Bruce BecVar

November 17, 2011

A seeker and healer as well as an artist, Arya Bruce BecVar makes music for its effect on people’s lives. Listeners report feeling uplifted, soothed and joyful on hearing his music. “Composing and recording is for me a very spiritual practice,” says BecVar. “It is an exacting process of listening to the creative impulses of Spirit and being diligent about translating what I hear into a finished recording that captures that original essence in its most undiluted form.”

In the tradition of musical prodigies, BecVar records primarily in his own custom home studio, plays a variety of instruments, and produces and engineers all his own albums. “Doing the engineering and production is important to me for a number of reasons, but most of all, so I can make certain the sound I have in my head is what eventually ends up on the CD. I like to put the same love and attention into production that I do into composing and playing.”

Bruce BecVar

BecVar’s relationship with music began at an early age. When he was 8, he picked up his father’s ukulele and promptly began producing chords and harmony on it. At 9, he picked up the guitar. “I put my ear next to it and began playing, composing. I had an almost innate knowingness of the instrument, almost any instrument – violin, cello, percussion, recorder, flute and piano. I rejected formal music training and I’m glad for it. My path was clearly geared toward the intuitive approach.”

His affinity for woodworking, combined with his love of music, naturally led BecVar to the fine art of building instruments. At the age of 11, he crafted a dulcimer from materials and plans given to him by his father, and by 12 had built his first acoustic guitar. He subsequently became apprentice to the town guitar repairman, working on everything from guitars to kazoos

BecVar’s art and skill in the making and embellishing of instruments, along with growing recognition for his guitar compositions, brought him to Northern California in the early ’70s. He set up shop in Sonoma where he became well-known as a Luthier, making one-of-a-kind electric guitars for such world-class rock ‘n’ roll bands as The Who, The Peter Frampton Band, Led Zeppelin, The Jackson Five, Earth, Wind & Fire and Carlos Santana. One of his guitars, ornate with exotic inlay and carving, now resides in the permanent collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Meanwhile, he continued playing and composing. Aided by the after-hours use of a recording studio in the music shop where he worked, BecVar began production of his first album. In 1986, he released Take It To Heart on his own label, Shining Star Productions, and began working as a musician full time. The album met with outstanding critical acclaim as well as commercial success, validating Bruce’s uncommon approach to music. Windham Hill founder, Will Ackerman discovered Take It To Heart, invited BecVar to perform with him in the Windham Hill Summer Concert Series in 1987, and included an original cut of BecVar’s on the Windham Hill Guitar Sampler.

Bruce and brother Brian BecVar, well-known for their beguiling melodies and virtuoso performance, have steadily progressed along the path of healing through music. It was a natural step for Dr. Deepak Chopra, best-selling author of such books as Ageless Body Timeless Mind, Perfect Health, and The Return of Merlin, to select the BecVars to create dosha-balancing music to enhance his Quantum Healing work.

Bruce and Brian developed ‘The Magic of Healing Music’ series with the cooperation of Dr. Chopra and Dr. David Simon, Medical Director of the Center for Mind-Body Health in San Diego.