St. Louis Festival of World Sacred Music


Imrat Khan (World Renowned Sitar/Surbahar Player) is a leading sitar and surbahar player. He is considered India's leading publicly active surbahar (bass sitar) player.

He has toured to Europe, the Americas, and East and Southeast Asia. Surbahar players are rare today, and Imrat is the main living exponent.

Imrat has four sons, Nishat, Irshad, Wajahat and Shafaatullah, who are all classical musicians: Nishat plays the sitar, Wajahat concentrates on the sarod and Shafaatullah is accomplished on sitar, tabla, and surbahar. The surbahar tradition is largely upheld by Irshad (also a sitar player), who has made some very traditional solo recordings.

Imrat Khan divides his time in Bombay, Calcutta, and London and spends a portion of each year teaching classical Indian music and instructing sitar students at Washington University in Saint Louis. In addition to his sons, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and George Harrison of The Beatles (who also studied under Ravi Shankar) have been some of his famous students.

John Two-Hawks (Native American Flute) is a Platinum Award winning musician whose music has been featured in Emmy Award winning movies, HBO, The History Channel and countless other national and international media outlets. Two-Hawks has traveled throughout the world as a performer. He plays dozens of instruments, but is best known as a virtuoso player of the Native American flute. Two-Hawks' credits include 17 CDs, 4 books, 2 DVD videos, and a movie soundtrack.  www.johntwohawks.com

Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya and his Dance Mandal students practice a sacred Buddhist dance form that for hundreds of years has been virtually unknown outside the circles of those who perform it. This ancient ritual dance dates back over more than 1000 years and is a religious discipline of the priests of Kathmandu, who perform the dance as part of their esoteric meditation practices, ceremonies, and rituals.

Seamus Byrne (Celtic Singer and Flutist) is an international composer and performer of Celtic Christian Songs and Music that are deeply inspiring and soul-nourishing. Born in Ireland, he lives a contemplative lifestyle with the Servants of Love monastic community near the Wicklow mountains. He plays traditional Irish Flute, Whistles and Bodhrán, and his melodic, 'old style' singing is soothing and deeply inspiring. His passion is for the Celtic spirit of the people who lived in Ireland from circa 500 - 1,000 AD. The primitive, ancient wisdom of that era comes across in his style of singing and musicianship which is enthralling and uplifting.

Iya Ashabi (Vocalist) is a 20-year practitioner and head of the Ile Osikan House of Chicago based on the Yoruba-derived faith. She has been a singer at Voudou and Orisha ceremonies for the same number of years including a performance in Lagos, Nigeria. Iya will be joined by St. Louis musician, Michael Nelson, master of indigenous instruments and leader of Bata Inle and the Unity Art Ensemble.

Margaret Waddell (Vocalist) has been studying and singing the chants of 12th century Benedictine abbess’ Hildegard von Bingen’s since 1993. Margaret is a member of the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies and performs Hildegard's chants throughout the Midwest. Unlike Gregorian chant, Hildegard's expressive melodies contain large leaps, with the range sometimes spanning well over an octave. Margaret received her Master of Music degree in Voice Performance (1990) from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Amy Camie (Harpist) is a graduate of Indiana University and has been playing harp professionally for over 30 years. As a classically trained musician, she has received numerous awards for her talent at local, regional, and national levels.  Amy is a songwriter, recording artist, public speaker on “Vibrational Awareness and The Healing Power of Music” and the Founder and Executive Director of the Scientific Arts Foundation, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization that supports the value of creative expression through research, education, and community outreach programs.

Amy will provide a musical and lyrical interpretation of the ancient Mesopotamian myth of Nana and Ningal. This symbolic story represents the process of bringing our subconscious dreams to conscious awareness.   

Alerica Anderson is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer, and director. He began playing in churches at the age of twelve. As a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, he studied jazz and music performance and directed the University's Gospel Choir. While continuing his studies at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, he was asked and became an adjunct faculty member in the music department of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He has performed with both secular and gospel artists including Edwin Hawkins, Walter Hawkins, David Peaston, and Celine Dion. He has also written and produced songs for various gospel recordings, including the Edwin and Walter Hawkins Music and Arts Seminar Mass Choir and the Unified Voices of Southern Mission Missionary Baptist Church.

Ed Francis has combined a variety of spiritual and musical practices for the past 20 years. He has been a performing musician since forming his first rock band in 1966, and continued to perform in the context of rock music until 2000. In that year, he and his circle of friends began to present The Dances of Universal Peace, a musical/spiritual practice with it's roots in Sufism.
 
His other avocation has been radio. After graduating from St. Louis Broadcast Center in 1993, he began his broadcast career with 770 AM WEW. Since 2001, he has been a weekend announcer with St. Louis' NPR affiliate, 90.7 KWMU, at the University of Missouri St. Louis.