Songs of

Mother Europe

A 9-week workshop series to explore the ancestral songs and sounds of Europe!

5th June – 31st July, 2025

Thursdays @ 10:30am PDT / 1:30pm EDT / 6:30pm BST

In these modern times we are so privileged to receive cultural wisdom from all over the world, and yet, so many of us yearn to remember our own people's ways.

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Wisdom Keepers

Songs to Connect Us With Our Roots

In this 8th season of our well-loved “Songs of Mother Europe” course, we are excited to present the first ever series centered around the theme of Summer.

What are some of the old European songs that have been carried down through the ages? And what are the teachings, myths and cultural insights that they contain? 

At the heart of this Songs of Mother Europe series is the prayer and desire for reconnection to land, lineage and belonging.

Why Learn Old Songs?

Many of us with European ancestry are tracking a deeper connection with our ancestral roots. There’s a yearning for the songs, stories, craft and teachings that can help us to reconnect with some sense of what has been lost and forgotten, and help us to place ourselves within a greater story of belonging.

This Songs of Mother Europe project exists to help provide nutrients for those of us who have felt disconnected and hungry for the ancestral and indigenous wisdom of Europe. 

May this workshop series be a small and vibrant thread in this great work of remembering and reweaving.

Register
Here

What’s Included

This Songs of Mother Europe series is intended to connect you more deeply with your ancestral remembrance – in visceral ways – through learning old songs and methods of singing.

We know that song has the power to awaken ancient memory. 

Our prayer is that this series will do just that.

  • Opening and Closing Calls w/ Hanna Leigh
  • 8 Singing Workshops with Guest Teachers
  • 1 Sound Journey with Lana Lanaia
  • A community sharing forum (not on FB)
Register
Here

What You'll Learn

11 song carriers will point us back to our roots through the teaching of old songs and ways of singing.

  • 9+ simple, old/traditional songs from 7 regions throughout Europe
  • Cultural context that these songs arise from
  • Accompanying vocal technique of different traditions when applicable

Participant Reviews

“I **highly** recommend this workshop "Songs of Mother Europe", created by dear Hanna Leigh. It is so powerful! Every teacher and their song gave me chills when I was in the first series last spring. The frequencies and melodies resonated deep in my body. They brought back something that had been forgotten, but now re-awakened. A soul remembering of where I come from. For those with European roots, this is an incredible way to reconnect to the wisdom lineages we are from. This is also for anyone who wants to learn, feel and sing songs from these lands. It's not just for singers - it's for us all - to open our voices and let the sounds emerge. For healing ourselves, for remembering, for re-awakening. “
Jaime Lehner
"Thank you so much for this beautiful course. I really enjoyed it so much. This is such a precious opportunity, to get to learn about all these songs and traditions. I feel a strong connection to many of them and want to continue to learn and explore, and especially about the Icelandic tradition. What do our songs hold? Who is holding them? Where do they come from? Thank you so much!"
L. A.
“I love this amazing offering from a beautiful song sister, Hanna Leigh, who is so deeply devoted to the path of song and healing. I attended this workshop in the springtime and it was so beautiful! The group field was so palpable, and such a joy to meet with so many different people from all around the world. For those of you with European roots who have felt disconnected from your ancestral wisdom. This is a powerful way to come into relationship with your voice, ancestors and your bloodlines. Its incredible value for its price. I encourage you to give yourself this amazing gift!”
Athena Naia
"The first session was sooo powerful! I felt massive portals of remembrance opening and deep healing. Already shared with so many of my sisters and brothers who appeared in the journey. Deep gratitude for what you are sharing here through your beingness. Deep bow."
A. O.
"Learning from so many teachers and accessing these forgotten sounds and singing styles in my body has been a critical part of my path and essential in reconnecting with my ancestors, especially as my healing deepens and I sink further into a postmenopausal way of being. I'm beyond ready for the next installment of this course and can't speak more highly about it. If you're interested in reclaiming and rewilding your voice and you have European ancestors, this is a rich and beautiful way to remember what we have forgotten."
R. B.

