Meditations on music

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Annabella Eisner

By Selene Lawrence, CLA Student Writer - May 28, 2025

As a musician from rural southern Oregon, Annabella Eisner came to Oregon State University with her eyes set on a variety of opportunities that the school and community had to offer. Eisner started out pursuing a kinesiology major, but altered her academic path after the first year of her undergraduate program to take on both a major in the contemporary music industry (CMI) and Spanish. In deciding on her dual major, Eisner became one of the first students in the CMI program. 

With an extensive musical background and experience as a pianist, guitarist, and vocalist, Eisner’s CMI major became a catalyst in her professional development and creative growth. While on campus, Eisner started to attend open mic nights; she joined a band during her freshman year and later formed her own: Corvallis-based prog-rock group Bluessence. Outside of her band, she also makes music as a solo artist. According to Eisner, her coursework was “foundational to her creative evolution.” Since beginning at the College of Liberal Arts, she has developed skills for self-marketing, booking performances, and managing her band. She has also entered the field of soundscape ecology. 

Eisner is a student in OSU’s Honors College; she was initially drawn to the program by the opportunity to design a thesis and conduct research as an undergraduate student. Eisner’s musical prowess, lifelong admiration of nature, and meditation practice would serve not only as the inspiration behind her thesis but also as the foundation of her PRAx Art+Science Fellowship project after being accepted into the program for the 2024-2025 school year. As a PRAx fellow, Eisner was supported in designing a creative project using process and practice-based methodology. In Fall 2024, she spent the quarter in Thailand, where she researched and immersed herself in its soundscapes and culture. “Meditation ended up becoming a really big part of my experience,” said Eisner. Prior to her fellowship, Eisner’s academic goals were fully realized under the mentorship of Dr. Dana Reason, who introduced Eisner to sound ecology and later became her mentor. “Dr. Reason’s support has been an invaluable resource in my creative journey as a whole.” Reason’s class on soundscape ecology taught Eisner the skills necessary for field recording, which would become the primary means of data collection for her fellowship project.

During her fellowship, Eisner spent four months in Surat Thani, Thailand, recording sounds inside and outside the city, as well as documenting her reflections on the different soundscapes. Eisner’s everyday audio recordings of Surat Thani contributed to her honors college thesis and PRAx composition, an experimental and immersive listening experience. Eisner describes her presentation, titled Fill Me With Now, as a “sonic time capsule” of her stay in Surat Thani. Inspired by soundscape composers Bernie Krause and Hildegard Westercamp, Fill Me With Now is an exercise in deep listening and planetary healing. The work, made up of ecological and anthropological sound recordings, contains three movements: Morning (newness), Afternoon (fear), and Night (peace). 

“I spent a lot of time alone. I made friends with the nuns and teachers at the local Buddhist university, and I would join them in spiritual exploration. Ultimately, I had some of my most insightful meditation experiences in the house I was staying at,” Eisner explained. “I felt like I could fully relax and get into a really deep meditative state with no distractions, and after exiting that state, I would have a new perspective on the listening and recording I had done that day.”

This spring, from May 15–June 15, Eisner’s audio recordings from her time in Thailand will be available for visitors to engage with at PRAx. She will also be holding a live presentation on June 12 at 4 p.m. After graduating, Eisner plans to pursue a career exploring the intersection of music and health. “I do yoga pretty frequently, and I would eventually like to do training to become a yoga teacher,” Eisner said. “I want to incorporate healing into my music practices and eventually become a practitioner of sound healing, music therapy, in combination with soundscape immersion and forest bathing.”