Search - Dave Stringer, Donna De Lory, Joni Allen :: Elixir: Songs of the Radiance Sutras

Initially trained as a visual artist and jazz musician, Dave Stringer started chanting in the early 1990's when a film editing project brought him to the ashram of Swami Muktananda in India. When the editing project ended, he remained in India to teach school in a rural village, and continued studying the traditions of yoga with Swami Chidvilasananda. After returning to the US, Dave taught meditation and chanting to prison inmates, and began leading kirtans at yoga studios in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Dave's sound marries the transcendent mysticism of traditional Indian instruments with the exuberant, groove-oriented sound of American gospel. A spontaneous and articulate public speaker, he probes the dilemmas of the spirit with a sly and unorthodox sense of humor. His work translates the ancient traditions of kirtan and yoga into inspiring and thoroughly modern participatory theatre, open to a multiplicity of interpretations, and accessible to all.

One of the most compelling and innovative musicians to have arisen from the yoga communities across the country, Stringer and and his band first started touring widely in 2000, playing up to six nights a week in yoga studios, art galleries and theaters from San Francisco to New York City and Minneapolis to New Orleans, In the past four years Dave has given 359 performances, with total attendance exceeding 25,000 people. He has sold more than 10,000 CDs, primarily at his concerts and on the internet.

Donna De Lory has been around the big top of American pop music for most of her life. Raised in a musical home, Donna made her own professional debut at age 8 and the ensuing career, including solo CDs and background singing for Madonna, introduced her to a world of music she hadn't heard before: At one point, I went to places like Brazil and Israel to promote my solo record, explains De Lory. And I was getting influenced by a lot of world music. I started studying Asian dance prior to making my first video and that put me on a whole new path musically as well.

The sense of freedom and purpose Donna found by adding Sanskrit chants to her repertoire, which meant that she had to adjust her notions of what qualifies as a performance, led Donna directly to her latest venture, a Sanskrit chant CD. While a collection of ancient Indian mantras set to modern beats may seem like a departure, for Donna De Lory, this seamless blend of east and west, devotion and pop, is just the next bold step in her continuing musical evolution.