“Hope In Hiding”
Brave Bear & The HiberNATION
Artist | Producer | Educator
Everyone has a story. For some, music is the vehicle for how we choose to share our stories and define our truth. In a world full of seemingly endless conflict, what if all that perceived chaos had more to do with unresolved generational trauma than we’d care to admit? What if positive elements (like peace) and negative experiences (like the enduring marks of conflict and fundamental human truths) both play crucial roles in forging a deeper sense of unity among people? What if music was the vehicle to resolve?
The “Hope In Hiding” Project is my life’s work, a collaborative production project spearheaded by me, Michael Schwartz AKA Brave Bear, Calgary’s own Indigenous Alternative Pop Entreproducer. This project is my audio business card, a practical approach to the medicinal power of Functional Music as a source of healing through creative collaboration and vivid storytelling of the shadow side of life.
Alongside the HiberNATION, a rotating cast of world-class musicians who empower others through music, I am lighting the way to help others heal from their darkest moments and address the generational woes that have plagued my family lineage. The same woes that many others walk around without awareness of today. My mission is simple: to bring inner peace to those who are navigating ancestral wounds. I will do this by creating a collaborative, genre-bending, thought-provoking concept album themed after the traditional Ojibwe Seven Grandfather Teachings, and then integrate the final product into my music wellness practice and establish my authority as the leading Functional Music Wellness Practitioner and teach other artists to do the same. That’s why this opportunity is pivotal for my career.
So why the Violins of Hope?
The Violins of Hope Artist Residency is critical to the success of this project. In essence, the collection is the centrepiece. The violins available in the Artist Residency bring unshakable history to the modern practice of my functional music method and present a truly authentic approach. I want to explore each violin and tap into the haunting stories through each instrument's tone, timbre and voice. I envision listeners hearing these pieces and coming out the other side with an alternative way of thinking about human nature. This project puts music on the map as the core modality of finding inner peace and well-being. Each of the Violins of Hope embodies that darkness; the hurt, harmed or haunted stories of humanity. I aim to tune these in specific solfeggio frequencies, then sample them, and craft compositions that embody global themes and the teachings of my ancestors to help bring humanity more clarity, promise and hope through the healing power of music. This project will take a village and I have recruited the finest of villagers each with their own story to share with the violins. That said, the world-class musicianship of the Music Fit Collective is key to bringing to life the power of the violins.
My Vision and My Team, The HiberNATION
With a dream team of Alberta’s finest violinists and musicians including Allison Lynch, Talia Beckie and Deyson Thiarra already confirmed, this project is the epitome of artistic excellence, commitment to music and diversity. In 2023 alone, I placed more than two dozen original compositions in sync for the spirituality, wellness, and personal development sectors. I understand the magnitude that this particular collection of violins will bring to further the education of functional frequency music and my legacy as a Canadian Music Pioneer.
Recognizing the importance of diversity and the traditional teachings of the Seven Generations and Seven Grandfather Teachings of my Ojibwe heritage, it’s critical to include the youth and the elders. The HiberNATION is a worldwide group of super-talented wizards of creativity whom I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with professionally. We’re full of diverse ideas and creators spanning all ethnicities, genders and regions to create a final product that encompasses everything from swanky meditation music to alternative pop, roots, hip-hop and traditional indigenous music.
How will this impact my career?
To fully understand the gravity of this project as it relates to how pivotal this moment will be to furthering my career, I feel compelled to share my personal ties to this project. And it all starts with my name.
My Omi and Opa escaped Germany in the 50s after World War 2 and when I started asking, Opa shared haunting stories of the atrocities of the Holocaust and how “the old country” was back then. His intelligence and intuition were two reasons he left the war-torn country and sought peace here in Canada, raising my mother and her three sisters, two of whom are Canadian Military Veterans. He dreamed of a better life than he foresaw for his family in post-war Germany.
He is the true mark of a loyal husband and father, something I aspire to be. I take my artist name, Brave Bear from my mother's maiden name, Berndt which in German means “Strong, Brave Bear.” Never have I felt such a name was so fitting. We are what we tell ourselves, and our name is the first truth of our reality. My Opa was and still is my hero. He was the bravest, most innovative man I have ever met. He epitomized how to be brave and bear adversity and did it with a smile on his face. This project is my attempt to honour his legacy and call to action a movement much bigger than me.
That said, the name Brave Bear has multiple meanings to me.
On my dad’s side, we’ve got Ojibway blood. My Great Grandma Laporte was Ojibway and refused status when it was presented to her by the Canadian government. For many years of my life, I failed to understand why. It was only when I started studying the traditions of my ancestors, and read between the lines of the Indian Act, that I understood my Great Grandma's decision.
The long history of oppression of Canadian Indigenous peoples had a frightening similarity to the stories my Opa told me of old Germany. As twisted as it sounds, I’m here to share why the darkest times in history and the times of peace are both good things for humanity. All through my gift of music.”
The Project - “Hope In Hiding”
Before my Opa passed, he left me a relic from his family, an antique Jacobos Stainer Violin handcrafted by his apprentice in 1701. My Opa knew inherently that I would know how to share its beauty with the world. It will be in this project and now with the opportunity to integrate the Violins of Hope Collection, its message will be even more powerful. This is where science meets art.