How It Works

Step One

Confirm your interest by signing up on the registration page.

Step Two

Put the classes on your calendar.

Step Three

Join us live for these rich, cultural singing workshops!

Your Hostess

Hi! My name is Hanna Leigh, (IG: @hannaleighsong) originally from California (Chumash territory). I make my home on the ancestral lands of the Kānaka Maoli in Maui, Hawaii, and in recent years I have spent extensive time residing near ancestral lands in the south of England. My people migrated to the U.S. several generations ago from England, Scotland, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands.

I created this program out of a clear calling to begin tracing the songlines of my European ancestry, and to provide a space for others who are also called to rediscover these old pathways of song.

As a Singer-Songwriter, Voice Doula, Weaver, and Devotee of this precious, living Earth, I’ve had the gift of attending many beautiful ceremonies of indigenous peoples over the last 15 years. At some point I realized that I had gathered a bundle of medicine songs & chants from diverse world traditions – but none from the lands of my ancestors!

Here I have gathered knowledgeable song-carriers & culture-bearers from across Europe to teach us the old songs and ways of singing.

Register
Here
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Who Is This For?

Those who wish to learn old songs and ways of singing from Europe

Lovers of song (even if you don’t consider yourself a “singer”)

Those who are inspired to connect with ancestral wisdom and remember the old ways

Program Overview

Through the songs and sounds shared by our guest teachers, may the living reality of earth and ancestral belonging be rekindled within you.

Classes are on Thursdays @ 10:30am PDT / 1:30pm EDT / 6:30pm BST (75-Minute Calls)

The exception to the 75-minute call length will be our Opening Call & Closing Calls, which will be 90-120 minutes each.

Week 1

5th June

Opening Call & Irish Lilting & Gaelic Songs of Summer

w/ Hanna Leigh & Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola

Week 2

12th June

Southern Italian Work Songs & Tarantissma

w/ Níula – Francesco Rina & Maria Sgro

Week 3

19th June

Solstice Song Feast

w/ Saro Lynch-Thomason

Week 4

26th June

Sound Healing Journey

w/ Lana Lanaia

Week 5

3rd July

A Journey into Manx Traditional Music

w/ Ruth Keggin

Week 6

10th July

Traditional Ukrainian Polyphony

w/ Mariana Sadovska

Week 7

17th July

The Singing Village of Georgia

w/ The Chamgeliani Sisters

Week 8

24th July

Scottish Songs from the Hebridean Isle of Muile ~ Mull

w/ Alasdair Whyte

Week 9

31st July

Traditional Poetry & Songs of Iceland & Closing Community Call

w/ Svavar Knútur & Hanna Leigh

Program Deep Dive

Many may have forgotten the old ways, though gratefully there are those still keeping the skills and songs alive, and others of us who are relearning them.

May our time together help us to remember our roots.

Week 1

Opening Call + Irish Lilting & Gaelic Songs of Summer

w/ Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola & Hanna Leigh

Join us for our Opening Call – a time to ground ourselves in the journey ahead and to hear from the community about what has inspired each of us to join this series at this moment.

Celebrate the arrival of Summer with a joyful journey into Irish traditional music. We will hear and learn Gaelic songs to welcome this season of fertility and renewal, plus engage in the lively art of Irish lilting, or “mouth music”. Once used to accompany dancers on the Aran Islands, lilting’s rhythmic melodies continue to bring communities together in celebration.

Lasairfhíona (pronounced Lah-sah-reena) is a singer/songwriter deeply rooted in the sean-nós singing style of Inis Oírr, one of the Aran Islands.

Her innovative approach to Irish music and her new slant on traditional singing have been celebrated in her previous albums An Raicín Álainn, Flame of Wine and One Penny Portion. The result of her work is a magical mosaic of sound, as refreshing and as unpredictable as a showery day inside in Aran.

A graduate in Celtic Studies from Trinity College Dublin, a broad range of contemporary music has influenced her singing. Lasairfhíona has the rare ability to sing songs from an ancient Gaelic tradition while being equally at home with contemporary songs.

