Kate Munger agrees with Rumi who says, "Let what
you love be what you do." She lives with her family,
sings, works and swims along the shores of Tomales Bay
and has lead community singing for 30 years. (Her definition
of "tribe" is "folks who sing the same
songs."
In 2000 Kate founded the first of what she thought would
be primarily local Bay Area Threshold Choirs, for women
who are called to sing at the bedsides of people who are
dying, in coma and newborns and incarcerated women. Today
there are 700 singers and 30 Threshold Choirs across the
USA, in large cities and tiny towns and ones forming in
England and Iceland.
These choirs are a way for singers to express gratitude
for the rich gift of singing in their lives, offer a deepening
of the act of "being" with people who are dying,
ill or in coma, and bring together a magnificent community
of huge-hearted, collaborative, creative women who know
that true service heals everyone.
Kate also founded and directs the Midnight Choir, a coed
choral adventure that brings lullabies and songs of hope
and spirit to the homeless on the street, in the doorways
and in shelters. She also leads a choir for women inmates
at Marin County Jail; women from the Threshold Choirs
volunteer their time to sing in this weekly choir. Kate
also leads singing as part of nonviolent demonstrations
and vigils, adding harmony and collaboration to the political
and social justice arenas.
MUSICIAN
•
Lullaby Baby; Peaceful Songs for Bedtime (l990)with Carolyne
Riley and Nancy Stein
• The Circle That Holds Me (original rounds) (1995)
with Wabi Sabi Singers
• Listening
at the Threshold (original songs for singing at bedsides
(2005) with Threshold Choir
• Tenderly
Rain; Songs of Gratitude, Remembrance and Keeping
Watch (2006) with Threshold Choir
AUTHOR
n/a
RESEARCHER
n/a
EDUCATOR
Kate
enjoys presenting at Hospice and End of Life Conferences.
It is especially satisfying to show people that anyone
who can sing and offer a healing presence at a bedside.
OTHER
Kate
says that she is delighted to help women start and nourish
a Threshold Choir in their community. As of this posting,
there are Threshold Choirs in Marin, Sonoma, Alameda,
Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Mendocino, Los
Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara and San Mateo Counties
and in Aromas, Sacramento/Davis , Nevada City and Chico,
California. We also have choirs in Sturgeon Bay and Milwaukee,
WI; Portland, Ashland and Medford, OR; Anchorage, AK;
Seattle, Vashon Island and Friday Harbor, WA; Reno, NV;
Kalamazoo, MI; Cincinnati and Yellow Springs, OH; Taos
and Santa Fe, NM; and soon in Raleigh/Durham, NC; Chicago,
IL; Tucson, AZ; Big Sur and San Diego, CA, Great Britain,
Scotland and Rejkyavik, Iceland.
Music without words means leaving behind the mind. And leaving behind the mind is meditation.
Meditation returns you to the source. And the source of all is sound. — Kabir
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