And breathe...
Musicians and yoga
Annelien Van Wauwe is not the first musician to extol the benefits of yoga. Most famously, violinist Yehudi Menuhin took to the ancient Indian discipline upon visiting the country in 1952 at the age of 36, where he first met the sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar. At the time Menuhin was suffering from severe muscular tension, but his first lesson with BKS lyengar led to a lifelong dedication to the practice – and to lyengar’s introduction to students, including cellist Jacqueline du Pré, in the UK, France and Switzerland. While in India on that 1952 trip, Menuhin dined with the prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and demonstrated his newly acquired yoga skills by standing on his head.
Various composers have also felt an affinity with the practice and its mystical associations, including Alexander Scriabin, whose unfinished Mysterium was influenced by Sanskrit and yoga studies, and Gustav Holst, whose interests included meditation and Hinduism.
More recently, Philip Glass has spoken of the importance of breathing and mediation for musicians, following his introduction to yoga aged 20 in 1957. At the time, the New York-based composer had only vaguely heard of the practice, but found an instructor by looking under ‘Y’ in the telephone book. Glass now credits that first tutor not only for instilling in him the physical discipline needed to maintain his long career, but also for his introduction to vegetarianism, which he has kept up for over 60 years.