The Brown Foundation Performing Arts Theater at Asia Society Texas Center

January 19, 2013
January 20, 2013

In 2013, the Voices of the Spirit concert celebrating Houston’s rich cultural landscape via select sacred music traditions. Voices of the Spirit III offered two consecutive days of devotional music representing four of our city’s immigrant faith communities. The 2013 program featured Sufi music by Zubair Al Await, Sikh kirtans Bhai Bupinder Singh Paras Ji and Bhai Charanjit Ji, Vietnamese pentatonic choral music by the San Martin Catholic Chorale, Indian Carnatic music with the Bhat sisters and highlife-inflected Nigerian praise songs from Melloh Rhythm.

Bhai Bhupinder Singh Paras Ji and Bhai Charanjit Ji are the spiritual leaders and performers of the shabad kirtan for the Gurdwara Sahib of Southwest Houston. Bhai Paras Ji leads the kirtan and plays harmonium and is accompanied on tabla by Bhai Charanjit Ji.

Melloh Rhythm is a guitar player and vocalist who performed and toured for years with world music legend Femi Kuti. After settling in the city, he formed his own band which plays high-life, juju and soukous for the majority of Nigerian weddings and parties throughout Houston. As musical director for his church, he relies on these rhythms to infuse their evangelical gospel.

Zubair Al Awady is an internationally-recognized oud master who fled Iraq in the wake of the war and after many relocations was resettled as a refugee in Houston in 2009. His repertoire wide-ranging and includes a broad knowledge of Sufi tradition.

The San Martin Vietnamese Catholic Choir performs every Saturday for evening mass at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. The choir has been active there for over 25 years but many members date their participation in Houston choirs to the mid ‘70s, when large populations of Vietnamese fled Southeast Asia and resettled in Houston.

Kruthi & Keerthana Bhat are fourth generation musicians in the Carnatic tradition. The two sisters perform this style of devotional music associated with southern India. Their mother and teacher, Rajarajeshwary Bhat, is a world-renowned master and instructor in this genre of vocal music.