Sita's Light: Bios
Miriam Zernis - Lead Vocals, Harmonium
Miriam Zernis has been practicing yoga since 1994 and is an internationally certified Sivananda Yoga Acharya (Master) having completed her advanced training in southern India. She continues to explore everything yoga has to offer and is currently studying Raja Yoga and Vedanta in an everlasting quest to be challenged both physically, mentally and most of all, spiritually. Miriam is a 6th generation Reiki Master Teacher of the Usui System of Natural Healing, as well as a Karuna Reiki® Master, and a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In early 2006, after 21 years as a news writer and Senior Editor at ABC News, she resigned from her position to fully dedicate herself to yoga, Reiki and holistic health counseling. She teaches yoga as a tool for healing and as a pathway for Truth. She is also an Interfaith Minister in the Order of Melchizedek, performing sacred ceremonies for all who are drawn to create them with her for life and family events.
Inspired by the many years of devotional chanting that went along with the territory of spending time at Sivananda ashrams around the world, Miriam found a new way to express herself through kirtan (musical prayer). It is with great joy and humility that she now shares it publically.
Sita's Light was recorded in November 2007 as a labor of love for her teachers, and specifically dedicated to Swami Vishnudevananda. During his lifetime, Swamiji worked tirelessly for the cause of peace in the world and the propagation of the yogic teachings. He also delighted in kirtan as did his guru, Swami Sivananda.
She also credits devotional music masters Deva Premal, Miten, Krishna Das, Bhagavan Das, Snatam, Wah! and others for their inspiration and opening her awareness to the Divinity of chant.
Miriam has had the good fortune of studying Classical Indian Music vocals and harmonium with Professor Paramjeet Singh and composer and renown sitarist Hasu Patel.
Fumio Taniguchi - Tablas & Other Percussion
Buddhist, Yogi and Holistic Chef, Fumio is a graduate from the culinary institute of Tokyo, Japan. He has studied drumming in Japan and US for many years and plays tablas, djembe and multiple percussive instruments with several bands in NY and CT. In his words... "I have come to view my life as a journey. This does not mean I am particularly focused on a beginning or an end, rather, I am aware of the path beneath my feet, illuminated and it comes into focus. Now in my life I realize that this path has always been there, and some part of me has always followed it. We often think that the events that occur in life are isolated, each moment distinct, with no connection to the next; but I reject this way of thinking. My experiences are now what shape the road in front, but what allow me to recognize its curves and course. Every thing that has come before makes me thankful now to feel the ground beneath my feet and to feel the light that shines on me, as I move forward."
Fumio recently returned from Espanola, New Mexico where he had a good fortune of doing sadhana and playing with Snatam Kaur in Yogi Bhajan's ashram.
Suan Armstrong - Flutes & Backup Vocals
Suan Armstrong –– (B.M Hartt School of Music), is a certified Qi Gong/Sound/Color Practitioner and professional flutist. Since 1998, her passion has been sharing her transformational flute and vocal improvisations as a sound healer with voice, C flute, bass flute, Native American Cedar flutes, Bansuri flutes, Tibetan bowls and chimes tuned to the chakras. Suan’s work encompasses many venues in the US and Europe including: healing concerts, solstice/equinox celebrations, yoga classes, meditations, Kirtans, Dances of Universal Peace, and Labyrinth walks. Suan has appeared in concert with Grammy winning musicians David Darling and Glen Velez. She also performs regularly with the Kirtan band “Sita’s Light”, and sound healing duo Sonic Bliss. Suan offers classes, workshops, and private healing sessions at Bodhi Musica in New Hartford, CT, her retreat center devoted to awakening the soul’s potentials through sound, color, movement, and essences.
Gloria Owens - Guest - Djembe, other percussion & backup vocals
Long-time Kripalu Yoga Teacher, dancer and artist, Gloria Owens, grew up in NYC surrounded by music – everything from opera to jazz to the singers & musicians who came to practice with her father, an accomplished pianist. Self expression to music became an integral part of Gloria's world as she trained as a competitive figure skater as a teen, which later evolved into the love of yoga, African dance and YogaDance; a creative movement practice which she discovered at Kripalu in the early 1990's along with yogic chanting.
Always the one to move to the primal beat of the drums, Gloria found herself needing to transfer the rhythm from her feet to her hands after breaking a toe in 2008. With the encouragement of drum-saavy friends, workshops with Ubaka Hill and John De Kadt, and a natural aptitude for patterns and improvisation, Gloria continues to evolve her instinctive playing. Gloria brings a deep appreciation for the mysterious alchemy of music, meditation and spiritual practice which she through the yoga classes that she teaches at YogaSpace, the studio that she co-owns in Brookfield, CT. Gloria is also a talented graphic designer, artist and photographer (she designed the Sita's Light album graphics!), and in October of 2010 she was honored to have her artwork shown as part of the United Nations' Week of Spirituality and Global Concerns.
Whether she's lending her aesthetic sensibilities, her sweet voice, a fun & funky groove or a tender heartbeat on her drum, Gloria is thrilled to be making sacred music with Sita's Light!
Randy Brody - Guest - World Music Percusionist
Randy Brody is a music educator, drum circle facilitator, therapeutic drummer, and an accomplished World Music percussionist and music improviser. For 20 years he has been facilitating teambuilding workshops, music programs, wellness programs, and other rhythm-based events for adults and children of all ages and abilities, throughout the tri-state area and beyond.
Randy is a multi-instrumentalist who plays Latin Congas/Bongos, African Djembe/Ashiko/Talking Drum, Middle-Eastern Doumbek, Egyptian Riq, Swiss Hang Drum, African Balafon, African Mbira and many other ethnic percussion and melodic instruments. He has performed with David Darling, Mickey Hart, Glen Velez, Paul Winter, Robert Gass, Arthur Lipner, Chris Coogan and other world-class musicians. He leads two ensembles, the Global Rhythm Group and Music for the Planet, and is a percussionist for many other musical groups.
To contact Randy ~
203-544-7085 • rbdrumguy@sbcglobal.net • www.sounddirections.net