In this episode, Hope guides listeners through the ceremony she led at the Salt House in Hopewell, New Jersey,  a healing space where she was invited to build a series of gatherings for a community experiencing overwhelm and creative stagnation. 

This episode includes:

How to Prepare If you'd like to go all in, have a physical egg ready to hold during the Egg Meditation. If not, choose any object that carries personal symbolic meaning around rebirth or new beginnings.

About Hope Hope Littwin is a musician, composer, and ceremonialist currently completing her PhD in Music Composition at Princeton University, where she is also interning at the Center for Theological Inquiry. Over the last year, she has traveled extensively gathering practices, philosophies, and experiences around ritual, ceremony, and music. This podcast is her way of making that body of work accessible.

Mentioned in This Episode

Thank you for joining us on this episode of 3 songs. If you enjoyed this conversation please consider liking and subscribing to this channel and remember to turn on the notification bell so you can be updated when new episodes are published. This is an interactive project aimed at building a meaningful musical community here online I would love to hear your thoughts and musings or even a song recommendation in the comments below. If you’d like to connect you can find me or @hopelittwin.com

I. Beauty as a fundamental human need

Theaster Gates' Stony Island Arts Bank, and the idea that a healthy creative ecosystem is one where we are all artists — not a pyramid with a few at the top.

II. Beware the seduction of the archive

Why archives alone cannot cultivate community and why the "you had to be in the room" experience is irreplaceable. A meditation on dialogue, presence, and the sensual world.

III. Artistic linguistics

The artist as translator and wisdom keeper. Language as an early technology. How Hope's collaborations at Princeton pushed her toward a new language of musical leadership.

IV. Sanctuary Studios

Hope's vision for a school and production company rooted in community, social-emotional pedagogy, and the belief that people support what they create.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of 3 songs. If you enjoyed this conversation please consider liking and subscribing to this channel and remember to turn on the notification bell so you can be updated when new episodes are published. This is an interactive project aimed at building a meaningful musical community here online I would love to hear your thoughts and musings or even a song recommendation in the comments below. If you’d like to connect you can find me or @hopelittwin.com

This episode explores the work of French composer Éliane Radigue, whose devotional approach to sound and deep listening challenged Hope to reconsider the role of the composer entirely. Drawing on the writing of Julia Eckhardt, the vision of composer/director Heiner Goebbels, and the sonic world-building of Maryanne Amacher, Hope traces a new paradigm: composer as curator, as beekeeper, as ambient host of experiences that bypass the thinking mind and land somewhere deeper.

Featured references:

Thank you for joining us on this episode of 3 songs. If you enjoyed this conversation please consider liking and subscribing to this channel and remember to turn on the notification bell so you can be updated when new episodes are published. This is an interactive project aimed at building a meaningful musical community here online I would love to hear your thoughts and musings or even a song recommendation in the comments below. If you’d like to connect you can find me or @hopelittwin.com

I discovered Kaki King in high school, spending hours at Borders Books with headphones on, cycling through the CD listening stations. A woman making experimental solo guitar music felt like a conceptual rarity then, and in many ways it still does. Kaki has encouraged so many women of my generation to explore the guitar with courage and curiosity. Her voice on the instrument is unmistakable: double-hand tapping, intricate fingerstyle textures, and lyrical melodic lines that twist and unfurl in unexpected directions. There’s a sense of play and architectural precision at once. Meeting Kaki for this episode was a joy. She was playful, quick to laugh, and completely open to improvisation. She also introduced me to some new music that I’m still thinking about. I hope you enjoy this episode of Three Songs Podcast with guitarist and sonic explorer Kaki King. 

Spotify Playlist for 3 Songs podcast Season One https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Tq... 

