02/14 Vocal Voyage
Have you ever gone on a date with your own voice?
2026 is off and running, and it is with much excitement that I announce that the Vocal Voyage is returning to New York. Occurring on Valentine's Day, this specially-timed Voyage is an opportunity to fall more deeply in love with your voice and to discover the untold hidden gems that lie within you.
As always, don't hesitate to reach out with any questions. For more on my philosophy and background, visit my website.
What is Vocal Voyage?
The Vocal Voyage is a philosophy and a practice. It is my process of deepening my relationship with myself through my own voice and synthesizing those experiences and learnings into offerings for others.
The voice is a fractal of the whole, an ever-changing fingerprint of the universe. As such, it is both infinitely complex and incredibly simple, a sandbox of unlimited possibilities.
The voice cannot be developed by force. It teaches one how to flow through life with balanced engagement that is neither passive nor overly effortful.
The voice is truth, as nothing can hide from those who know how to listen.
The voice is creation. When we are no longer attached to producing sounds as we think them, a world of endless possibilities opens up. We can experience that which we could never have dreamed of, let alone thought up.
The Vocal Voyage is a personal journey. And it is available to anyone at any moment. For the voyage is not one that can be provided to you by another. It is truly a devotional practice. It is frustrating at times, challenging, and nonlinear. Chances are high that our paths will be different, but we can still learn from each other and support one another as we venture out ever deeper into the unknown.
When: Saturday and Sunday, February 14-15
Saturday:
11:00 am - Check in
1:30 pm - Ceremony Starts
~10:00pm - Closing Circle with light meal
Sunday:
9:00 am - Breakfast
10:00 am - Integration Circle
1:00pm - Check Out
Where: Old Chatham, New York (Transportation by Amtrak is available from NYC)
Who: A small group of fellow explorers (no musical or vocal experience required).
Currency Exchange: $500 supplements and accommodation included - discounts available upon request. I never want money to be a barrier to entry. If you feel the call, we'll figure it out :)
RSVP: Space is limited.
To confirm your spot, fill out this form and schedule a call with me.
If this is your first Voyage, please schedule a 30-minute call. If you are a return traveler, you may schedule either a 30-minute or a 15-minute call. If there are no time slots available on my calendar, please send me a message and we will find a time that works. After the call, you will need to send a non-refundable $100 deposit via venmo to @tobin-asher to confirm your spot.
Note: Your privacy is of the utmost importance to me. You will find that the RSVP form is through a service called CryptPad. I have opted for this over Google Forms as it is end-to-end encrypted. If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to ask!
IMPORTANT! You must let me know if you're taking antidepressants (SSRIs, MAO inhibitors), anti-anxiety or antipsychotic medication, and if you have high blood pressure, heart related issues, or known strong mental or emotional triggers.
**The Details**
Spacious awareness and inner listening are the cornerstone of this practice. During our time together, should you feel called to this adventure, you must consistently tune into and follow your own resonance. As a facilitator, my role is to support you in your process. I bring a lot of experience and my own intuition, yet you are as much the guide of this experience as I am.
For the Voyage, the voice is the ocean in which we sail, the air that we breathe, and your tool for navigation – all at the same time. We will be using our voices… A LOT! Sounding, singing, speaking (in invented language), and subliming in silence (yes, silence is also an expression of the voice). At times we will also weave in overtone-rich instruments to support the vocal practice.
At its core, the Vocal Voyage is an opportunity to:
• Experience the fullness of one’s being through the medium of one’s own vibration
• Step into a playful sandbox with fellow travelers and wonder at your creations
• Practice trusting your own inner wisdom and guidance
• Rediscover aspects of yourself that may currently be hidden
• Allow all of your emotions and feelings to be present and welcome
• Embody your authentic expression
• Listen and be heard
• Experiment!
Sharing voices in community is both an individual and a collective journey, so you will affect and be affected by others in the space. Therefore, the Voyage necessitates vulnerability and grace. You will likely find yourself on the edges of what is comfortable. We all must go in with the intention to trust the process and to support each other. The container we weave will truly be co-created.
Together, we will establish boundaries of exploration to make our sandbox of play as safe as possible. I believe that promising a "safe space" is misleading as the only true safety is one that arises from within ourselves (and perhaps also from a trust in the intelligence of the world around us). However, we can create a safer space by listening deeply, communicating clearly, and acting from our integrity to the best of our ability.
Hence the practice of spacious awareness and inner listening. Follow your heart, follow your truth. Love leads the way.
Please Note : This is an intimate gathering with limited spots to preserve the serenity and comfort of the space. Kindly reserve your spot at your earliest convenience
Love,
Tobin
Please respect our privacy around this work. Thank you for your awareness and sensitivity.
Who Am I?
I see everything I do as an experiment informed by study and inspiration, and always with the acknowledgment that there are deeper levels of awareness and understanding.
Voice, music, and sound have always been a part of my life. When I was little, my dad used to drive me around and play me opera to fall asleep. When I was a bit older, I had the privilege of singing in the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus for three years. My theater and performance studies continued in middle school and at NYC’s LaGuardia High School for the Arts.
But performing alone wasn’t me deepest calling. With diverse interests and a strong desire to have a lasting impact on the world, I studied a mix of psychology, communication, journalism, and computer science at Stanford University. After graduating, I worked for half a decade at the University’s virtual reality research lab (check out my VR portfolio if you’re curious to learn more). And while the academic route satisfied my mind… my heart and spirit urged me to keep seeking.
In 2017, a shamanic journey showed me the potential for voice and sound as portal ways to self-exploration and altered states of awareness. I experienced resonance in my being that I could never have conceived of up until that point. And I felt as though the whole cosmos was singing through me.
Two years later, at WOOM Center in NYC, I took part in my first sound meditation facilitator training – led by David Shemesh, Elian Zach, Alexandre Tannous, and Mitch Nur. For the next year 58 weeks, I assisted and then co-facilitated 3-hour sound journeys every Friday night at WOOM. That experience alone taught me more than any one-week training could ever give me.
Since then, I have been traveling globally to deepen my practice and to learn from and collaborate with vocalists and facilitators from a wide-variety of musical traditions and backgrounds. In 2022, I began studying collaborative vocal improvisation with various teachers and groups in Hawaii, New York City, Italy, France, the UK, Brazil, and Canada. My voice teachers and mentors include Rhiannon, Neal Harrelson, David Jones, and Istvan Sky.
In addition to facilitating voice and sound workshops around the United States, South America and Europe, I also now teach at sound facilitator training immersions. I lead classes on voice and instrument playing techniques and have mentored close to 200 students across 10 different retreats.
It has taken me a long time to give myself permission to chart my own course in life, to pathfind. I always longed for there to be clear answers and for someone else to be able to give them to me. Now as an explorer of worlds, inner and outer – of voice, music, sound, mindfulness practices, creativity, community, consciousness – I collect experiences, tools, and techniques for tapping into gnosis, the universal wisdom that emanates from within.
Let me close by saying that I am a forever student and I know that I have but scratched the surface of life. And while you now know a little bit more about my background, the irony of me describing myself to you is that the more I define myself, the further I get from the truth of who I am.