She sang and acted in the award winning movie The Banshees of Inisherin, by the acclaimed director and writer Martin McDonagh.

‘‘A pure breath of everything that is beautiful about Ireland.”

– BBC Folk & Acoustic Reviews

Week 2

Polyphonic Work Songs from Southern Italy

w/ Nìula - Francesco Rina & Maria Sgro

In this session, we’ll delve into traditional work songs from southern Italy—melodies rooted in peasant life and the rhythms of the summer season. These ancient songs invite vocal freedom and emotional expression, offering a powerful way to connect deeply with oneself and others through sound.

Francesco Rina and Maria Sgrò met in Rome in 2023 during workshops on traditional oral singing from Southern Italy, led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Davide Ambrogio.

With backgrounds in theatre, they came together to form Nìula—a duo that offers modern reinterpretations of the traditional oral music of Southern Italy and the wider Mediterranean basin.

Drawing from a repertoire of polyvocal songs, they compose original music that bridges the ancient and the contemporary, guiding audiences through ritual, festive, intimate, and cathartic soundscapes.

They lead concerts and singing workshops across Italy for both amateurs and professionals, focusing on the connective power of sound, the awareness of breath, and the rediscovery of each person’s unique voice.

Week 3

Solstice Song Feast

w/ Saro Lynch-Thomason

We’ll explore the folklore and traditions of mid-Summer from across Europe, particularly from the North Atlantic isles, through a festive variety of new & traditional tunes — chants, call & response, and ballad songs.

Saro Lynch-Thomason is a song leader and folklorist based out of Asheville, NC traditionally known as ᏙᎩᏯᏍᏗ “To Gi Ya Sdi” (The place where they race). She loves to use traditional songs and new compositions to connect folks to the vibrant practices of their ancestors. 

Week 4

Sound Healing Journey

w/ Lana Lanaia

Lana will share a beautiful sound healing journey, which is a space to pause, reflect & be nourished during the fullness of this high summer season.

Lana Lanaia lives in the Scottish Highlands and is a musician & sound healer known for her ‘crystalline voice’ and ‘music that infuses the heart’. She tends the earth, and creates healing spaces through her music & offerings.

Lana’s inspiration flows from her deep love for the Earth; of wild landscapes, forests, mountains, rivers, oceans, sacred sites, and the stars. She has and continues to learn from indigenous wisdom keepers and ancestral traditions, exploring how we may reawaken and heal our relationship with self, Nature and our starlight origins.

Week 5

A Journey into Manx Traditional Music

w/ Ruth Keggin

Step into the rich musical heritage of the Isle of Man through this unique class led by a traditional Manx song keeper. You’ll learn traditional melodies in the Manx Gaelic language, hear the stories behind the songs, and gain insight into the cultural and historical contexts that shaped them.

Ruth Keggin is a Manx Gaelic singer who is passionate about bringing Manx music and language to a wider audience. Her solo albums, Sheear (‘Westward’) and Turrys (‘Journey’) were released in 2014 and 2016 respectively, to critical acclaim, and she has since released albums with other groups, including most recently a duo album, Lossan (‘glimmer, aurora, phosphorescence’) with renowned Scottish harpist Rachel Hair.

Ruth and her band have given live performances and interviews on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Wales and ‘Seirm’ on BBC Alba (television), and Ruth has also been a feature-presenter for, and sung on, the BBC 2 television programme ‘Coast’. Alongside performing in major festivals including Celtic Colours (Cape Breton, Canada) and Celtic Connections (Glasgow, Scotland), she has also shared joint-gigs with the likes of Scottish Gaelic supergroup Dàimh, renowned Gàidhlig singers Julie Fowlis and Kathleen MacInnes, and Irish singer Mary Black, and Kathleen MacInnes.
 
As well as her being a musician, Ruth works as Yn Greinneyder – ‘The Encourager’ – for a cultural charity in the Isle of Man, called Culture Vannin, where she helps to make the beautiful language of Manx Gaelic, whose roots are woven throughout the very fabric of the Island, more accessible to all.

