Murray Hidary

Murray Hidary is a composer, pianist and meditation teacher who founded MindTravel, a series of live music events built around mindfulness. Drawn to Zen Buddhism after reading Siddhartha at sixteen, he later took up Vedic Meditation, which he has practised for more than twelve years and now teaches: each student receives a personal mantra in a one-to-one session, followed by small group classes online or in person. Before music became his main work he was a technology entrepreneur and photographer, and he often mentions theoretical physics as one of the threads running through his compositions.

At a MindTravel event the audience wears wireless headphones while Hidary improvises at the piano, on beaches and in parks, in planetariums and theatres, and even for people floating in a pool; the format has visited more than a hundred cities, from Burning Man to a concert in Antarctica. His SilentWalk practice pairs music and spoken guidance with walking outdoors, and runs as a free monthly live session and as an audio membership. He has spoken at TEDx events in Berkeley and Sun Valley, and on Commune he teaches The Path to Presence, ten walking meditations that each explore one emotion.