BIG DOINGS IN CHICAGO

Everyone from A.R. Rahman to Mittra Om to Krishna Das is coming to town this spring....




YOGA WORKSHOPS



On Saturday, March 20 I'll be leading a rare Dharma Mittra workshop in downtown Chicago. It's at YogaNow Gold Coast from 1-3:30 and is only $35 ($40 at the door). More details here. It's the only one I'm doing in the city this spring - and it really will deepen your yoga practice.


One of my favorite living ashtanga vinyasa teachers, Lino Miele, above, only comes to town every other year. He'll be at Yogaview April 20-23 for Mysore-style classes from 6:15am-9:15am, and at Moksha Yoga on April 24 and 25 - including a teacher adjustment workshop on the 24th and a Primary Series Full Vinyasa class on the 25th. Students who have trouble doing correct vinyasa (and futz around during practice) are highly encouraged to attend, in order to understand the counting system and how/why to move in an out of the poses with the breath.


Senior Dharma Yoga teacher Mittra Om will lead a workshop called "Entering the Ocean of Dharma Yoga" at Outerspace April 30-May 1. It includes a Maha Sadhana on Saturday, and is only $85 for the whole shebang.







KIRTAN





Suzanne Sterling will do a "Modern Kirtan Exploration Concert" this Saturday, March 13 at 7:30pm at Moksha Yoga; she'll also do a weekend-long workshop Mar 12-14. TiaS and I went last time she was here, and it wonderful. (She's represented by the Yama Yoga talent agency, by the way).

King of the Kirtan wallahs Krishna Das (above) will lead a kirtan with Deva Premal & Miten and Manose from 7:30-10:30 on Monday, April 12 at the North Shore Center for Performing Arts in Skokie (which has a big, free parking lot). If you've never seen him, now's your chance (although there was nothing like having him perform for an intimate group at Dharma's studio back in 2008... or last year at Dharma's 70th celebration, where he said, "I'll do the Krishnas, you do the Rams" and everyone knew what he was talking about). Tickets for this gig are $37. More info here.

The lovely Snatam Kaur will lead a kirtan accompanied by GuruGanesha Singh (guitar) and Ramesh Kannan (tablas) on Sunday, May 16 at 1pm at the Northeastern Illinois University auditorium, 5500 N. St. Louis. Tickets are $30-$55. She'll also do a workshop on May 14 at 6:30 at the Evanston Ecology Center. Her album "Grace" is pure shanti (peace). More info here.










SOUTHEAST ASIAN MUSIC




Ustad Zakir Hussain (above) and the Masters of Percussion hit the Symphony Center on Sunday, March 21 at 7PM. The tablas master has played with everyone from George Harrison to Tito Puente, and I got to see him a couple of years ago with a North Indian dance maestro Pandit Birju Maharaj. Wow, wow, wow! (He smiles when he plays). This concert promises both North and South Indian masters in an acoustically perfect setting. More here.



Black & White: The Sequel, an "audio-visual tribute to the Golden Era of Indian Film Music (1948-1965)" takes place Sunday, May 9 at 6PM at the Meadows Club, 2950 W. Golf in Rolling Meadows. Singers include Rishikesh Ranade, Vibhavari Apte, Jitendra Abhyankar and Savanai Ravindra; it's emceed by Rahul Solapurkar. For tickets ($25 and $50), call 847-566-2029 or e-mail drishti@gmail.com



Grammy award-winning singer and composer A.R. Rahman will play Sears Center on Friday, June 18 as part of his "Jai Ho" summer tour. Bindi and I saw him perform his Chicago debut with a bevy of top-notch playback singers a few years back and it was amazing (his voice sounds a bit like Sting - only more earnest). Read all about it here. More info on the current tour here.