Sacred Chanting with Shantala & Friends - In-Studio with Shantala Kirtan

Sacred chanting (kirtan) has its roots in the sacred music of ancient India. Kirtan is a celebration of spirit through the chanting of sacred names, carrying the audience into a state of heightened awareness, bliss, and devotion. The audience is invited to participate fully through call-and-response chanting, dance, and meditation.

BENJY and HEATHER WERTHEIMER have been leading kirtan (sacred chanting) worldwide since 2001 as the duo SHANTALA. They are known for their special gift of bringing the audience into a vast and loving experience through their unique blend of exquisite voices with instruments of India and the West. Together they create music with beauty, passion, and reverence. Heather and Benjy have released five beautiful and well-loved albums of sacred chant music since 2003, including Living Waters, Jaya, LIVE in love, Sri, The Love Window, LIVE2love and FIVE. They also have a passionate international online following, with hundreds of thousands of YouTube video views, millions of iTunes/Apple Music downloads, and millions of streams on Spotify. Shantala has performed and recorded internationally with such sacred music luminaries as Krishna Das, Deva Premal & Miten, and Jai Uttal.

Stay connected with Shantala:
Website: www.shantalamusic.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shantalamusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shantala_music/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN2zbrVF50EUPelcWvvVEBg
Bandcamp: https://shantalamusic.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6z6YXTlyMCY6fvT79yxDgi

STEVE GORN has performed Indian classical music on the bansuri bamboo flute in concerts and festivals throughout the world. A disciple of Sri Gour Goswami of Kolkata, and Pandit Raghunath Seth of Mumbai,he is well known to audiences in India and the west. He has been praised by critics and leading Indian musicians as one of the few westerners recognized to have captured the subtlety and beauty of Indian music. A Grammy winner and five time Grammy nominee, Steve Gorn is creating a new idiom, a music that combines the essence of classical Indian tradition with a contemporary world music sensibility. The strength of this music arises from a virtuoso mastery, generating a vibrant fusion, alive and accessible to western ears. From Indian classical music to world music and jazz projects with Paul Simon, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Winter and others, Steve infuses great mastery with a haunting, lyrical sweetness to bring the healing breath of the sacred to our demanding contemporary lives.

For more info: www.stevegorn.com

Guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer-songwriter SEAN FRENETTE has been inspiring audiences with the passion, virtuosity, and spirit of his unique musical performances. With 3 string guitar, electric-classical guitar, woodwinds, piano and voice, Sean artfully blends improvisation and slow-crafted composition, as well as a great breadth of musical influences (Michael Hedges, Eliot Fisk, Jimi Hendrix, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, Björk, Jeff Buckley, Fela Kuti, Tool, Thelonius Monk, Debussy, and Bach.) That Sean’s solo music covers a wide range is not surprising given his background: he is a conservatory-trained classical guitarist, a long-time student of Indian classical vocal music, a prolific composer, a wildly creative improviser, and a passionate educator. Sean’s love and appreciation of music and art from all over the world and from many time periods comes through in the joyful way in which he weaves his own music of the many threads humanity has collectively spun. Sean’s music is a sprawling synthesis of innovation and tradition, a vibrant, captivating musical tapestry.

For more info: https://www.seanfrenette.com/

HEATHER WERTHEIMER is a kirtan artist, singer, songwriter, and guitarist who combines her special love of both music and yoga to lead devotional chanting internationally. With a rare ability to sing directly from the heart, she infuses sacred chanting with a powerful sense of peace and depth. Heather has toured in the U.S. and abroad with her husband Benjy, Steve Gorn, Manose, and Deva Premal & Miten. Heathers debut CD with Shantala, Church of Sky, was named by New Age Retailer as one of the top ten albums of the year. It has been aired on radio stations internationally. Heather brings the richness of her healing background as a therapist, meditation teacher, and yoga teacher into the practice of kirtan. Since 2017, Heather has been an authorized teacher of Neelakantha Meditation as taught in Blue Throat Yoga.

Master musician BENJY WERTHEIMER is an award-winning songwriter, vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist (playing tabla, congas, percussion, esraj, guitar, and keyboards). His extraordinary and unique musical gifts from East and West create a sense of wonder and awe in the listener. In addition to touring with Shantala, Benjy is a founding member of the sacred music ensemble The Hanumen (including Gaura Vani, John De Kadt, and Visvambhar Sheth of the Mayapuris) and has toured and produced two CDs with them since 2009. Benjy has toured and recorded with such artists as Krishna Das, Deva Premal & Miten, Jai Uttal, Walter Becker (Steely Dan), and virtuoso guitarist Michael Mandrell. He has opened for such artists as Carlos Santana, Paul Winter, and Narada Michael Walden. A founding member of the internationally acclaimed Ancient Future world fusion music ensemble, Benjy also toured the U.S., Canada, and Japan with renowned bamboo flute master G.S. Sachdev. He studied Indian classical music for over 25 years with some of the greatest masters of that tradition (including Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan and Z. M. Dagar).