Kirtan Artists

Dave Stringer went to India in 1990 as a film editor and was transformed by the kirtan he heard at the ashram in Ganeshpuri. “The experience of chanting, which was at first total nonsense to me, was strangely compelling, not only musically but in terms of how I felt—completely ecstatic,” says Stringer. About a decade after returning to Los Angeles, he traded his career in film editing for one in kirtan. “I don’t ask people who come to my kirtans to believe in it. I ask them to suspend their disbelief for a long enough time to give it a go and see what happens.”

Lana is a kirtan artist and yoga teacher based in Toronto, Canada. Lana began her study of Sanskrit and sound in 2004. Inspired by Marla Meenakshi Joy of Swaha, her first kirtan with Bhagavan Das, years of practice at Jivamukti Toronto, and the many traveling artists who shared their music, she began to lead kirtan throughout Canada. She has been teaching Jivamukti and Yin Yoga since 2009, and leads annual retreats. Lana's music has been described as 'a sweet and sultry dose of heart opening mantra music.' Her first album, Invocation, was released in 2013, and her second, Reverence, in spring of 2017. She has had the opportunity to sing and play with Brenda McMorrow, Dave Stringer, David Newman, Girish, Adam Bauer, Mike Cohen, Narada Wise, and many other traveling kirtanwallahs. When not chanting her heart out, Lana works as an actor in Canadian theatre in both musical and classical productions.