Yesterday’s concert was quite the success. We had a good turnout; our performance was received with great enthusiasm; and we almost sold out of the CDs we brought.
But more importantly, many people shared how they felt uplifted by the vibration and consciousness of the music and our singing, and how important it is that we offer this uplifted consciousness in today’s world.
For us, THIS is the only success that really matters. Well, that and the tremendous joy of sharing our wonderful music with an audience of receptive souls.
Ramesha did a really great job designing the mugs for “The Christmas Mystery Collection.” I especially like this one with the cover artwork on one side and a combined photo of Swamiji with the group on the other.
In fact, as I happened to see it this morning while rushing around preparing for today’s concert, it struck me that Swamiji was actually blessing us.
And I do believe that’s exactly what happened today. It was a joyful, grace-filled process from start to finish, with a completely successful evening being the end result.
I’ve been focusing so much energy on finishing our new Christmas album, that I haven’t been talking about it all that much. However, “The Christmas Mystery” is almost here and I really am super-excited!
The official launch date is December 4, with pre-sales beginning on November 13 (I’ll be sure to share the link when I have it).
Our singing group, The Ananda Joy Singers, will be celebrating the release of the CD with a special World Premiere Concert presented by Ananda Sacramento & Crystal Clarity Publishers.
The concert is a week from this Sunday — on November 17, from 4:00-5:00 pm at the Ananda Sacramento Mandir. For more information & to register online CLICK HERE.
Come join us if you live anywhere remotely close by!
After our big concert last night, I was up early today preparing music for this morning’s class.
Then lunch with dear friends; a few errands around the Village; and an inspiring Q&A with Jyotish and Devi tonight. All in all, it was still a very full day.
So, tonight I decided to indulge myself with a little treat…some potato chips!
It’s Swami Kriyananda’s birthday weekend, so there were plans for a beautiful tribute concert, in addition to other inspiring events.
Unfortunately, Ananda Village is experiencing a major COVID outbreak, the worst we’ve ever seen. As a result, we’ve had to cancel a number of in-person events. The concert is also off, since — as always — singing is a super-spreader activity.
It’s quite a disappointment, but help came from an unexpected direction.
I’ve loved Ella Fitzgerald since I was in my teens. I’ve been transported over and over again by her stunning voice, amazing creativity, and sheer brilliance, to the point that I wouldn’t have believed I could still be blown away by anything she sang.
But today I was blown away anew by Ella. It was just the pick-up I needed in the midst of a challenging afternoon. Check it out and enjoy…“How High the Moon”!
Of course, the “it” I’m referring to is…Christmas!
Yes, we’re already in meetings for this year’s Christmas Play, and planning for the Christmas Concert isn’t far behind.
After all, it will be October in just a few more days and (as every church musician knows) once we’ve entered the time warp that is October, Christmas is just a couple of weeks away!
We are fully back to our traditional (as in “pre-pandemic”) Spiritual Renewal Week, which means a Tuesday night concert with approximately 30 singers from Ananda Village and an additional 35 or so singers from Ananda communities around the world.
And only one rehearsal. Which not everyone will arrive in time to attend.
Then there’s chanting and a song before each weekday class. Plus a kirtan. And an Indian banquet with a musical entertainment component.
I was tempted to title today’s blog: “Drowning in details,” but that would be an exaggeration. I just have to keep going and I’m fine.
But if I were stop and try to tread water, it would be all over.
Spiritual Renewal Week concert on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 at Ananda Village
In addition to creating challenges in presenting our Spiritual Renewal Week concert, the fire and power outage also affected how it was shared.
Usually concerts during big events are live streamed so that people worldwide can enjoy them, but that couldn’t happen due to being on generator power and other circumstances beyond my limited technical understanding.
The combination of a nearby fire and the power outage also left many Village residents unsure whether the concert was still happening, not to mention those who were considering evacuating.
I was sort of surprised to realize how strange it was to get home afterwards and not be able to pull up the live streamed video. And not to receive comments and voicemails about it.
It really did start to feel a little bit unreal, like I just imagined the whole thing. Turns out the proof is in the video!
To begin with, we’re in the middle of Spiritual Renewal Week here at Ananda Village, our first big in-person event since 2019! Each day there are morning classes, plus special events most evenings.
Which brings me to yesterday. We started out by singing before the morning class with the Joy Singers, leaving immediately after class to drive to town and grab burrito bowl lunches-to-go on the way to my weekly appointment at the Infusion Center.
For this week’s treatment I received four pre-meds, followed by all three of my chemo drugs: Velcade, Darzalex, and Zometa. I was a little nervous since the concert was that night and this was my first time getting all three medications at once.
The treatment lasted two and a half hours. By then we had learned there was a fire not too far from Ananda Village, so we drove home to prepare for the concert while listening to fire reports and hearing about what areas were under mandatory evacuations (as opposed to just warnings).
We only had about an hour to eat dinner, change clothes, and get over the amphitheater to set up the stage, but we started hearing speculation that the concert should be delayed or cancelled because of the fire. So, we called and talked to the Village community manager, a very calm and wise soul who explained why he felt the concert was a “go”, and we totally agreed. And then the power went out!
But let me back up and give you some context about our concert…
We usually have a well thought out “theme” for our SRW concerts, but this year was simply about finally singing together once again — in person — as a global community! The choir wasn’t large, but we hadn’t had singers from so many different locations singing together in one place since our 50th anniversary event in 2019!
We had been really looking forward to this concert, but we encountered all kinds of obstacles along the way — my health issues; the ongoing COVID realities (increasing cases, singers testing positive, and others avoiding singing as a precaution); having to relocate the concert from the Temple of Light to the outdoor amphitheater, which was the only way we could have a large choir; musicians having accidents that put them out of commission; you name it!
But all along we felt very strongly that we had to keep moving forward with restoring our music to it’s primary place in the life of our global community. Why? Because Ananda Music is such a tremendous tool for uplifting consciousness, which is so needed in the world right now.
View of the fire from Sunset Ridge
The added confusion and challenge of a fire and power outage just a couple of hours before the start of the concert had us wondering whether there weren’t downward pulling energies trying to block the powerfully positive and joyful expression of our music.
If so, we weren’t going to allow it to happen! I was inwardly resolved that the concert would happen — even if we didn’t have power. I figured that we would simply sing unamplified with however many singers showed up and whoever made it to listen would just have to come right up close to hear us!
But the good news is the amphitheater was on a generator, so we did have power. Plus all the singers made it and the concert went miraculously well.
Oh, and I felt absolutely fine the whole night, with no side effects whatsoever from my big chemo treatment. Miracle on top of miracle!
