When Mocha Maya’s coffee house in Shelburne Falls used to host live music, Kristin Hoffmann was one of their most popular performers. The Juilliard-educated singer and composer was based in New York, but frequently played in Shelburne Falls and, in the process, built a strong, loyal following in the picturesque hilltown. This weekend, Hoffmann will return for a special show where she will perform songs off her new album, “RainShine: Sonic Alchemy for Soul Awakening.”

Hoffmann will perform on Saturday, Sept. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Shelburne-Buckland Community Center at 53 Main St. in Shelburne Falls. This event will be different from your typical concert as it is being billed as an immersive, meditative experience in which Hoffmann will take listeners on a personal journey of soul awakening.

Hoffmann said she is looking forward to returning to Shelburne Falls and is excited to bring this project, that is so dear to her heart, to the area she loves.

“It’s crazy to think that I haven’t been in Shelburne Falls in three years,” said Hoffmann, noting her last show was a house concert in 2020. Her first time playing in town was around 2007 and she was there regularly until Mocha Maya’s stopped hosting music in 2017. She also played a successful show at Memorial Hall in 2016 with Bella Gaia, a multi-media theater production created with NASA for which she is the lead singer.

“It was love at first sight,” she said of her first visit to Shelburne Falls. “Every time I have played there, everyone is so loving and welcoming. It really has felt like a second home.”

Hoffmann’s music has been heard in film and television, and she has performed worldwide, collaborating with musical luminaries on a wide range of projects.

She’s been busy in the years she’s been away from our area. In addition to her work as a conscious musician, which brings her all around the world, Hoffmann works as a sound healer, producer and writer. She worked steadily during COVID, participating in a few hundred online events. No matter what aspect of her work she’s engaged in, she’s always focused on her goal of “spreading love, light, peace and truth in the world through the vehicles of music and energetic frequency.”

Hoffmann, who now lives in upstate New York, has spent over seven years working on “RainShine,” an album that is the outgrowth of her years of work in sound healing and deep soul singing.

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“I only worked on this music when I was centered, grounded, and in a meditational kind of space with myself,” said Hoffmann about the making of “RainShine.”

“It was a process of listening to the land, listening to spirit, and I knew that I was calling in this deep sonic space, and my hope is that in that space others can really start to re-spark and remember their unique gifts. That’s my hope.”

She describes the music on the album as straddling the intersection of new age, Neo-classical, and post-rock, which is very slow ambient music that might occasionally have a beat.

“This whole album — it’s not a performance,” Hoffmann said, “it’s a sharing. I feel like this is one of the main soul gifts that I came here to bring through in this lifetime. It’s about the listener. It’s not even about me.”

She added that there have been many times in her life where she was blessed by sonic or visual spaces that have been so beautiful that she felt her own soul or spirit come back into alignment. She hopes this album has the same impact on listeners.

As for the show in Shelburne Falls, it will be the eighth show in support of “RainSpace,” which was released in June. Hoffmann will perform solo, and her music will be accompanied by an album-length art video created by her partner, Troy Stallman, and video editor, David Breyen.

“So there’s this slow-moving art visual through the whole experience, and then you are wrapped in the sounds, and I’m singing everything live,” said Hoffmann about what people can expect of this performance. “There’s no right way to experience — some people like to close their eyes, others like to focus on the video and other likes to go back and forth between me and the video. It’s really an immersive experience, and it will envelope you. You are going into a music-visual meditation.”

Since this music is designed for deep introspection, there will be no clapping or talking until the end of the performance. After the music concludes, concert-goers will have the opportunity to share their experiences, visions and journeys.

In 2013, Hoffmann released an album called “Unfolding Secret — Symphony of the Heart,” which she performed in Shelburne Falls many times. Audience members, she said, were very receptive to it. “This piece kind of goes hand-in-hand with that,” she said, adding that every audience and every room brings their own energy to this experience. Given her experience with the audiences in the area and the beautiful location, I am sure this will be a very special evening for all involved.

All concertgoers are invited to a special after-concert gathering at 9 p.m. a couple of blocks away at the Red Dahlia Cafe, right next to the Bridge of Flowers. Owner Chris King, who is a sponsor of this concert, is opening up the cafe after hours for this occasion. Coffees, beverages and gelato will be available for purchase.

Tickets are available at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6111654, or visit KristinHoffmann.com for more information.

Tonight (Aug. 31) will be the final concert of the Coop Concert 2023 season. Held every Thursday night at the Energy Park in Greenfield, the concerts were slated to end last week, but they added a bonus show to compensate for the weather-related cancelations they endured this summer. Being that this is an add-on show, the times are slightly different. The show will begin at 5:30 p.m. instead of the usual 6 p.m., and will wrap up at 7:30 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.

Guitarist Joe Graveline and viola player Nina Gross will perform. They describe their sound as “60s meets classical music.” Jim Eagan, who will play folk and blues, is also part of the lineup. And finally, there’s the Brookside Project, an acoustic group that features Charlie Conant on guitar, dobro and vocals, Roland Lapierre on guitar and vocals, and Kate Marion Lapierre on fiddle, ukulele and vocals, and Jim Bonham on upright bass. They play a mix of Americana, Roots, and Bluegrass, and perform both covers and originals.

Check the Coop Concerts Facebook page to find out what your favorite Coopsters are up to during the year. And before you know it, it will be time for the All Cooped Up concert in March of 2024.

So come bid farewell to summer with this final show of the season. The music is free, but donations are always welcome.

In the past, Labor Day weekend was always a quiet one for the music scene, but not this year. The RPM Fest will take place at the Millers Falls Rod and Gun Club at 210 Millers Falls Road all weekend.

And Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield has a busy Saturday night scheduled. Upstairs in the Perch, it’s indie folk duo High Tea and chamber pop sounds of Cloudbelly. Downstairs in the main room at 8 p.m. catch the high-energy reggae music of Jamaica-based Anthony B. Known for his strong stage presence and his politically-charged lyrics, reggae fans will not want to miss this show.

Advance tickets are available at hawksandreed.com.

Sheryl Hunter is a freelance writer who resides in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national publications. She can be reached at soundslocal@yahoo.com.