My Soapbox: Ron Esposito, musician, life coach

Ron Esposito has always loved music. His passion began at an early age when he first picked up a guitar, and developed during a long career in radio. In 2008, he started playing the Tibetan brass and quartz crystal singing bowls, a type of bell that sits on a base rather than hanging.
 
Last month, Esposito released his third solo CD, Soul Burst. A handful of his songs have been featured on network and cable TV shows, such as Ray Donovan, Hawaii Five-O and Nashville.
 
On top of playing the singing bowls and recording, Esposito spent two years studying to become a life coach and learning the enneagram at the Conscious Living Center in Mt. Auburn. He’s held a private practice there since 2007, and currently teaches there as well.
 
Soapbox caught up with Esposito to talk about his varied music career and his outlook on life. 
 
Are you a Cincinnati native?
No, I’m from Youngstown, Ohio, and a bunch of places in between. I moved to Cincinnati in 1986 and started working for WVXU at Xavier University. I was the music director and special projects producer from 1986 to 2005, when the school sold the station.
 
When did you get interested in music?
As a young kid—I was about 10—I loved rock ‘n’ roll, especially Chuck Berry. I wanted to rock ‘n’ roll, so I started playing guitar. I played in a variety of garage bands. Then in college, I took up the acoustic guitar and did the folk singer gig at coffee houses. In the 1970s, I lived in New York and took up the bass. I spent many years playing bass in jazz groups—I was with a good blues group for 15 to 20 years, but I got tired of playing beer joints. In 2008, I started playing the singing bowls.
 
What got you started with the singing bowls?
In 2005, my life changed when WVXU was sold. I joined the Conscious Living Center in Mt. Auburn and started training for the enneagram. And I was looking for something musically that better reflected the new phase in my life. Once I thought of starting the singing bowls, I didn’t give it a second thought. I ordered a set, and I now play nine quartz crystal and four Tibetan brass bowls. I’ve been playing music for 50 years, so I know theory, and I taught myself the technique.
 
How do the Tibetan brass and quartz crystal singing bowls work?
I strike the bowl with a mallet and it starts to vibrate. I then stir the bowl like I would stir coffee, and it starts to produce a long, resonate tone—that’s the singing. I’ll get one going and will put a combination of other notes with the initial one to create large chords. The clusters of sound are like clouds going across the empty blue sky—as they go across space, they morph and shift.
 
What do you hope to bring to Cincinnati through your music?
The bowls excel at creating a quiet space in one’s interior. They’re perfect for relaxing the mind and are suited to meditation as an effect upon people’s consciousness.
 
Is there a piece of wisdom you’d like to offer to readers?
I’m in my early 60s, and life keeps getting better and better. I feel more alive and engaged now than at any other point in my life.