Dudley Evenson

Board of Directors | President

Peace Through Music Foundation Co-Founder
Soundings of the Planet, Co-Founder

Dudley Evenson co-founded Soundings of the Planet in 1979 with her husband Dean Evenson. Together, they have produced over 90 albums and videos. A multimedia artist, Dudley works with video, photography, graphics, writing, music and dance.

She plays harp and zither with intuition and feeling and uses her voice as a complementary instrument. She also does guided affirmations and visualizations albums and has shared her music and guided meditations presenting live before such luminaries as Deepak Chopra, Joan Borysenko, Larry Dossey, Don Miguel Ruiz and others. In 2020, Dudley published her latest book, A Year of Guided Meditations: 52 Weekly Affirmations, a collection of 52 high-powered affirmations based on practical wisdom, guiding us to affirm and manifest the best parts of our being.

In 2018, Dudley released the book Quieting the Monkey Mind: How To Meditate With Music, co-authored with husband Dean Evenson. Drawing from over four decades of creating music for meditation and yoga, Quieting the Monkey Mind is filled with practical tips, exercises, photos, and illustrations to support readers on an empowering journey of finding inner peace in our often chaotic world. In 2017, Dudley co-authored the book The Big Secret with Jack Canfield. Together with other successful entrepreneurs and professionals, Dudley and Jack share secrets for how one can achieve the health, wealth, and lifestyle one desires. Dudley’s chapter is entitled “The Harmonious Sounds of Success: A Story of Peace Through Music.”

Dudley has written articles ranging from healing music, chakras, affirmations and relationships to environmental issues which have been published in Massage Magazine, Massage and Bodywork Magazine, Natural Awakenings, New Age Retailer, Napra Trade Journal, Children of the Dawn, Whatcom Watch, and The Bellingham Herald. Dudley and Dean have been together since 1968 and have three children: Cristen, Sarah and Elijah and one granddaughter Cybele. 

Dean Evenson

Board of Directors | Senior Advisor

Peace Through Music Foundation Co-Founder
Soundings of the Planet, Co-Founder

Dean Evenson is one of the true visionaries of the Ambient/New Age musical genre. He is renowned as a virtuoso composer, flautist and synthesizer artist, and uses his position in the music industry to promote environmental awareness, social justice and responsible business practices. He is a prolific musician and composer, entrepreneur, media pioneer and co-founder (with wife Dudley Evenson) of Billboard-charting independent music label, Soundings of the Planet.

Evenson’s interest in nature and a keen analytical mind initially took him into the sciences, where he pursued a Master’s degree in molecular biology under a National Science Foundation Fellowship at the University of Maine. During graduate school, he was devoting much of his time to art and music projects on the side. When he completed his degree, his life took a dramatic turn in that direction. “I realized that I had gone into science to find out what science knew about life, but I was never looking for a career,” Dean explains. “I was entranced with determining what it takes for us to live as better human beings on this planet.” The same quest for spiritual knowledge that brought him to science propelled him toward the arts. Evenson’s music label, Soundings of the Planet, has become a tremendous success, producing seven consecutive Billboard-charting albums, and being selected as a Billboard Top 10 Indie Label three years in a row. Evenson’s music has been selected for film scores, including the soundtrack to the PBS mini-series, “The Way West,” and Disney’s “Jungle Book” preview. The Windham Hill music label included Dean’s music on Path, its recent ambient music sampler.

Phil Heaven

Board of Directors | Treasurer

Violist, recording artist, producer and audio engineer Phil Heaven received his Bachelor’s degree in Music and Audio Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.

In 1994, Phil met Dean and Dudley Evenson and began working for the Soundings of the Planet music label, and has engineered, co-produced and performed on dozens of music releases from Soundings of the Planet, as well as having recorded with many independent artists from around the world. Notably, Phil plays a solid body electric 5 string violin which gives him the ability to play both violin and viola voices. Phil is married to his high school sweetheart, Toby-Lyn Heaven, and helps her run her very successful Aveda salon, Sandalwood Salon in downtown Bellingham Washington.

Bob Paltrow

Board of Directors | Advisor

Multimedia artist/designer/producer, professional musician, video artist, and published illustrator Bob Paltrow has lived a life dedicated to building community through music and art. 

Paltrow owns and operates award-winning Bob Paltrow Design in Bellingham, WA, working with a diverse array of clientele and media. Bob graduate cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts & Sciences degree from the University of Arizona with a graphic design / visual arts emphasis, and a minor in Art History with an emphasis on modern 20th-century art.  

Paltrow is also a professional musician, producer, classically-trained pianist, and performer of 53 years; composer and songwriter of over 350 songs having performed with many artists and genres of music, including rock, country, soul, rap, hip-hop, Middle Eastern (belly dance), African/reggae, folk and more. Paltrow is currently keyboardist/singer & songwriter for the all-original modern rock band Cats Like Us out of Bellingham, WA.

In the community-at-large, Paltrow has supported and worked on local city council, and county council campaigns, as well as supporting and donating design work, illustration, and supporting environmental awareness, concerns and activism; diversity and women’s rights; free speech; respect and dignity for all beings, lifeforms, cultures, and human beings.

Paltrow’s interests, life, and desires have centered around music, art, diversity, and community. Bob says “…. meeting as many different people as possible; the pursuit of new ideas, the embrace of the unknown, the vision to transcend while knowing that there is so much we can ever know about it all; the humbleness and grace that comes with honoring and appreciating everything and everyone and every moment.” 

Paltrow met his former employers, current mentors and friends Dean and Dudley Evenson in 1992 when they hired Bob to be their first in-house graphic designer at their award-winning, critically successful, and concurrently rapidly commercially successful independent new age label Sounding of the Planet. 

As a designer and illustrator at the label, he was able to render the visions of artists who had visionary intentions of creating peace-inducing music: Bob’s interest in art was very much driven by the visionary artists of the 20th century; especially the Surrealists and Dadaists, who incorporated visioning, dreaming, and randomness (and embrace of happenstance and randomness) into conceptualizing art. Particularly Dali, Tanguy, Picasso, Duchamp, Man Ray, Jean Arp, among so many others.

Josephine Dow

Board of Directors | Associate Advisor

Josephine Dow is an Empowerment Facilitator at The Rhythms Within, where she supports Women in gaining confidence and connection to the Handpan and Frame Drum. Besides being a facilitator she is also a recording artist/multi instrumentalist and has 3 self-released albums under the moniker “Jocean”.

She encourages her students to understand music first as a personal healing tool for self expression and connection to source. When music is created from this place it has a greater potential to positively impacting others. When Josephine is not teaching, producing, or practicing her many instruments, she can often be found on the trails of the San Juan Islands searching for a mossy spot to enjoy a delicious vegan lunch!