My secret?
It’s not a secret at all, music is vibration. Music is energy. As a Functional Music Practitioner, each work I compose has a direct, intentional purpose. A function, if you will. Generally, to inspire performance, rest, healing or focus. I create music that elicits a somatic response in the listener’s body to get things moving. If you can move energy in your body, you can move energy in your life.
I have made a career of studying and blending my wellness practice with the solfeggio frequencies. The two together blend music, movement and mindset to promote deep health and wellbeing. Specifically, the alternative medicine practices I integrate are the Holistic Lifestyle Coaching “Energy Centres” as taught by Paul Chek and the Energy Codes of Dr. Sue Morter respectively. This project aims to juxtapose the violins’ hurt, harmed and haunted histories by tuning them to 432hz. We will gift the listener a pattern disruption by tuning the violins to the frequency of peace.
This piece will be so energetically powerful the listener will have a physical response that will allow the reprogramming of their subconscious through my aforementioned practical approach to deep health, called the Brave Method. This will help the listener become aware and acknowledge any grievances, conscious or subconscious of generational or ancestral trauma that may be causing interference with their pursuit of a meaningful life full of purpose. Agency over one’s life can occur when this deep-health healing process is initiated.
I understand that this sounds woo-woo to many folks. With dozens of client testimonials and music placed in sync for health and wellness education programs in the past year alone, anecdotal evidence and peer-reviewed journal articles supporting the power of functional frequency music, I’m happy to stand behind what we are doing.
That said, if awarded this opportunity to create a transformative musical experience with such historically significant instruments, played by some of the most accomplished artists I know, I will be one step closer to fulfilling my legacy as a pioneer of the Canadian Music Industry.
I am currently on the frontline of helping others heal their deepest wounds and I’m looking for more support, more funding, and more awareness of how powerful music is as a natural, alternative approach to standard, westernized healthcare. I am willing to take all the arrows to move this message to the headlines.
This project has the potential to catapult my career and allow me to work with even bigger artists with even more influence and place my future compositions in more places, tour bigger venues, climb more charts, change more lives and become one of the most successful Canadian Indigenous artists from the most humble, creative and innovative beginnings. It doesn’t stop there for me either. I want to teach others how to do what I do with music and inspire the next generation to not only be brave and bear adversity but to be able to inspire others to live a fulfilling life full of purpose and hope.
The Promise & Outreach Potential
This project holds great artistic merit, encouraging listeners to hear and feel music differently. The violins juxtapositioned with the healing frequencies of my functional music method will be the first of its kind, and in troubadourian fashion, I’m most excited to be at the helm of this mission.
I believe it’s also worth mentioning my creative storytelling and networking skills as the connector. I’m the creator and host of a prominent podcast, Under The Radar, and this project will have added support and outreach to the global community, with nearly 2400 listeners on average per episode at the time of my writing this application! That sounds like an incredible way to promote the NMC and this opportunity to a brand-new audience.
I am excited to utilize my media connections to further the message of this project. I have secured a local media company ready to document the process (provided that’s in alignment with the National Music Centre’s policies) and further push this project’s message to the masses, creating a “rockumentary” - another level of exposure and outreach. I have started a crowdfunding campaign on my website, securing fan support through time, talent and treasure. This thing is all ready to go and that’s very exciting to me. When I first started the music wellness path, Mr. Ron Mannix was one of my first supporters. I feel he would be very proud of how far I’ve come since 2017 when we connected, knowing his shared passion for the therapeutic nature of music.
That said, as a music wellness practitioner, I look forward to furthering my mission of bridging the gap between the often polar opposite industries of wellness and music. I intend to promote this album on a worldwide tour in the fall of 2024, to help others find inner peace and resolve in times of darkness. We already have confirmed Canadian and Australian dates and I’m finalizing stops in Europe and America. I am securing tour dates to showcase this project with other wellness practitioners, specializing in Kabalah and ancestral trauma, mindset and emotional healing. I am also introducing this to the indigenous communities I’m involved with such as Sandy Bay in Manitoba. Its got great potential to highlight the Violins of Hope on a massive scale in many different regions and could change many lives.
I am excited at the prospect of hosting a multiday event to showcase this project. The opportunity to workshop the ancestral healing or host a keynote with the heavyweights in the world of frequency music and mental wellness is what fuels me. Those are the opportunities that can elicit real change.
As you can imagine, this project is very special to me. It is a sonic pattern disruption that promises listeners hope for living a meaningful life, full of purpose despite their deepest, darkest wounds. We will be able to rewrite the stories that once haunted us and forgive the generational traumas that plague the planet, regardless of skin colour, ethnicity, gender or any other tactic constructed to tear us all apart.
As we say in Ojibway, “all of my relatives” - we are all related. By acknowledging and understanding both our shared traumas and our common foundations, humanity can move closer to a state of empathy, cooperation, and genuine connection — a metaphorical "home" where everyone feels understood and valued.
That is my dream, to inspire my world to look at the darkness as the place where we can see the stars the most.