If you or someone you know would be interested in being one of the “featured artists,” please contact talktome@bahaisingingproject.com.  Please put "featured artist" in the subject line.  The selection committee will require the following to aid in the creation of the upcoming training sessions:

1.    A recommendations (email, telephone or written) from at least one person – other than the prospective featured artist AND not married to, parents of, or offspring of the prospective featured artist – about someone that is providing sing-alongable and catchy songs appropriate for use in the Baha’i Community.  (We love you all, but we need some detachment on both ends.)
2.    Listening samples of some sort of the prospective featured artist’s sing-along compositions so that the committee can determine appropriateness for the upcoming training session.  These do not have to be “produced.”  (We’ve got to like them at least a little bit.)
3.    A short bio concentrating on the kind of musical service the prospective featured artist provides his/her community, so that the selection committee can create a balanced program.  (We endeavor balance within lots of cultural tastes and requirements.)

Questions, comments?  Just ask (talktome@bahaisingingproject.com).  Building the Baha'i community through singing together!

2009

ERNESTINE ATKINS

Ernestine Atkins, an African-American Bahá’í from St Louis, was an amazing woman, with a profound love of Bahá’u’lláh and His teachings. Her rich gospel voice was not her only gift, however. She had the unique ability to set the sacred Writings she loved to music. In addition to writing singable melodies, she wrote harmonies and arrangements that choirs still use. Ernestine was a frequent musician in residence at Louhelen Bahá’í School and a generous soul, loved by all.  Ernie passed away last year (2008) leaving behind a rich legacy of music. Her brother, Solomon Atkins, has created “The Ernestine Atkins’ Foundation for the Creative Arts” to honor that legacy.  To listen to some of Ernestine’s music or to learn more about her service at Louhelen, go to http://www.louhelen.org/ernie.html

RANA CHANG

Born and raised in a small town near Kalamazoo, Michigan, Rana enjoyed playing show tunes on the piano as a child, learned to drum from feminists and pagans, found the Faith in San Francisco and is now in the process of composing the epic work long awaited by all the world, "Dawnbreakers, the Musical"!  By day, Ms Chang is a lawyer in San Francisco.  The songs in this collection are a combination of her own composition and others that she has found particularly amenable to group singing.   She can be contacted at rana_chang@yahoo.com

BARB SHANKS QUALLS

Barb Qualls has been singing and teaching for over 30 years. Whether working with children, youth or adults, she’s known for using the arts to help connect hearts with the Bahá’u’lláh.  One of the ways she does this is by setting the sacred Writings to music to create singable songs. Her current CD is entitled King of Days. She is working on material for a new CD and is in the process of re-releasing The Victory (her 1988 cassette) as a CD. Barb and four youth performed her song “Speedy Growth” at the recent Regional Bahá’í Conference in the Chicago area.  When she’s not writing, teaching or performing, she lives at home in Bloomington IN with her husband, Andy, and their teenage daughter, Cassie.  You can contact her at bbq@bluemarble.net.

2008

JEAN TSCHOHL QUINN

Baha’u’llah changed Jean Quinn’s limited piano-playing experience into real skill through His grace and through playing every Sunday for a Baha’i Family School for several years.  She even gets actual paying gigs now!  Her experience at the South Bay Regional Baha’i Center in San Jose also completely changed the way she approaches music.   It is all about service to Baha’u’llah.  And that’s why she has created this conference:  Communal singing underlies a group’s identity, an individual’s ability to remember, the fundamental need for creating sound together.  Jean tries to put the hee-hee-hee in Ruhi and the FUN in the Fundamental Verities. She now resides in Aptos, California with her husband Mike and three daughters, Emily, Charlotte, and Moriah.  A mathematician by degree, she’s been on her six-month maternity leave for over 20 years.  Check out the CD “323 Direct References to God” (an all Scriptural resource) at http://cdbaby.com/cd/jeantquinn.  Feel free to contact her at jmtq95@gmail.com.  Allah’u’Abha!

NANCY WATTERS

Canadian-American chanteur Nancy Watters. M.A., founded the Sacred World Song Project in 2005 so that people could experience the exquisite beauty of communal, devotional chant from around the world.  A growing network of people from many spiritual paths now come together to use musical energy for healing, spiritual transformation and building interfaith understanding.  Nancy has spent over a decade studying chant first-hand with Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Indigenous peoples, Jews and Sufis. She is a long-standing, ardent Bahá'í who travels widely giving “chantshops”, devotional concerts and private sound healing sessions. Her presentations feature beautiful, melodic, world chants in nine languages, accompanied by sonic tapestries created with Tibetan singing bowls, native and African drums, flute, dulcimer, ektara and other world instruments. Her CD, Joyful Tidings of Light, is a collection of spirit-kindling compositions, inspired by the world-embracing vision of Bahá’u’lláh.   Explore her website at www.sacredworldsong.com   Contact her directly at nancy@nancywatters.com

DR. RAMINE YAZHARI

Dr. Ramine Yazhari lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon with his wife Beth and their two children Mark and Julia.  He is an emergency room physician at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon.  Ramine has written music since high school and began concentrating on setting the Holy Writings to music in college. When the idea for this conference was first put forth, Ramine’s name was the first to be considered.  His enthusiasm for music and composition in service to Baha’u’llah has excited and ignited countless Baha’is throughout the Western States.  If you’d like to contact him, please do at ryazhari@comcast.net.