New CD release - Shanta

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't posted about this yet... This past fall, santoor player Jonathan Voyer and I released our first CD together, and my first recording of Indian classical music! - Shanta - a musical expression of peace.

The recording is a full performance of Raag Yaman, beautifully interpreted by Jonathan through Alap, Vilambit Rupaktaal, Madhyalaya Teentaal, and concluding with Drut Teentaal.

The CD is dedicated to our respective gurus of Indian music - santoor maestro Pandit Satish Vyas, vocalist Pandit Somanath Mardur, and tabla master Pandit Sharda Sahai.

The CD is available to purchase through CDBaby, iTunes, and of course, directly from Jonathan and myself. We are already discussing plans for a second album, perhaps to be recorded this spring!

I thought I should also mention that Jonathan has a fabulous new website - www.samskara.ca.

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Live at Zazen with Jonathan Voyer

This past Saturday, I performed with santoor player Jonathan Voyer, as part of the Zazen Live series. My aim with this series is to promote Indian classical music in an intimate setting. All performances are acoustic.

Jonathan Voyer is a disciple of santoor maestro, Pandit Satish Vyas. We opened with Raag Dhani - first an alap, then a gat jhaptaal (10-beat cycle), followed by a gat in drut teentaal (16-beat cycle).

After a short intermission (ie: samosa break), we continued with Raag Yaman - alap, gat in rupaktaal (7-beat cycle), and ending with a gats in madhya and drut teentaal.

I was really happy with the audience turnout for this concert - we were completely sold out. As always, the audience was really attentive. Jonathan performed many interesting (and challenging) rhythmic variations, with much depth and nuance. Looking forward to future performances together!

A big thanks to Jennifer at Zazen, for her continued support of Indian classical music and dance.