About Denise
Ancient Sounds for Modern Times
Denise Mihalik
MM, CSHP, E-RYT500, YACEP, CYVT
Certified Sound Healing Practitioner, Certified YogaVoice®Teacher, Registered Yoga Teacher, Classical Singer, Master in Music, Kirtaniya, and Bhakta Yogi.
Denise has been immersed in sound exploration since early childhood with the sounds of nature and the world of music greatly influencing her life. She began studying voice in middle school and continued on to complete a Music Education degree at Westminster Choir College and a Voice Performance & Opera degree at UNC-Greensboro. She toured professionally on the opera stage and sang throughout the US in various opera roles, recitals, and concerts. In addition, she has been practicing yoga for more than twenty years and is a certified yoga and YogaVoice® Instructor.
Denise discovered yoga after experiencing severe whiplash in a van accident while on tour. As “the show must go on”, she was ushered from the emergency room to the stage and was not able to correctly addressed the whiplash. With the tour complete, the lasting pain from the accident continued. Not wanting to use drugs to mask the pain, she went in search of a modality that could get to the core of the injury and relieve it permanently. For Denise, it was yoga and energy healing. The process was slow but lasting.
This path eventually led her to the Sivananda Ashram in the Catskills where she was introduced to kirtan. She experienced immediate, deep healing while chanting, and has since been exploring the vibrational healing arts. A journey to Guatemala and a special experience with a one-of-a-kind singing bowl deepened her awareness of sound healing within herself and strengthened her desire to learn more in order to share it with others. Her studies of sound healing, meditation, chanting, and other healing arts have taken her abroad to Nepal, Guatemala, and Nova Scotia, as well as regular trips to India. She has completed advanced training in IET "Integrated Energy Therapy" and Avesa Quantum Healing and is a certified Himalayan Singing Bowl Sound Practitioner and Teacher.
A great believer in the power of vibrational healing, her mission is to assist others in finding their voice, be it speaking, singing, or one’s inner truth. She works with anyone in search of their True expression. By empowering oneself, one can experience physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing that reflects into daily life. Presently, Denise offers individual sound healing sessions in Ocean, NJ and offers group sound sessions, workshops and retreats all over the world, both remotely and in-person.
Denise's debut novel, Journey to Sunyata - Mountains, Monsoons, and Magic, launches on June 4, 2024. Light of Compassion, the accompanying music, is available on most streaming networks. She is deeply grateful to all of her teachers and mentors.
Denise earned her Bachelor of Music Education "Summa Cum Laude" and K-12 certification from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. She received a full scholarship to continue her studies at UNC-Greensboro where she completed her Master of Music in Opera Performance and was assistant to diction master, Richard Cox, teaching undergraduate Singer’s Diction.
Denise has advanced training in vocal pedagogy, anatomy, vocal disorders, sound as a healing modality, yoga and breathwork. Academically, she has been on the voice faculty at Meredith College, UNC-Chapel Hill, Felician College, and Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, NJ. She is also a certified YogaVoice® Instructor and is a guest presenter at various colleges, high-schools, conferences & yoga centers.
Post grad-school, Denise was one of two mezzos accepted into the National Opera Company and was in residence for two years, touring nationally. She continued part-time for another two years, while also apprenticing with Lyric Opera Cleveland, Natchez Opera Festival, and others. As a chorister she has sung with the Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony under the batons of Bernstein, Muti, Mazur, Mehta, Tilson-Thomas, and Wolff. Fun highlights include singing on the movie sound track of Frontera, performing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with Bernstein at the baton, and watching her students begin their own careers on the stage or as teachers.
Sample the vocals of Denise Mihalik below - Berlioz-L'ile inconnue-Les Nuits
As a youngster, Denise was one of four children who did NOT make the fifth grade choir. She remembers being in study hall while everyone else attended choir rehearsal. Born with a love for singing and supportive parents, she persisted, took up the violin and was able to take choir in middle school. Here as well, her chorus teacher discouraged her from auditioning for the high school choir. He told her that she wouldn’t pass the audition. Rather than accept his assessment of her talents, she began to secretly study voice with her seventh grade student teacher from Rutgers University. Denise was not a prodigy by any means. She worked incredibly hard in voice lessons and on the audition material for the high school choir. She auditioned and made it! Her heart was full of song, and, even though many discouraged her throughout the process, she persisted, developed a solid technique, and began a career in music.
Denise loves assisting people who are on the path of finding their True expression. It is never lost, but perhaps buried or closed off due to childhood experiences, accidents, or other discouragements. She has heard from many students, mostly adults who shut down a dream, their voice or their heart at an early age and are just now revisiting these organic desires in search of balance. It’s never too late to open the heart, to awaken the voice, to awaken clear communication towards ourselves and others, and to live from a place of love and acceptance. As we radiate love to ourselves, we can radiate it out to others and change the world, beginning with one person, our own Self. The first step is easy-find a quiet space and BREATHE.
Sound Awakenings LLC
We Offer: Himalayan Sound Healing, Meditation Music, Stress Relief, Certified Sound Healing Practitioner, Certified YogaVoice®Teacher, Registered Yoga Teacher, Master in Music, Kirtaniya, and Bhakta Yogi, Vibrational Healing Arts, Singing Bowls, Singing Bowl Therapy, Meditation, Chanting.