'A Sense Of Wonder': Silent Piano Concert Returns To The South Bay

REDONDO BEACH, CA — A silent piano concert where a composer combines music with meditation returns to the South Bay Saturday.

The MindTravel live piano experience will take place on July 26 at Miramar Park in Redondo Beach.

Murray Hidary, a Miami-based composer and creator of the MindTravel experience, put on his first silent concert more than a decade ago. Today, he hosts roughly 150 similar events at outdoor spaces across the country.

"When it comes to MindTravel, the first thing, their eyes light up. They kind of gasp at the beauty of the setting," Hidary told Patch back in May."It creates a sense of wonder, a sense of fantasy. It gives (people) this space that allows for not just connection, but creativity, for expansion."

People at the MindTravel events are given a pair of headphones on-site. Hidary, taking the sounds and energy around him, then composes music, sending each unique and improvised note to the people around him wearing the headphones.

The MindTravel experience is meant to help people process their emotions through music. Hidary first discovered the healing power of music when he lost his younger sister in a motorcycle accident.

He tried to numb the pain and avoid the emotion. But soon came to understand that he couldn't heal unless he allowed himself to feel the emotions overcoming him.

"I began to sit down at the piano and allow the music to move through me," Hidary said in 2023. "It helped me tap into those feelings I was running from. I quite literally played through my grief."

Eventually, he created the MindTravel experience, providing others with the same catharsis music gave him.

Tickets for the MindTravel concert in Redondo Beach can be found here.

Miramar Park is located at 201 Paseo De La Playa.

Kristina Houck contributed to this report