June 2024 – Free Concert
Ananda is a group of international male singers and musicians primarily based in Great Britain and Ireland. They specialize in arranging the beautiful and haunting melodies composed by Sri Chinmoy. Their performances feature a range of instruments for guitar, harmonium, mandolin, tablas, violin, keyboard, percussion and vocals. Each of their songs exudes a meditative quality. [1]
The group performs in concerts across the UK and Europe, gracing venues such as Bristol and Lincoln Cathedrals, Glasgow Mela, the Louvre in Paris, the Kunstlerhaus in Vienna, Rydal Cave in the Lake District and even captivating an audience of around 1000 at Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York. Their music has also found its way onto radio stations in the UK and Russia, as well as television broadcasts in Montenegro and Serbia.
Ananda draws inspiration from Sri Chinmoy’s compositions. Sri Chinmoy’s songs and music emanate from a deeply spiritual source. Sri Chinmoy beautifully captures the profound connection between spirituality and music:
“When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest. It climbs up and enters into something beyond. This beyond is constantly trying to help us, guide us, mould us and shape us into our true transcendental image, our true divinity. When we hear soulful music, or when we play a piece of soulful music, we feel a kind of inner thrill in our entire existence, from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined.”
Sri Chinmoy further expresses:
“If we can feel that
It is not our voice,
Not our fingers,
But some reality deep inside our heart
Which is expressing itself,
Then we will know that it is
The soul’s music.”
– Sri Chinmoy
[1] Ananda Music
[2] https://www.radiosrichinmoy.org/musicians/ananda/ or https://www.anandamusic.co.uk/mantras.shtml
[3] Music by Sri Chinmoy – performed Ananda