Joseph Rowe
A native of Austin, Texas, Joseph Rowe has lived in France for over twenty years. He has pursued advanced studies in such diverse fields as mathematics, classical music, philosophy of religion, transpersonal psychotherapy, and creative writing. He also studied classical Middle Eastern oud with Hamza El Din (see this link to read memoir), a master whose unique marriage of voice and oud, and of African and Arab influences, was a precursor of what is now called world music. During extensive travels in Africa and Brazil, he learned and performed with musicians from the Congo, and with North African dervishes (percussion, voice, oud), as well as with Afro-Brazilian percussionists and healers. His website with his wife Catherine Braslavsky is at this link.
During the 1980"s he worked as a radio producer for National Public Radio stations, mostly in Portland, Oregon, and was among the first designers of programs combining classical, jazz, world, and new music, and interspersed with cultural and public affairs interviews.
He now lives in Paris, where he has turned more and more to music and theater, working as musician, writer, composer, and actor. Besides his extensive work with singer/composer Catherine Braslavsky, he has collaborated with Marc Zammit at the Theatre Moliere in Paris, and with Alain Kremski and Michael Lonsdale at the Cluny Museum (Paris Festival of Sacred Art).
He has composed music for a number of theater pieces by authors such as Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, Jean Giono, and Roland Dubillard. He has also composed and recorded music for French television and documentary films. A writer and storyteller, he writes texts for theatrical performance pieces with music. He has published a number of short stories, poetry, essays, book reviews, and magazine articles.
In his work as literary translator, he has translated books by authors such as Henry Corbin, Jacques Attali, Regis Debray, Jean-Yves Leloup, Pierre Rabhi, and books on Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama.
He is also active in research and teaching in the areas of creative-potential therapy, and exercises for integral evolution and making use of theater, music, poetry, and trance-induction.
He has developed his own system of exercises called Holorhythm, a synthesis of dervish-influenced body movements, vocalizations, percussion, speech, and meditation, which help unlock the gates to deep listening, inner and outer attention, and creativity. He teaches workshops and sees individual clients in France and abroad.
