Lowland Hum, The Golden Hours (official), and David Wax Museum

7 PM Doors

7:30 PM Golden Hour

8:30 PM Reflections & Discussion (20 minutes)

Golden Hour is a 60-minute, immersive live music experience created in Charlottesville, Virginia, by musicians Suz Slezak & David Wax (of David Wax Museum) and Lauren & Daniel Goans (of Lowland Hum). For the entirety of the performance, guests are seated and blindfolded while the four principle musicians move about the space, holding the listener close in an ever-changing sonic landscape. What initially seems like a unique way to engage with live music soon becomes an opportunity for presence, stillness and participation in a deep listening experience that is simultaneously individual and communal.

As NPR’s World Cafe host describes Golden Hour, “It brought me back to my first show, the feeling of anticipation, surprise and joy. These musicians have crafted something special, one that will show us how to recapture that magic again.”

Since 2017, Golden Hour has been invited into a diverse array of gatherings such as a colloquium organized by medical ethicists from Columbia University, the Department of History & Literature at Harvard University, and the inaugural event at the Contemplative Sciences Center at University of Virginia. After performing at UVA, President Jim Ryan said, “It’s rare to know for sure that you’ll remember an hour of your life twenty years from now.”