Facilitation and Teaching

Tina Pearson creates and facilitates workshops and classes in listening, Deep Listening®, improvisation, experimental vocalization, and networked – telematic collaboration, and offers individualized facilitated processes for individuals and groups. She has taught musicians, composers, dancers, video artists, visual artists, children, youth and adult community members. She has presented workshops, classes, seminars and lectures across Canada and in the United States, and remotely in Europe since 1983.

Pearson is a certified practitioner in Deep Listening® through the late composer Pauline Oliveros. She has facilitated many Deep Listening® and Deep Listening Into Sounding workshops, including at the Banff Centre (Alberta), Centre d’expérimentation musicale (CEM, Saguenay Québec), University of Victoria (British Columbia), Canadian Music Centre (Toronto) and many other locations.

Information on Deep Listening Worskhops

Pearson was invited to design and teach a Sound Studies program for visual, media and performance art students at OCAD University in Toronto in the 1980s. Later, she developed and co-facilitated training workshops for many years, with organizations in isolated and urban Indigenous and multicultural communities in British Columbia. She facilitated creation, voice, improvisation and other workshops at Open Space in Victoria after moving there in 2004. Since 2013, Pearson has also developed and offered sessions in online and networked creation and performance, including in multi-user 3D metaverses. She was guest lecturer on alternate venue and virtual reality composition, improvisation and performance for Pauline Oliveros’ Composition Seminar at Mills College in San Fransisco from 2010 through 2016. Most recently, she worked with the ContaQt ensemble of Toronto to develop listening and performance practices in cyberspace, for their Virtual ContaQt online performance series, and for realization of her composition Root Blood Fractal Breath, created for ContaQt. 

“Tina created such a safe space for participants to open up and share ideas and experiences. The group was made up of intergenerational and inter-experiential participants, and still Tina managed to facilitate activities where everyone felt equal and safe to step outside of their comfort zones.” – Marina DiMaio

Pearson was a mentor for the MediaNet Video Soundscape group in Victoria and delivered a series of workshops on listening, sound making and improvisation at Open Space Victoria from 2006 – 2010. She was invited to present vocal workshops for the Friends of Music Society and was an instructor in improvisatory song forms at Feminist Rock Camps on Vancouver Island. Her facilitation processes and composition style guided her artist residencies at New Adventures in Sound Art, Toronto; Black Bag Media Collective, St. John’s, Newfoundland; Deep Listening Institute, Kingston, New York; Electric Eclectics Festival, Meaford, Ontario; ContaQt’s Without A Net, Toronto; Media Net, Victoria; Centre d’Experimentation Musicales, Saguenay, Quebec; and other locations.

“Tina has a gentle, grounded presence and speaking voice, which, to me, embodies the practices of deep listening and sounding. I could hear the resonance of her voice calming us and inviting us into an attitude of listening. The whole group seemed to become quiet and enter a space we could feel. The choreography of the evening was remarkable. There was a rhythm as we gradually went inside and then out to join with other sounds and back in again. We entered quiet places and noisy, exuberant places. With Tina’s guidance, the group found a way to inhabit a body of sound together. To me, it was a deeply nourishing experience. – Ruth Danziger

Pearson has been working telematically online since 2007, and has created, collaborated, performed, and facilitated in the networked platforms Skype, Google Hangout, Zoom and Second Life among others. 

Online Sessions

Tina Pearson offers individual and group live online sessions in the English language in these topics:

• Telematic music practice
• Facilitation skills for both physical and remote / online sessions
• Intention and goal setting for experimental music practitioners
• Vocalization from the inside out
• Improvisation with a focus on intention and attention
• Deep Listening®

For more information, email pearstina_at_gmail.com