Week 6

Traditional Ukrainian Polyphony

w/ Mariana Sadovska

Mariana works with the powerful vocal technique referred to as the ‘white voice’ – a resonant, open-throated sound drawn from Ukrainian folk traditions and integrated into modern vocal work Experience ancient songs – from lullabies to healing chants – and uncover the ritual and social roots embedded within them.

Mariana Sadovska is a Ukrainian singer, musician, composer, actress, and, since 2014, the beginning of russian aggression in Ukraine, an activist. Her focus is on traditional Ukrainian music, which she reinterprets with modern accents. With her concerts, multimedia performances, workshops, and musical theater productions, she is an internationally renowned and award-winning artist and composer.

Week 7

The Singing Village of Georgia

w/ The Chamgeliani Sisters

Join Georgian sisters Ana, Eka, and Madona Chamgeliani for an intimate journey into the ancient polyphonic songs of Svaneti, a remote mountain region of Georgia. From the village of Lakhushdi — known as “The Singing Village” — the sisters share songs passed down through generations, some thousands of years old and found nowhere else. Rooted in local legends and shaped by the land, these powerful melodies offer a rare glimpse into one of the world’s oldest living singing traditions.

Georgian Sisters Ana, Eka and Madona Chamgeliani come from a long lineage of singers from the mountainous and isolated province of Svaneti, where they grew up. The sisters sing their ancesters’ songs, many of which are believed to be more than thousands of years old and can’t be heard anywhere else. The village they come from (Lakhushdi) calls itself ‘The Singing Village’, and here the villagers continue to perform these ancient songs, so rich in the local tales and legends steeped in the surrounding enthralling landscape.

The Chamgeliani Sisters are not only incredible singers, but also possess deep knowledge of the contexts and traditions that surround the songs they perform. Ana, who is also a member of ensemble Sathanao, is a virtuoso on the chuniri, a 3-string bowed viol. Madona is an ethnographer and expert in Svan folklore, and her research includes finding and recording ancient songs about the forest queen Dali (who many people in Svaneti believe in). Eka is a housewife and plays an important role in hosting guests at their home in Lakhushdi. all three sisters are at the helm of the effort to preserve and continue the singing traditions of Svaneti.

Svan music, like most Georgian music, is based on 3-part polyphony, bass, middle and top voices. Thus, the Chamgeliani sisters are a wonderful trio, able to cope with a fairly wide repertoire of Svan music. In addition, Ana and Madonna sometimes perform with the Adilea Ensemble, with which they also recently released the album “From the Singing Village”.

Week 8

Scottish Gaelic Songs from the Hebridean Isle of Muile ~ Mull

w/ Alasdair Whyte

This class will feature songs and associated stories from Alasdair’s native island of Muile ~ Mull off Scotland’s west coast. Engaging closely with these songs will reveal traditional ecological knowledge that can help us recalibrate our connection with the land and work towards a more sustainable relationship with it, as well as shedding a light on the human creativity which has imbued this part of Gaelic Scotland with a vast wealth of cultural heritage. Join Alasdair and engage with his native island in song, story and photography.

Dr Alasdair C. Whyte is a singer-performer-writer from the Hebridean island of Muile ~ Mull in Scotland. He has recorded his own songs and traditional songs on a number of albums, including a solo album (Las, 2012), three albums with the band WHYTE (Maim, 2021; Tairm, 2019; Fairich, 2016), songs with Niteworks (A' Ghrian, 2022; NW, 2015) and the recent EP Òrain Teonaidh Chailein (2024). His debut book of original and traditional prose and poetry, Maim-slè, was nominated for the Donald Meek Non-Fiction prize at the 2022 Gaelic Literature awards and he was the lead writer/actor in the related theatre production MAIM (2020). His most recent book, Glasgow’s Gaelic Place-Names, was published with Birlinn in 2023. He was named Gaelic Ambassador of the Year by The Scottish Government in 2019 and named on the Saltire Society’s Inaugural 40 Under 40 List in 2023. He holds a full-time lectureship in Celtic Onomastics at the University of Glasgow.

https://www.alasdaircwhyte.com/

Week 9

Traditional Poetry & Songs of Iceland + Closing Community Call

w/ Svavar Knútur & Hanna Leigh

In this class, we will explore how Icelandic music has been shaped by the island’s distinctive geography, dramatic weather patterns, and rich history. We will also discover how ancient Icelandic poetry has been woven into modern folk music, creating a unique musical culture that reflects the country’s deep cultural roots and natural landscape.

