Spirit Voyage

Sri CD by Shantala is spiritual music with Sanskrit mantras perfect for yoga music and meditation. Sri is the long-awaited follow-up to The Love Window, the beloved chanting CD from Shantala with Benjy & Heather Wertheimer. Benjy`s exquisite Indian classical music is featured in his vocals, esraj and tabla, as Heather leads sacred chants with ethereal vocals from the heart of devotion. Guests on Sri include Krishna Das, Snatam Kaur, Steve Gorn, Manose, Jami Sieber, John Friend and Michael Mandrell.

An award-winning musician, composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist equally accomplished on tabla, congas, percussion, esraj, guitar, and keyboards, Benjy Wertheimer has toured and recorded with such artists as Krishna Das, Deva Premal and Miten, Jai Uttal, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, virtuoso guitarist Michael Mandrell, and renowned bamboo flute master G. S. Sachdev. He has also opened for such well-known artists as Carlos Santana, Paul Winter, and Narada Michael Walden. Benjy is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed world fusion ensemble, Ancient Future.

Beginning his musical studies at age 5, starting with piano and later violin and flamenco guitar, Benjy received training in Keyboard Improvisation at the University of Colorado and in Composition and Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington. In addition, he has studied Indian classical music for over 25 years with some of the greatest masters of that tradition including Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan and Z. M. Dagar, and was, along with the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, a contributing composer and member of the Zakir Hussain Rhythm Experience.