Kirtan at the first Montreal Yoga Festival

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of accompanying Lea Longo's kirtan at the opening event of the first ever Montreal Yoga Festival (Festival de Yoga de Montréal), a really great initiative by YoCoMo (Yoga Community Montreal). We were joined by Rad Crasto on guitar, Niranjan Arminius on bass, and Yasushi Matsuki on electric violin. The kirtan was really well attended, with approximately 100 people in the concert hall of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. We were joined on stage by Dr. Madan Bali, a fixture in the Montreal yoga scene, having taught in Montreal since the 1960s. A great honour.

Normally, we do kirtans in the more intimate setting of a yoga studio, so it was a bit strange to be doing kirtan in a concert hall, but the 'audience' participated with great enthusiasm, and it worked out great. A very appropriate way to open the festival. The kirtan ended up lasting about 2 hours, nonstop! Quite the workout. :)