Join us for our Closing Call with Hanna Leigh, founderess of Weaving Remembrance – this will be a time to gather for community sharing and integration. Bring a cup of tea, share your experience, and bask in the harvest of our time together.

A native of the rugged north of Iceland, troubadour and storyteller Svavar Knútur has dedicated his life to exploring the human condition through the lens of his country’s dark and often tragic history and unique melodies and narrative style.

Svavar is the first recipient of the Anna Pálína Árnadóttir memorial award for folk music excellence in Iceland. The award was in recognition for Svavar’s continued exploration of new waters in modern folk music both lyrically and musically, a tireless effort to bring older folk music to young audiences and for his continous work on helping out young and emerging artists.

Simple Pricing

Pay In Full

ONE IN-FULL PAYMENT
$ 345 ≈ £255
  • 8 LIVE Singing Workshops
  • 1 Sound Healing Journey
  • Weave with a vibrant community
  • Connect with ancestral songs
Pay in Full
For past students only:
Please create a brand NEW login at checkout as we have switched platforms.

3-Month Plan

Pay in installments
$ 115 x 3 ≈ £85 x 3
  • 8 LIVE Singing Workshops
  • 1 Sound Healing Journey
  • Weave with a vibrant community
  • Connect with ancestral songs
Pay in Installments
For past students only:
Please create a brand NEW login at checkout as we have switched platforms.
Popular

5-Month Plan

Pay in installments
$ 70 x 5 ≈ £52 x 3
  • 8 Live Singing Workshops
  • 1 Sound Healing Journey
  • Weave with a vibrant community
  • Connect with ancestral songs
Pay in Installments
For past students only:
Please create a brand NEW login at checkout as we have switched platforms.

Please note that prices listed in GBP (£) are approximate and will be adjusted based on the exchange rate at the time of purchase.

Your Registration Supports
Land Rematriation

A percentage of the revenue from this course will be donated to establish a unique Irish Language and Culture Centre, the first of its kind in Ireland.

This land project is stewarded by Siobhán and Diarmuid, founders of Wild Irish, an enterprise founded in 2017 for the reclamation and evolution of the native language and heritage of Ireland; through which they hold retreats, workshops, events and educational experiences rooted in the Irish language. 

To make an additional donation to this project or learn more:

Visit the fundraiser here.

Partial Scholarship Program

The tuition of this course helps us fairly compensate our facilitators, teachers, and organizers, supporting the ongoing work we do, plus contributing to an Irish land rematriation project that we are honored to support.
 
Because of these commitments, we offer a limited number of partial scholarships.
APPLY HERE

Frequently Asked Questions

This offering is happening online through Zoom, with teachers joining us from several different countries.

Each workshop is 75-minutes in length.

Our Opening Call will be 90-minutes for an introduction & orientation to the course.

While each teacher inevitably shares from their own unique teaching style, you can expect that each class will include: a brief grounding meditation, an introduction of the teacher, some historical context of the song tradition, the teaching of the song, practicing the song, and a time for Q&A. Some teachers may also include a bit of vocal warm-up.

Yes. They will be recorded and sent out soon after each class.

No. The nature of the content delivery is that you purchase the entire course.

You will have access to the course materials for 2 years from the Opening Call of the course.

No, all levels are welcome.

Yes, you are welcome to attend!

The weekly time commitment is 1.5 – 2 hours.

No. Teachers may sometimes invite members of the community to unmute during the class & to practice singing a song we are learning. This is totally optional!

There will be a Q&A time during each call, though no one will ever be “put on the spot.”

No. Due to the delivery of course content, all sales are final.