Interactive devotional chant
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"These accomplished musicians and singers have created an album of devotional music that is an intricate blending of sounds and styles. They bring in Indian, Turkish, Celtic and Gregorian chant music and create a soaring beautiful collection of kirtan chants. Andi McGraw Hunt has a voice that invites the listener to imagine lofty cathedrals and echoing choral performances. Scott Robinson’s harmonium is as deep and epic as his vocal...The combination of Gregorian-style chanting with harmonium is quite breathtaking...Mandala Band creates an soaring and epic blend of Eastern and Western religious songs...All the music on this album is stunning, tightly performed and beautiful." –Elephant Journal
'Mandala is an international ethnic fusion music group with loads of eclectic talent. The CD, Bhakti, offers kirtan, Sufi-style zikr, Turkish and Indian beats and Georgian chant – a whole new kind of devotional music; it is not your typical kirtan. These accomplished musicians and singers have created a compilation of music with beautiful inspirational messages that all devotional backgrounds can enjoy. Bhakti is a CD you’ll want to listen to when practicing Yoga as well as driving in your car. All the music on this CD is stunning and tightly performed.' --Yoga Life Journal
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Kirtan, workshops, educational programs, retreats
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Audience responses |
An ancient devotional practice for the modern world |
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“I (and those around me) especially enjoyed your...performance...it was INCREDIBLY beautiful and is still in my mind and on my heart.”
"The Mandala Kirtan at St. Martin's on New Year's Eve was a highlight of this Christmas season for me...Your music took me to some other place, a good place. It felt as if the nave was suffused with love." "Just wanted to let you know how very, very, incredibly wonderful your music was! It went straight into my soul, opened me up, and connected me to the endless sea of all other souls. There is really no better way to describe it." "Your music touched me very deeply: I found, more than once, tears on my cheeks, I had gooseflesh creep on my back, I could barely stay in my seat for wanting to dance, and at the same time, I found myself feeling something similar to the feeling I get when I meditate. What an amazing thing you do." 
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With roots in the Hindu and Sikh traditions of India, the audience participatory music called kirtan (also known as "yoga chanting") is finding a home in the West. Mandala's chants are simple enough for anyone to sing, regardless of musical training or talent, and catchy enough to leave you humming them long after the live event. And while traditional kirtan is based on Vedic and Tantric texts in Sanskrit, Mandala’s Interfaith Kirtan combines these with Biblical and other texts for a truly integrative experience.
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