Follow Hope Littwin on Instagram @hopelittwin 

Thank you for joining us on this episode of 3 songs. If you enjoyed this conversation please consider liking and subscribing to this channel and remember to turn on the notification bell so you can be updated when new episodes are published. This is an interactive project aimed at building a meaningful musical community here online I would love to hear your thoughts and musings or even a song recommendation in the comments below. If you’d like to connect you can find me or @hopelittwin.com

Thank you for joining us on this episode of 3 songs. If you enjoyed this conversation please consider liking and subscribing to this channel and remember to turn on the notification bell so you can be updated when new episodes are published. This is an interactive project aimed at building a meaningful musical community here online I would love to hear your thoughts and musings or even a song recommendation in the comments below. If you’d like to connect you can find me or @hopelittwin.com

This week on 3 songs, I had the grand honor of sitting with my teacher and mentor Tyondai Braxton. 

Tyondai is a composer, guitarist, and electronic musician who thinks about music in an expansive and refreshing way. He became well known for his work in the band Battles, but his work has gone far and wide beyond that into vast and unexplored realms, most recently into the sandbox of orchestra and electronics with his recent release “Telekinesis”. 

We’ve had some amazing conversations in lessons this semester that have gotten me really fired up about some of the more conceptual ideas I'm exploring in my recent work… I'm really happy that he has recently joined the faculty at Princeton University and glad that you will all have the chance to sit with him in this episode of 3 songs as he shares a bit about his influences. I hope you enjoy 🫶 

Time Codes: Violin and orchestra (Morton Feldman) 23:35 

Things Will Never Be The Same, Black Dice 56:36

 Lonely Woman by Ornette Coleman 1:16:06 

Follow Tyondai Braxton on Instagram @tyondaibraxton 

Subscribe to Tyondai's youtube Channel  @tyondai  

Say hi on socials: Facebook: / hopelittwin Instagram: / hopelittwin 

Listen to Hope’s Music here: iTunes: / hope-littwin Spotify:hope-littwin Official 

Website: http://hopelittwin.com/ 

About Hope Littwin: American Composer and Music Producer Hope Littwin grew up in dance and theater before she took to music, first as a singer-songwriter then as a classical singer and now as a composer and music producer. She loves to collaborate with artists of all kinds on embodied, expressive works. 

Hope’s compositions fuse Chamber Music, Vocal Music, Electronics, Choreography and Storytelling. She has been commissioned by Choirs, Chamber Ensembles, Theater and Dance companies to lead the creation of original works that pull from the idiosyncratic desires and abilities of the ensembles that she is engaged with. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Music Composition at Princeton University. 

The Daily Princetonian says Hope Littwin's music explores the “euphoric realm, where the physicality of musical expression is fully embraced — where music is not only something we do, but something we are.” 

Hope’s original works are available for streaming on band camp and YouTube, her Albums (can be found on Spotify/iTunes.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of 3 songs. If you enjoyed this conversation please consider liking and subscribing to this channel and remember to turn on the notification bell so you can be updated when new episodes are published. This is an interactive project aimed at building a meaningful musical community here online I would love to hear your thoughts and musings or even a song recommendation in the comments below. If you’d like to connect you can find me or @hopelittwin.com

Kimbra is such a beautiful soul. I saw her play a live set of improvised pop music with Exotech in New York City that was truly transcendent and asked her after if she would be open to visiting campus and speaking with the students about her incredible creativity and she agreed. She’s an amazing technician, a life long student, and devoted mind/body/soul to music and creativity.  I hope you enjoy this conversation of 3 songs with Kimbra.

Timecodes for Songs: 

Father I Stretch My Hands - Pastor T.L Barrett & The Youth for Christ Choir 31:05 

The Beautiful Ones - Prince 54:20 

Let's Write a Book - Field Music 1:09:23

Spotify Playlist for 3 Songs podcast Season One https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1TqIyr2dU5sZ0CZh2azump?si=31b46322ae6b44e8&pt=5c5634f703df41f3d4deb3d81c1cd63e 

Follow Kimbra on instagram @kimbramusic 

Subscribe to Kimbra's Youtube Channel @kimbramusic 

Follow Hope Littwin on Instagram @hopelittwin

Thank you for joining us on this episode of 3 songs. If you enjoyed this conversation please consider liking and subscribing to this channel and remember to turn on the notification bell so you can be updated when new episodes are published. This is an interactive project aimed at building a meaningful musical community here online I would love to hear your thoughts and musings or even a song recommendation in the comments below. If you’d like to connect you can find me or @hopelittwin.com