Recently, there were four Songs of the Soul concerts in the Canadian cities of Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg. Sri Chinmoy Centre musicians from around the world travelled to offer these concerts of Sri Chinmoy’s music.
Sahadeva’s group
Large audiences greeted the performers in all the concert venues and many of the concert goers offered enthusiastic appreciation for the blend of soulful, dynamic and meditative music. Continue reading “Canadian Songs of the Soul Tour 2015”
Recently – Oneness-Dream, a group of male singers from the Sri Chinmoy Centre visited Scotland to perform the songs of Sri Chinmoy at a variety of churches, monasteries and temples.
The group performed a total of 15 performances in different locations ranging from short, spontaneous performances to full concerts of about 1 hour.
Highlights of the tour included performing at Iona, Findhorn and the Hindu Temple in Glasgow during the Glasgow Mandir. The tour was often described by participants as a pilgrimage – the singers visited many of the famous holy sites of Scoltand – including ancient spiritual centres such as Whithorn, Kilmartin and Iona and more modern centres, such as Findhorn and Gorbals Parish.
Recently, a Songs of the Soul Concert was offered at the Skirball Centre, New York to celebrate the life and music of Sri Chinmoy. The concert, featuring musicians from around the world, was part of the 50th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s arrival in the West.
Performing in the concert, included Gandharva Loka – an international orchestra of around 70 members from all around the world. They performed the arranged compositions of Sri Chinmoy.
Music is psychic enlightenment. Music is the supreme fulfilment of the aspiring human soul.
Sri Chinmoy, Sound and Silence, Part 2, Agni Press, 1982
Between June 4-8, Temple Song Hearts gave a concert tour of Sri Chinmoy’s music in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The musical group Temple Song Hearts were founded in 1988 and include members from the UK and across Europe. The group has evolved over the decades to produce a sound that fuses classical and modern, Western and Eastern, in a musical expression that is at once contemplative and joyful.
In the first concert in the Czech Republic, they performed in the Czech Museum of Music in the old town of Prague City. The next concert was hosted in a Peace Garden dedicated to Sri Chinmoy, in the city of ZlÃn. Continue reading “Temple Song Hearts in Czech Republic and Slovakia”
On June 28th, the Dublin Sri Chinmoy Centre promoted a well received Songs of the Soul concert at the beautiful Newman University Church in the centre of Dublin.
Several groups performed the music of Sri Chinmoy including Kanala & Sadanand, Ashru Dharar, Mangala’s Group, and Adarsha & Ananda. After a rousing finale of the song ‘Akashe Amar’ – a large enthusiastic audience of around 230 people, offered their generous appreciation of the concert.
Akashe Amar
English Translation:
My infinite consciousness-light
Pervades the sky and ether.
Today I shall strike and destroy in a twinkling
The world’s intense sufferings.
– Sri Chinmoy (Score)
Related
Recently members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre performed five concerts at four different locations in Italy – Firenze, Milan, Rome and Padova. The concerts were part of a ‘Songs of the Soul’ concert tour which is inspired by the musical legacy of Sri Chinmoy. During the concerts, different music groups offered their own interpretations and arrangements of Sri Chinmoy’s compositions.
The concerts were well received by an appreciative Italian public. The concert halls were close to being packed out at all venues.
Agnikana’s group, based mainly in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Central Europe.
Performers at the end of the concert. 
Sahadeva’s orchestra. They peformed the two English songs.
‘Perfect happiness is enthusiasm minus expectation’ (link)
‘Brave were the days’
Related
As part of the 49th anniversary celebrations for Sri Chinmoy’s arrival in the West, members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre offered a concert of soulful and meditative music at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in New York.
The Songs of the Soul concert, featuring arrangements of Sri Chinmoy’s music, was held on the 15th April at a packed venue in Manhattan. The concert featured performances from a variety of musicians and groups, such as Alap Jetzer, the Sri Chinmoy Bhajan singers, Pavaka and friends, the Sahadeva Orchestra and an ensemble of local New York musicians. There was also recitations of Sri Chinmoy’s poetry and videos from Sri Chinmoy’s peace concerts.
Recently, four concerts took place in the Hungarian cities of Budapest and Szeged, featuring music from a variety of musicians within the Sri Chinmoy Centre performing arrangements from the music of Sri Chinmoy.
Performers playing to a packed crowd in Budapest.
The concert was inspired by the musical legacy of Maestro Sri Chinmoy.
Continue reading “Songs of the Soul: Hungarian concert tour”
In Auckland, New Zealand, an October-long program of meditation courses, concerts, and other events attracted over 500 people to the Sri Chinmoy Centre’s annual Meditation Month activities. A highlight was the Music of the Heart concert– 350 people filled a central city hall on a rainless Tuesday night. Guest performers – seven musicians from Europe, Ireland and the U.S. and all members of the international Sri Chinmoy Centres –  joined with local Centre members in various instrumental and vocal combinations, drawing from Sri Chinmoy’s vast legacy of 22,000 compositions.
Music has the power to positively change and enrich our world and Sri Chinmoy’s songs  are all unified by the recurring spiritual themes of inner peace, self-mastery, the quest for God-discovery –  he saw music as a powerful way of uplifting and inspiring humanity, a universal language uniting people together as a oneness-world family.  In the concert program Sri Chinmoy’s own words describe this:
 “When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest………A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined.â€
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A well received feature of the ‘Music of the Heart’ concert was its audience involvement – it invited concert-goers to bring their own meditative peacefulness to the evening, and to feel that both musicians and audience together could co-create an atmosphere of tranquility and joy.
“Put aside the thoughts of the day†the concert program encouraged, “ and let the mind be wide and empty like a summer sky; concentrate for a few minutes on the calm rhythm of the breath, breathing deeply into the heart. Feel the music in your spiritual heart like a river of consciousness flowing in and through you.â€
The Music of the Heart tour party then went on to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and very successful concerts there. Commented one audience member: “ Some of the music, especially the women singing a cappella style, really touched my heart. It was a doorway into a forgotten part of myself, an unremembered inner space, and I found myself hoping the music would never end.â€
Recently, members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre offered a concert of Sri Chinmoy’s music at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan.
The concert featured music from Ghandarva Loka and also contributions from the Russian music legend, Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov. The music was composed by Sri Chinmoy in English or his native Bengali.
The concert, which was free for members of the public, was part of the 81st birthday celebrations for Sri Chinmoy. Over 1,000 people visited New York from all other the world to take part in events of meditation, music and sport.
photos: Jaitra
Songs of the Soul was started in April 2008 as a way to share Sri Chinmoy’s vast musical legacy with the public through choral, instrumental and orchestral performances in a wide variety of styles. New York played host to two very powerful and moving Songs of the Soul concerts on April 14.
The concert featured Ottawa-based group Sangit Surabhi in their first Songs of the Soul performance.
Also performing were Paree’s International Group, which have been singing Sri Chinmoy’s songs acappella for over 20 years.
The concert concluded with a powerful and soulful performance by British group Ananda, with the help of international guests including Premik Russell Tubbs on flute and Adesh Widmer on sitar.
