Welcome! My passion is creating music that inspires the soul and nourishes the spirit. I hope my music brightens your day and brings you joy!
This month I am featuring my album, Meditations for the Fast, released specially for the Bahá’í Fast. The album includes the Fasting Prayer, invocation for the long fasting prayer and more…
While I stood on the road waiting for the driver to deliver the duplicated CDs, I was overcome with emotion. The countless hours of love and energy poured into this album and the overwhelming support for its completion moved me to tears. As the driver approached, I blinked hard so he wouldn’t wonder why I was crying! Then I helped him carry the boxes in like a baby in my arms (as you can see in the photo below)! :)
Now we are just waiting for the exquisite deep forest green CD packaging with the gold laser cut Shrine of the Bab gate to be completed. Once all the elements are ready (the CD, the download sticker and the introduction card) I will personally assemble each album package, close each gate myself and place it inside its protective sleeve.
Unique download code for each physical album
I am also happy to share that each album will have a unique download code so that friends without CD players can download all the music digitally.
If you would like to stay updated on the album ‘The Exalted One’ in honor of the bicentenary of the Birth of the Báb, you can join my mailing list here.
I’m excited to share that I just sent the mastered CD to be duplicated at the factory. While I await a sample I will focus on the packaging of the album, ‘The Exalted One’!
Each package will include a CD as well as a unique digital download code to download the full album for those friends without CD players.
We are one step closer….
If you would like to stay updated on the album ‘The Exalted One’ in honor of the bicentenary of the Birth of the Báb, you can join my mailing list here.
The Bahá’í Fast has begun and it is one of the most inspiring times of the year for me. I find that there is a special creative spirit that I love to tap into.
This year, I thought it would be lovely to collect some of my favourite songs and create a Spotify playlist of music for the Bahá’í Fast. I have included many wonderful musicians that I’m sure you will love to listen to.
Here is the link to follow the playlist so that you can listen to your heart’s content (or you can listen below by scrolling to the bottom of this blog post).
Please share with friends you think might be interested in listening.
If you haven’t yet heard ‘Meditations for the Fast’ CD (an album I released a few years ago of my favourite quotations for the Fast, be sure to listen here.
Lofty Notes – Facebook Group
One more treat… Every day of the Fast, I will be posting an inspiring piece of music on my facebook group called ‘Lofty Notes’. I hope you will join me and a community of friends as we nourish our spiritual appetite during the fast!
If you are fasting, let me know how it’s going and what inspires you during this time.
Last year I did a Facebook live video sharing some thoughts on the fast and what inspired my album ‘Meditations for the Fast’.
A few days ago I had the pleasure of singing this Ayyám-i-Há song with friends and families in our community. It was a such a joy to sing together with everyone!
Feel free to use it for your festivities and share with your friends.
19 Days of music for the Fast
* For the 19 days of the Fast I will be posting daily inspirational music from the Bahá’í writings to uplift us during our day. *
Join my Facebook Group ‘Lofty Notes’ to see the 19 daily music posts and feel free to invite any friends you think would be inspired by it too. I will be sharing my own music as well as from talented friends of mine who love to create music.
I had no idea so many people would listen to it! If I had known I would have smiled a little more on the video! I was nervous while singing it as I think it was one of my first videos! :)
I wanted to give you a quick update… we are making wonderful progress!
Over the last month I have been listening to all the mixes for my upcoming album, ‘The Exalted One’. The process has been both exhilarating and daunting! There are a million decisions to make when listening to a song. But I am thrilled that we are one step closer to getting this album released.
Check out the video below where I share how I felt after listening to all the songs one final time…
Thanks again for all your kind support. Can’t wait for you to hear the album soon!
Check out a previous blog where my producer explains the process of mixing and mastering a music album and likening it to baking a cake!
We are nearing Chinese New Year here in Beijing and I’m anticipating lots of fireworks, joyous celebration and the making of jiaozi (Chinese dumplings)!
A quick reminder about the Chinese New Year sale we’re having before the post office closes (last day to order is January 31st). Everything is 10% off for both the music and the crafts!
If you are looking for a meaningful gift for a friend (especially for Ayyam-i-Ha), please check out my Etsy craft store and/or my music page to see if anything inspires you. Use the code AYYAMIHA19. The Etsy craft store already has everything marked down. Please use the code on my music website.
Below is a photo collage of some of the items on the Etsy shop which include specialty cards, beaded bookmarks with inspiring quotations, prayer beads that come with a silk box, Ayyam-i-Ha and Nawruz cards, Greatest Name cards, silk prayer book covers, art magnets and more!
The collage below the craft collage photo is of all my music albums (but does not include my single releases). Enjoy!
I wanted to give you a quick update about ‘The Exalted One’. I am now in the middle of recording the vocals for the final song titled ‘Enable All the Peoples’. It has turned out to be one of my favorite pieces on the album because of the beauty of the flamenco guitar and its Latin flavor.
In other good news, I’m thrilled that we have now started the mixing for the album.
Next month, Daniel, my producer in Colombia, will complete this process. The album will then be mastered by an engineer in the U.S. To be able to create music with so many talented individuals around the world is such a gift!
