Buoyed by a surprise birthday concert for none other than Oprah Winfrey and an avalanche of publicity surrounding it, Snatam Kaur is back in the East with a new band for a series of concerts and workshops in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
The Sikh songstress and Kundalini yogi, who practically grew up at the feet of Kundalini yoga founder Yogi Bhajan, has enchanted packed live audiences for years and has emerged, arguably, as the most widely known artist in the “sacred chant” world. And if the Oprah story is any indication, the rest of the world may be starting to wake up. (Does anything say “mainstream” more than Oprah?)
Answer to a Heart Prayer
Absent this tour are Snatam’s long-time travelmate, band leader and manager GuruGanesha Singh (whose own tour with The GuruGanesha Band is storming the East Coast right now) and tabla maestro Ramesh Kannan (who played two shows in Northern California with Snatam earlier this month).
The new troupe includes the brilliant guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Todd Boston (who played with Snatam for Oprah, along with Daniel Paul on tabla), Jason Parmar on tabla, and Matthew Shoening (Shane-ing) on the electric cello. Yeah, the electric cello. You gotta hear this — the usually-solo Shoening does this live-looping thing on the cello that creates layers of rhythms and depth in the music that is truly innovative.
“This is what happens when God turns a page in your life and opens your heart,” Snatam says in a new promotional video about the tour. “This whole band came together from a prayer from our heart.”
Boston, New York and Beyond
The tour opens with two nights (5/24 and 5/25) at the historic Regent Theater in Arlington, just north of Boston. (Get tickets for Boston here.) It will be Snatam’s third trip to Boston hosted by Shunyam Productions, the husband-and-wife team behind the Boston Yoga and Chant Fest, now in its third year and quickly making a name as one of the country’s premier annual gatherings of kirtan artists.
From Boston, the band heads to New York City for a weekend workshop in which Snatam “will share the technology of Kundalini Yoga and Mantra that awakens the Kundalini energy flow within” and two evening concerts (5/26 and 5/27) at Integral Yoga NYC. The tour continues with a concert in Washington Depot, Conn. 5/29 and a workshop in Keene, N.H. 5/30, before the group heads to Kripalu Retreat Center in Lenox, Mass. for two multi-day mantra-practice workshops — Mantras of Spiritual Warriers (6/1-6/3) and Mantra Medicine Wheel (6/3-6/6) — where Snatam will be joined by her husband Sopurkh Singh Khalsa.
For the full schedule, visit Spirit Voyage’s Website.
Here’s a little taste of the nectar Snatam consistently delivers, from her appearance at 700 Voices Sacred Music Concert in West Branford, Conn. last May…
If you’ve never experienced the divine presence of this lit-from-within enchantress in the flowing white veils and voice of liquid velvet, well…what are you waiting for? If you have, you know what we mean, right?
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Will any tour plans consist of coming to the southeast region? I live in NW FL, there are many yogis here and Bhakti yogis that would love and appreciate Sri Snatam’s presence! Thanks so much, with love and light.