By turns evocative, haunting, and pulsating with energy, Chaula Hopefisher's new CD, Multi-Colored Chant, celebrates integration and spiritual connection. A collection of both original and ancient prayers and chants from diverse spiritual traditions, Chant seamlessly blends an astonishing array of musical and religious lineages, languages, and styles. Accompanied by a line-up of talented musicians, including slide guitarist David Tronzo, vocalist Vikki True, drummer John Hollenbeck, saxophonist Erik Lawrence, and multi-instrumentalist vocalist Bobby Sweet, Multi-Colored Chant is entirely engaging.

Musician, composer, teacher, poet, athlete, Yoga instructor and ordained minister, Chaula Hopefisher received her degree in music education from, Jersey City State College in 1980. She performed and taught music in New York City for many years, headlining the eponymous "Hope Fisher Jazz Quartet" and the a cappela quartet "New Voice of Hope." Initiated to the path of Sanatana Dharma by Yogi, Amrit Desai in 1992, Chaula spent several years at the Kripalu ashram in Lenox, Massachusetts. She became a minister in the Universal Life Church in 1994.

Chaula launched her company, Chaula™ Yoga & Music, (CYM) in September 1999 to facilitate her commitment to the work of integration through the arts and ancient Yogic teachings. The company provides inspirational entertainment, activities, and special events for conferences, corporations, and nonprofits. Sometimes Chaula is the performing artiste facilitator, or teacher, and she frequently also acts as events planner, producer, and booking agent. The September launch date for Chaula™ Yoga & Music was chosen to coincide with the release of CYM's first audio release, a music CD entitled Multi-Colored Chant.

Audrey Levin McLaughlin: The word 'integration' seems central to your life and your work. What do you mean when you speak about integration?

Chaula Hopefisher: Whether I'm doing art or music or Yoga, and whether it's with my friends or in the art community or at work, my role is always that of integrator. That's how I function. During my time in New York I was a musician for a living; and an athlete for an avocation; and I was interested in personal growth and I did a lot of reading and therapy and recovery… I had all these different things going on and they were all on separate tracks. Today my work gives me an opportunity to pull all those things together into one integrated lifestyle so that my job and my outlook and my values and my spiritual practice and my creativity have all come together.

The surface activity can be performing a concert or leading a Yoga class, guiding a work-group retreat or a writing workshop, but what is really happening underneath is that I'm providing a venue for personal and spiritual connection and healing. Even if I was to drive a cab, this is what I would be doing, because it is my life's mission to promote healing and integration by creating beauty and connectedness.

ALM: How does Multi-Colored Chant reflect your commitment to integration?

CH: It's easy to see this in the music. The CD is eclectic. There's world beat, there's jazz, there's traditional Indian; all different types of musical styles, all different kinds of instrumentation and vocal styles. The text is mostly prayer or worship songs from different wisdom traditions. What ties them together is the aspect of devotional experience, which can be accessed through the five senses.

I grew up Catholic, and when I was very young, before I understood what religion was, I would go to church and I would have devotional experiences, like saying the rosary in front of the Virgin Mary. But then when I was old enough to go to Sunday school they just wanted me to memorize stuff, like this is my duty as a Catholic and if I don't do this I'm gonna go to hell… and sex is dirty, and other people are wrong and all the other religions are wrong. It totally turned me against religion.

But I still wanted the devotional experience. That was a major influence on my choice of music as a career because when I was a teenager I would go to rock concerts and people would jump out of their seats and clap their and dance and it was like this huge energy experience. I see now that it was actually a religious experience. That need to jump out of your seat and clap and be connected with other people in a big group energy experience; that's actually a fundamental urge of human beings. We need to have that experience.

I went without any religion for a long time and about 15 years ago I started looking for God again. I went to so many different places; the Church of the Science of Mind, Marble Collegiate Church, Vipassana meditation, and Zen Buddhism. I went to a lot of black churches because I really enjoyed the ecstatic worship music experience. I was looking for the one church where I could have the definitive religious experience… great devotional music, group worship, and inclusion.

What I learned from all those years is that there is no place like that. The closest I came to it was when I went to a yoga ashram and was initiated into the path of Santana Dharma, which means the "eternal truth." That's the closest I got to a religion that is all-encompassing, to the belief that we all worship the same God. Everything is God and everyone is God, and all the experience that we receive in a day is God. For me the healing was coming around to that, to where I could find a spirituality that would include and integrate all experience. And I loved the chanting. The chanting sucked me in. So what I've tried to do with this CD and with my chanting performances is to create an integrative devotional experience. For me personally it's the intersection between my spiritual life, my Dharma as an integrator and teacher, my love of music, my love of God ... all those things come together in Chant.

ALM: And in your business, too? What inspired you to create Chaula™ Yoga & Music?

CH: I wanted to share spiritual teachings in a fun, informal way. People come together for workshops and seminars and they have an enjoyable experience, they relax. My work involves giving permission to people to relax about who they are. One of the easiest vehicles for doing that is music, because it's fun. Also, because it's a breathing exercise it induces relaxation and inspiration. Entrainment, the thing that makes a school of fish swim all together or a flock of birds all fly off at the same time, also comes into play. People entrain to one another and once they do that they're very receptive. First they open to each other, and then they open to themselves.

And because timeless spiritual teachings can come off a little heavy, I offer a lot of humor and jokes and sloppiness and just me being who I am. I'm irreverent because the point is, it's all God. People say wow, she's not afraid to say she believes in God; she's not afraid to cry in front of us; she's not afraid to be a big, loudmouthed, imperfect, vulnerable human. And that gives them permission to be fully human too.

For bookings or information:

Chaula™ Yoga & Music
PO Box 2008
Pittsfield, MA 01202-2008
413-637-3641
800-730-3191
http://www.chaula.com
Email: chaula@chaula.com

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