SVARAM Faculty & Auroville Resource People
We are delighted to introduce and feature the individuals who contribute their unique expertise. They are part of the resource people from SVARAM and its Auroville network. For more than 20 years, this network has offered a diverse range of regular and seasonal workshops, focusing on sonic skills and discovery learning processes.
Varun Rao
Varun is a trained sound and wellness practitioner, drum circle facilitator and a sound and music educator. His other work involves recording and production of music for wellness, while being a performing musician and sound artist traveling across India.
Niva Koshi
Niva is a sound practitioner for groups and individuals, certified by SVARAM. She conducted a research about the impact of the SVARAM Sonorium Sounds on the different layers of the human body. Apart from these, Niva is also a certified Theta healing practitioner and a certified mediator, with extensive experience of supporting people and guiding them in conflicts and difficult situations.
Tommaso D’ Avanzo
Tommaso is a Percussionist, Sound Therapist, Sound Bath Facilitator, and Percussion Instrument Facilitator who has been in the field for 20-plus years. He did his masters with Arnaldo Vacca and Michele Maione with an in-depth study of Arab and Mediterranean rhythms. He has been teaching over 7 years in Cuban percussion and frame drum courses. He has experience in performing with well-renowned Orchestra groups in Europe for many years. He is creating prototypes for different soundscaping instruments.
Anushka Gunputh
Having trained in various musical genres & technical styles in the United Kingdom, Anushka specialises in vocal improvisation & group music facilitation. Her extensive travels have informed, inspired and developed her voicework
through the integration of voice and music cultures from around the world. Now based in South India, Anushka promotes the innate healing potential of sound through conducting classes and workshops with those wanting to explore the voice as a tool to connect within and to each other.
Riccardo Buccirossi
Riccardo is a sound engineer, a sound therapist and a musician. His profile is right defined by his sound research that gave him the chance to travel around Europe, Asia and Americas where he explored many different shades of frequency for wellbeing. Fascinated by all sorts of knowledge, his experiences have gone from the use of techniques such as hemi-sync with the Monroe Institute, past life regression hypnosis with Brian Weiss to Vipassana meditation with Dhamma. He works with Sonic Stones, Tibetan bowls and natural elements like water and crystals.
Matthijs Cornelissen
Matthijs has studied Medicine and Psychology in Amsterdam. In the Delhi Branch of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram he helped setting up the Institute for Integral Education, Mirambika, and at present he teaches the psychological aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s work at SAICE in Pondicherry. He assisted with the publication of Sri Aurobindo’s Complete Works, and wrote a few articles and book chapters on Sri Aurobindo’s contributions to Consciousness Studies and Psychology. He also organized conferences, gave workshops and lectures, and edited books on the same subject. He founded and maintains the websites of the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Consciousness Studies, the Indian Psychology Institute and Infinity in a Drop.
Holger Jetter
Holger, from Germany, studied western classical violin at the reputed Mozarteum university in Salzburg. Further studies eventually led to a career with a string quartet playing jazz and improvised music. Since 1991 he has lived and worked in Auroville and occasionally conducts courses abroad.
Harsh Gandhi
Harsh is a Math teacher and a Physics student who is studying sound and researching in the field of Cymatics at SVARAM Sound Experience in Auroville. He is interested in designing and synthesising sound electronically using Ableton and visually representing sound through his research in Cymatics. He is a graduate of the Integral Sonic Sound Practices Programme at SVARAM and has been a facilitator for many sound baths and sound journeys.
Lakshmi Santra
Lakshmi studied Hindustani vocal classical music from 1983 to 1988 at the University of Allahabad. At present, she is under the training and guidance of the well-renounced vocalist, Shantanu Bandapadhay. She sings traditional ragas, along with traditional songs of Bengal, Bhajans, and Devotional hymns in Sanskrit. With great skill, she teaches the art she loves, in both Pondicherry and Switzerland and has given several concerts and workshops in Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, Berlin, and France.
