For you chant-lovers out there: Om Factory has a special guest this Saturday. At the age of six, Gaura Vani left the US to study sacred music in a gurukula or temple school in the timeless town of Vrindavan, India. He learned ancient prayers in Sanskrit and Bengali and to sing and play ethnic instruments like [...]

Saturday is full of fun for Dharma Mittra fans. For the physically inclined, Stephen Cheng leads his 3-hour “Dharma-Mittra-inspired” Vinyasa class near Union Square. I had a great time in December; only some last-minute volunteering is keeping me away. For the devotional minds, there’s the opening of Dharma Yoga Brooklyn, on 6th Ave in Park [...]

The Breathing Project is hosting David Sykes and his Harmonic Choir, “the world’s leading overtone choir,” this Friday, October 30 at 7:30pm. What is harmonic singing? From the website: Harmonic Chant is part of a 14-billion year old tradition — the harmonic presence illuminating every nook and cranny of the cosmic space. Those subtle waves [...]

Dharma Mittra, the inimitable (or eminently imitable) senior teacher, just emailed these tips for the new year: Spend time Meditating. Meditation is unbroken concentration and the most effective type is self-reflection. Spend at least 15 minutes meditating every morning. Get serious about your practice! One must get serious and simply attending class is not enough. [...]

If you are interested in the range of sounds and vibrations the human body can make (I’ve always loved opera for that reason), check out Alash at Barbes in Brooklyn tomorrow. I heard them last night at a friend’s party, and they’re supposedly up for a Grammy? They do overtone singing on top of traditional [...]

Tonight it was Prana Yoga at Greenhouse. Strange class — we chanted a chakra mantra 1–3 times at the beginning of each pose. As in “stretch your arm out and down into Triangle, exhaling ‘Lam Lam Lam’ as you go.” Each pose is supposed to activate a chakra along the spine, so I assume we [...]