Delegate: Jill Piker Coordinator of Health Promotion
Affiliation: University of New England
Short Bio:
Activity: Moroccan sound bath/guided mediation and yoga, Monday, March 10th, 5:30-6:30 pm, Campus Center MPR
Join April Howard and special guest, bassist/composer Michael Rivard, as they collaborate to bring a Moroccan sound bath/guided meditation and yoga experience to campus to kick off Sleep Health Awareness week March 10-14th. In addition to bringing a bit of Moroccan culture to our Biddeford campus, the sound meditation event helps the body rest and restore in the same manner as REM sleep. April offers weekly yoga classes and monthly sound meditation classes for students at the UNE Campus Center. Mike brings his Moroccan sintir, a three stringed bass lute. Mike Rivard defies easy categorization and finds himself equally at home playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant, world music icon Hassan Hakmoun, and rock band Morphine. Growing up in the wide expanses of Minnesota, he assimilated the local sounds of Prince, Husker Du, and the free jazz coming out of the Dinkytown/University of Minnesota milieu, before heading to Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 1981. After graduating from Berklee with a BA in Performance, he studied with jazz legend Dave Holland. Inspired by North African Gnawa music, he picked up a Moroccan sintir (three-stringed bass lute) and with guidance from Hakmoun and Maalem Mahmoud Gania, has become one of a handful of Western musicians proficient on the instrument. He puts all of these instruments to good use in Club d’Elf, the jazz-world-dub-electronica collective he formed in 1998, and has produced sixteen albums for the band over the past twenty-seven years. www.microvard.com/
This free event is co-sponsored by The Campus Center Recreation and Wellness Health Promotion Office and the Office of Connection and Belonging. Open to UNE students. Pillows, blankets and yoga mats are available for use.
Location: Campus Center, UNE, Biddeford, Maine
Date of Activity: 3/10/2025
Submitted by: jill piker
