to1999.
A two-part article published in Heart and Wings, the international
journal of the Sufi Order of the West, Seattle, WA. 1999.
- "New
Dimensions of Mastery: Identity, Excellence, Will, and Discipline,"
a two-part article in Heart and Wings, published 1994 and 1995.
Mimi O'Neill shared her experiences as a spiritual teacher pursuing
the development of excellence through the arts.
- "Healing
with Sound and Music," an article on sound healing which appeared
in the Sufi Healing Journal in the 1980s.
- Mimi
O'Neill is the author of three books:
Performance
highlights include:
- Guest
artist opera performances and solo recitals in Germany, Austria,
and Holland and France, 1970-1980's.
- Appearances
in recitals of oratorio, classical art song, and contemporary
music, 1975 to the present, in Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles,
California, New York City, and around the country.
- World
premier operatic performances in the1980's with the Malibran Society,
a group dedicated to the performance of historical and previously
un-performed operatic works.
- Of
Bondage and Freedom, at the University at Albany in 1991; a world
premier, Holocaust inspired work, for soprano, violin and piano,
with text from Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz.
- Concerts
such as Treasures of Eastern European Heritage, with the renown
Russian Bass, Nicoli Shopsha, Music of the Baroque, with pianist
Lincoln Mayorga,
- Songs
of the Child, with Mr. Mayorga, and Voici le Printemps, the arts
songs of Ravel, Faure, and Debussy, with Russian pianist Adelina
Krivoscheina.
- Concerts
in Sufi and spiritually oriented music with Pir Vilayat Khan and
numerous others, internationally, for over twenty five years.
Recordings
include:
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