On the evening of September 28, the pool at The Pell in Middletown will not be a place for laps. Guests will climb onto soft floating mattresses, pull cozy blankets over themselves, settle an eye mask into place, and drift — literally — into a sound bath, as harmonious tones and vibrations wash over them from the pool deck. It is a full-body sensory experience that is hard to describe to anyone who has not tried it, and it is the latest installment in a collaboration that has been building quietly across Aquidneck Island for some time.
The event runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Pell JdV Hotel, 425 East Main Road. It is offered in two tiers. For $50, guests recline on a chaise lounge or a poolside yoga mat. For $75, they take the float option — afloat on a soft mattress with a blanket and eye mask. Floats are explicitly limited, and the event is a ticketed, capacity-capped booking rather than an open general-admission gathering. After the sound bath, guests are invited to linger over mocktails and a taste from the coastal-inspired Helmway kitchen, the restaurant inside the hotel. The listing also points guests toward the firepits and Serenity Shore Spa's onsite wood-fired sauna, booked separately, for those who want to extend the evening.
The two hosts are not newcomers to this kind of work. Allison Schumann runs EXHALE, a wellness practice through which she describes herself as an international wellness facilitator with more than 25 years combined in luxury hospitality and wellness. Her work weaves together certifications in breath, massage, sound, yoga, Pilates, mindfulness, and science-based coaching. She is a familiar presence on the local wellness circuit: she leads rooftop vinyasa classes at The Brenton Hotel on America's Cup Avenue in Newport, and her collaborations list reads like a roster of the area's hospitality and cultural institutions — mend yoga, Shepherd's Run, Island Heron Yoga, the Newport Art Museum, Newport Wine Cellar, lululemon Newport, and Vanderbilt, an Auberge Resorts Collection property.
Jill Niedelman comes to the partnership from a different angle. She is a co-owner of Island Heron Yoga in Jamestown, Rhode Island, alongside Coral Brown, and she is the one who brings the instruments — crystal singing bowls and chimes — that give the sound bath its texture. On Island Heron's Costa Rica retreats, Niedelman is described as leading participants on a vibrational journey using those bowls and chimes to reach a deeper level of relaxation. That is the same craft she brings poolside at The Pell.
The two have been refining the pool-float format together. A similar event, billed as a Pool Sound Bath Pop-Up with Cosmic Mocktails, was held at Shepherd's Run with the same hosting pair, structured around an hour-long sound bath as the sun went down, followed by an additional hour to relax by the pool, enjoy a mocktail, or soak in the hot tub. That version included handcrafted botanical mocktails designed by clinical herbalist and botanical mixologist Torie Gehlmeyer, founder of Tea for Torie, featuring organic, low-sugar ingredients and herbs chosen to echo the astrological signs. The Pell iteration swaps in mocktails and bites from the Helmway kitchen, but the shape of the evening — sound first, socializing after — is consistent.
The venue itself is a relatively recent addition to the local hospitality landscape. The Pell is a 127-room boutique hotel operating under the JdV by Hyatt brand, positioned as a stylish, playful base for exploring Aquidneck Island just minutes from Newport. The Helmway, its restaurant, leans into a coastal spirit with seasonal flavors and a rotating calendar of weekly programming — taco nights on Tuesdays, burger nights on Thursdays, and live wine-and-jazz evenings on Fridays featuring Ricki Rizzo and the URI Jazz Collective. The hotel also houses Serenity Shore Spa, which runs private sauna and cold plunge sessions for small groups in Newport County, with a focus on recovery and group wellness.
What makes the September event notable is not just the novelty of floating in a hotel pool while being bathed in sound, but the way it fits into a broader pattern on the island. Schumann's calendar is full of sound baths in unlikely places: sunrise sound baths overlooking Newport Harbor, a sound bath on Rose Island as part of a retreat that includes a vinyasa practice, kayaking, and a lobster boil dinner, and a Sweetberry Farm gathering that pairs a stretch-and-sound session in the flower garden with shopping from local women-owned makers. The pool float is the most physically immersive version of that idea — the water doing part of the work of loosening the body while the bowls do the rest.
For anyone considering it, the practical notes matter. The listing advises bringing an extra layer, since evenings on the island cool off after sunset and the firepits are part of the appeal. The float option is the one most likely to sell out, given the limited number of floats, and the two price points mean guests effectively choose their own level of immersion. It is, in the end, a paid, book-ahead experience rather than a drop-in one — a detail that says something about how this kind of wellness programming has matured in Newport County, moving from free community classes into ticketed, curated evenings with food, drink, and spa add-ons attached.
Whether that is a selling point or a barrier depends on the guest. But for two hours on a Monday evening in late September, The Pell's pool will hold a small group of people doing something genuinely uncommon: lying still on the water, eyes covered, listening.