The Story Behind My First Mantra Album

Although I spent my life and times as a singer training and focusing on jazz and world music, and as a songwriter writing in many pop genres and contemporary jazz, I have always been drawn to sacred music.

My two cherished voice teachers and vocal guides, Stephen Chun Tao Cheng and Bobby McFerrin, both deeply spiritual people, shared a deep appreciation for traditional music that speaks to the soul. Stephen preserved and recorded pre-20th century Chinese folk music and Bobby, the African American Spiritual. 

I was exposed to chanting and mantra early-on when I started practicing yoga. Over the years, I engaged in kundalini yoga teacher training. I am a Level Two certified EK instructor. 

I was drawn to the mantras, and I seemed to wear them well, as my teachers asked me to sing out in class. My master teacher, Ravi Singh, has been after me to make a mantra album for decades.

But I took a musical detour first. In hindsight it seems, I was meant to take a deep dive into western sacred music. I learned I loved singing the achingly beautiful pieces that are part of the catholic/christian tradition. I have sung some of the old Latin chants for Jewish ceremonies as well. The repertoire is vast and varied. It  includes the best of famous classical composers to non-traditional and folk pieces to spirituals and modern choral compositions.. I have been privileged to learn them and sing them while serving Sacred Hearts and Saint Stephen in Brooklyn. What I gained by serving enhanced my musicianship and informed my Group Karma performances, too. 

So now I come back to mantra as a seasoned songwriter and vocalist, having taken my  particular, somewhat labyrinthian musical journey. Mine is no longer the young woman’s voice. It has been around the block. But I hope the wisdom it carries makes up for the fact that I can no longer sing D above high D. 

In giving yoga-astrology workshops that included mantra, I have received a lot of positive feedback that my singing of this or that particular mantra has helped the listener achieve a peaceful or meditative or pleasing state of mind. Using “Vak Siddhi” as an offering to others has encouraged me to commit to this first mantra project.

I so look forward to sharing it with you!

Sat Nam and follow your star,

Karma