Mita Radhakrishnan
Mita is a Chief Practitioner in Audio Psycho Phonology at Tomatis Research Centre, Auroville Language Laboratory.
Dr. Berengere
Also known as “Dr. Be” in Auroville is a ‘vaidya’, a traditional Indian doctor of Ayurveda. She completed her Bachelors in Ayurveda from Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar, Gujarat. Her prime focus is to raise awareness and educate people about tuning into oneself through practical, theoretical and spiritual knowledge and insights on Ayurveda and to tune in with the plants, to understand their qualities, and how their energy can be transmitted for healing without sacrificing their life.
Lukas
Based in Auroville for several years now, Lukas loves working with people and their processes. With a background in Integral Yoga Psychology and Energy work, he somatically supports these processes through De-armouring – a method of bodywork that enables tissues to release and integrate past impacts and frozen energies. Of the various tools of self-knowledge, Lukas predominantly utilises breath observation and Human-Design – both a means to further the integration of these openings into everyday life.
International Associated Faculty
Hans Houkes
Hans is the founder of Stonewhistle, a lifelong listener who designs and builds ceramic flutes for meditative and therapeutic settings.
Paul Oomen
Paul is the Head of Research & Development at the Works Research Institute. Expert in sound wave research, developing innovative methods and devices for Sound Holoscopy.
Heather Love
Heather is a musician, educator, and advocate for social change. Her work explores how music builds community and fosters resilience. Based in southern France, Heather mentors change-makers. She also produces Creature School Radio.
Alan Tower
Alan is a former musician and composer, now focused on creating acoustic instruments that promote life expansion through sound. Co-founded The Resonance Group (2018) and launched The Sound Portal (2022) to share this work with individuals and groups.
Andrew Kay
Andrew is a renowned musician, educator, and sound healer from Toronto, Canada. He’s a pioneer in blending Indian Classical music with Jazz and has collaborated with global maestros. Andrew also uses sound and vibration for healing, teaching sound therapy and music through workshops and training programs.
Silvia Nakkach
Silvia, MA, MMT, is a Grammy-nominated composer, interdisciplinary vocal artist, Hindustani raga musician, and multihyphenate educator and scholar. Silvia has released 18 albums, authored the book Free Your Voice, and offered significant scholarly contributions to the academic study of music and sound therapies. She is on the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) faculty and is the founder of the International Vox Mundi School of the Voice. Her Podcast is: Beyond Music.
Renaud Ruhlmann
Renaud, founder of NaturaSounds, researcher, musician for 30 years and author. He studies the consciousness of medicinal plants and has created the first sound herbalism, studies the memory of water and how to inform water with vibrations of life and sound healing.
Sheri Sayar
Sheri is a sound healer and researcher who uses sound for restoration and remembrance. She works with communities impacted by trauma, teaching sound healing and promoting safety and resonance in body and community. She has trained over 30 sound healers in the MENA region.
Sheela Bringi
Rooted in the rich traditions of Indian devotional music, Sheela brings a deep love of sacred sound to her work as a vocalist, harpist, and educator. She teaches Indian Devotional and Rāga Singing at Naropa University in Boulder, CO, and co-leads Sacred Sound Lab, an online home for mantra, rāga, and kīrtan.
Jens Zygar
Jens, based in Hamburg, Germany, is a pioneer of planetary gong and sound music who founded Klanghaus in 1984 as a groundbreaking center for sound healing and performance art research. He is an internationally active teacher and trainer in integral sound music, a visionary genre in which creative expression through sound and movement resonates with the macrocosm’s rhythms and reflects the cosmic moment’s authenticity.
Joseph Schmidlin
Joseph – DOmtp, LMT – is a classical osteopath and sound practitioner/researcher, with over 35 years of teaching and clinical experience in the field of subtle energy medicine. He bridges bodywork and therapeutic sound work into one modality, utilizing the self-organizing healing nature of the human body.