It’s like baking a cake
Daniel describes the mixing and mastering process by likening it to baking a cake:
“I liken music production to baking a cake. First you gather ingredients (a recipe can be useful, but not required), you place the ingredients together, bake them, and finally decorate. Elika and I have practically finished gathering the ingredients which is the process of recording all the musicians, including Elika’s piano and vocals.
Now we’re ready to start mixing those ingredients. So this is literally the editing and mixing stage where we’ll decide how loud the vocals should be in relation to the piano or guitar…so taste is subjective in this stage. Once fully mixed and baked, the cake is ready for decoration or what we call mastering. Mastering takes multiple songs and makes them sound coherent as one album rather than standalone songs. So when you listen to them back to back one isn’t much louder or brighter or duller than the previous one. Just like a cake could have many layers, but when decorated it looks whole. I hope you enjoy Elika’s delicious cake…I mean album!”
Thank you again for all your kind support of the album.
Look forward to keeping you posted.
P.S. If you haven’t already seen or heard ‘Prayer for Protection’ – one of the songs on the album, watch it here.
If you have heard it, I would love to hear what you think about the piece.
The season of Ayyam-i-Ha will soon be upon us! It is one of the most festive times of the year for Bahá’ís. During these days, Bahá’ís all around the world celebrate by visiting friends, giving gifts and through acts of charity.
For this special occasion I will be making my CD, ‘Meditations for the Fast’, available in a discounted bundle of 5 CDs (they make great gifts). With each purchase of the bundle, I will be adding a free silk prayer book cover as my present to you. Click here for more details.
Until the end of January, everything in my Etsy store will be 10% off including new items (I just added a new set of prayer beads in the color ebony and Baha’i greeting cards for Ayyam-i-Ha or any other occasion) to my shop!
ALL of my music is also on sale until the end of January on my website. Use the code AYYAMIHA19 for a 10% discount at checkout (you can also click ‘Send as Gift’ and write a special note to friends or loved ones).
If you are a subscriber of my blog posts, I apologize for the accidental old blog posts that have made their way to your email yesterday! We have fixed the issue so thank you for your patience!
Wedding Anniversary
January 7th was our 24th wedding anniversary and a friend of mine asked ‘What has contributed to marriage going well for you?’
So I wrote down some answers for her and decided to share them on my blog.
I could spend a whole day talking about this topic… I listed some of the more significant things that have contributed to the progress of our marriage below (not in order of importance):
learning about the needs of one another,
being thoughtful,
paying attention to and giving priority to our relationship,
spending quality time together,
serving and praying together,
learning how to communicate and consult more effectively (we are studying a book about this right now),
learning about each other’s love language (read a book called ‘The 5 love languages),
having a weekly lunch date to check in with one another and plan (this has been especially effective),
having a day date once in a while (setting aside time to go for an outing)
* Of course there are more things on the list but these are the ones that stood out for us.
Resources on Love and Marriage
The subject of marriage is one that is dear to my heart so I made a special page on my website on the theme of marriage and share some resources. On our 10th anniversary we made a booklet called ‘Getting to know you’ – we came up with different questions on varying themes as a way to share more and explore deeper. I share that booklet as a gift download on the page of resources as well.
In 2009 I released an album titled‘Birds of Love’ on the theme of love and marriage to be given as a gift to friends and loved ones.
Birds of Love is a treasury of uplifting words and inspiring songs specially created for weddings, anniversaries and an ideal gift for your loved ones. It includes a diverse five song album from varied sources with five additional instrumental tracks for live performances and background at special events. The album includes inspiring quotations from Abdu’l-Baha, features a famous Bible quotation, ‘Love is Patient’ and song ‘Where There Is Love’ featuring a poem by French author Hentri Matisse and an Apache Wedding Blessing.
As we are reaching the end of 2018, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for being a part of my music journey. I am still marveling at all the loving support I received for my Kickstarter campaign in the month of November.
I’m feeling so very blessed and am now working diligently with my talented producer, Daniel Rinaldi, to get this album out to you in 2019.
Flamenco Guitar
Currently we are exploring the beautiful sound of the flamenco guitar (one of my favorite guitar styles, originating in Southern Spain). Daniel and I wanted to give some of the songs on the album a Spanish flavor. This style of playing is unique so Daniel looked for a specialist in Bogotá where he found Eliécer Martínez. Eliécer lived in Spain for several years just to hone his flamenco playing.
Improvisation
A lot of the style is based on improvisation: the act of spontaneously playing unrehearsed. Daniel met up with Eliécer and improvised the guitar parts in a studio in Bogotá. The result was glorious! The guitar was so beautiful for one of the songs that it ended up replacing the original piano part (I’m so thrilled)! These types of recording sessions rely a lot on trust, prayer and chemistry.
As I reflect on the past year, I feel extremely blessed to be able to compose and record music during this special time in history. And what a blessing to be able to share it with you!
As we approach the last few days of 2018, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for friends like you all over the world.
Wishing you a joyous year ahead in 2019!
As this is the holiday season, here is a cover of the song ‘Mary did you know’ that I recorded a couple of years ago. Enjoy! Click here to listen to the song.
