About Brenda McMorrow:
Brenda McMorrow is a Canadian Devotional Chant artist who is known for her unique and warmly embracing style of mantra music, in which she blends elements of acoustic folk, world rhythms, and ancient Indian chants with a sweetly introspective singer-songwriter’s sensibility. Yoga Journal describes Brenda as having “a knack for expressing the deepest realizations in the sparsest lyrics”. As spiritual teacher Ram Dass has said: “Brenda has a gift”, and her music has been touching people’s hearts worldwide.
photo by LakshmiGrace http://www.lakshmigracedesigns.com/
Originally a folk/pop singer/songwriter, it was when Brenda participated in her first Sanskrit chant while attending a Yoga workshop in 2004, that she had a profound knowing her musical journey was leading her to places more expansive and heart-opening than she had ever imagined. Brenda remembers: “It was a very simple chant (Om Namah Shivaya), and at the time I had no idea what it signified: all I knew was that every cell in my body started vibrating, and I felt absolute joy”. While in India soon thereafter, Brenda began combining her own songwriting with ancient Sanskrit chants – and she has been flowing with this divine wave of Bhakti energy ever since.
With 5 celebrated devotional chant albums, Brenda is a featured artist on the White Swan Records roster, a Colorado label well known for it’s high-profile yoga-inspired artists like Deva Premal. She has shared festival stages with Krishna Das and Snatam Kaur; has been accompanied by Grammy award winning cellist David Darling; has been a guest musician with esteemed Kirtan musicians Jai Uttal, Wah!, David Newman, Girish, Mirabai Ceiba, Jai Jagdeesh, Shantala and Dave Stringer; and has been invited to Bhakti Yoga festivals and events across North America, Europe and Asia. When not on the Bhakti road, Brenda calls the countryside near beautiful Guelph, Ontario, home.
About the Players and Live Events:
Brenda and her group of musical yoginis and yogis perform devotional songs and Kirtan “call and response”, inviting the audience to join them in invoking the blissful connection that sound can create between the physical and spiritual realms. Venues for their gatherings include yoga studios, performance halls, churches, private homes and outdoor festivals; anywhere people love to gather and share heart-opening music. Brenda performs on vocals and acoustic guitar with a rotating array of guest musicians, including gifted drummers, singers, bassists, guitarists, harmonium players from around the world.
Barcelona
About Kirtan:
Kirtan (pronounced keer-tahn) is a practice of Bhakti Yoga (the Yoga of Devotion). It is a participatory, call and response form of singing which is expanding throughout North America as westerners discover it’s uplifting, healing and joyous effects. Open to participants of all religions or no religion at all, Kirtan is easy to learn and participate in. The lead singer sings simple and beautiful melodies and the crowd responds either by memory or by using lyric sheets provided. Kirtan is a beautiful opportunity for people to come together to open their hearts and chant the many names of the Divine. In Kirtan, the lines between musician and audience are blurred. The audience members play a vital role in the music through their singing, clapping, dancing and the transformative devotional energy that they each bring to the experience. Brenda explains, “Singing together– chanting the Divine names – encourages our hearts to open and the beauty of our true beings to shine!”
Brenda at Bhakti Fest Midwest photo by Mitchell Manz
Yoga
photo by Robert Sturman
Brenda is a graduate of the DevaTree School of Yoga 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Program and incorporates the wisdom of Yoga into her workshop and retreat offerings.