NEW CD AVAILABLE: www.rashikmusic.com
Born into a family practicing bhakti yoga. I was given the name Vrishni. From the very beginning of my life, I was exposed to Indian Vedic culture. Chanting mantras and reading the Vedas always was a daily activity for me. From the age of 5 I learned bhajans (devotional sacred songs from India) I would sing with all of my love. Singing these songs connects me to the Divine couple Radha & Krishna. Having Indian heritage from my mother’s side, seemed to enable me to capture the essence of the culture, feel the music with my soul and sing the songs with all of my love.
At 3 years old I learned how to play kartals (Traditional Indian hand cymbals)and when I turned 8 I learned how to play the mridanga (drum) I would lead bhajans (meditative singing) and kirtans (participatory chanting). I learned and performed classical Indian dance called Kathak, which represents a storyteller who recounted Lord Krishna’s pastimes in the temples and danced them in a state of ecstasy. I used to get absorbed in Puja, deity worship or worshiping in the altar.
On my second trip to India in autumn 2000, I lived in Vrindavan for 4 months, and took classes from a local music teacher. On the afternoons, I would spend hours in front of my altar singing from a new bhajan book that was presented to me. When I came across a song I did not know, I would read the translation and get inspired by the meaning and a melody would manifest. This was the beginning of my first CD ‘Beloved of Krishna’ Getting more and more inspired I chose to sing the bhajans I already knew with melodies of my own. For example the bhajan ‘Radhika Stava’ was the very first bhajan I learned by heart, I desired to sing it with a melody created by me. One evening, I was meditating on this bhajan and started to hum a new melody, then began to sing it out loud while riding on a rickshaw all the way to my destination and also on my way back making sure I recorded it in my brain. Most of the songs on Beloved of Krishna I knew since childhood. The bhajans ‘Jaya Radha Madhava and Sundara Bala are sung in traditional melodies. All my melodies have a story but I rather stop here and let you listen to the music.
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