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.— The Daily Princetonian
I compose for voices and ensembles, make records, and lead communal sound rituals. I believe music and sound are the medicine of the future, and that the future of leadership is collective. [Hope: edit]
A selection of recent pieces. Choose one to watch, read its story, or get the score. Browse the complete list of 40 works →
For more than five years I've led sound ceremonies: participatory rituals where the room itself becomes the instrument. We chant over a bed of crystal bowls, gong, harmonium and guitar; we call and respond; we sit in long silence; and we close with care, walking everyone back across the threshold into ordinary time.
More than fifty gatherings so far: in Princeton University Chapel and a salt cave, in yoga studios in Chicago and Princeton, in forests and private homes, and with vocal ensembles in Kerala, Oaxaca, Mexico City, Rīga and Vilnius. Some follow the moon. Some are built around a single mantra, like the Pauri of Infinity. All of them are built so the line between performer and participant dissolves. No one is put on the spot, and no experience is needed, in meditation or in singing.
The ceremonies are also my research. My dissertation at Princeton, Beyond Our Understanding: Music as Spiritual Technology, treats each one as fieldwork: music's oldest job, a group of people becoming, however briefly, a community.
Photo © Juliette AvyAmerican composer and music producer Hope Littwin makes embodied, expressive music that fuses chamber and vocal writing with electronics and choreography. Her music has been commissioned by the Attacca Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, Ekmeles, ModernMedieval, Hub New Music, Yarn/Wire, Gallicantus and Pro Coro Canada. In 2026 she premieres Dream Bigger for orchestra with the Princeton University Symphonia. She is a PhD candidate in composition at Princeton, host of The Hope Littwin Podcast, and founder of Sanctuary Studios.
A monthly membership on music and mysticism
A live lecture and a live sound healing ritual every month, on Zoom, in a small circle of people who make things. Everything is recorded and archived for you, but the point is to be there: information is everywhere now, and what's rare is being in the room together while the real work happens. Why Chamber Meditations →
Stop anytime, rejoin anytime. Not ready to join? The free letters bring you essays and podcast conversations, with a guided meditation when you sign up.
Most of my concert works are available as PDF scores, with parts on request. Each piece's page shows what's available and the price. Browse the works →
For commissions, performances, ceremonies, press, or just to say hello, write to me. For lessons and sessions, book directly.
