Welcome! My passion is creating Bahá’í inspired music that inspires the soul and nourishes the spirit. I hope my music brightens your day and brings you joy!
I will soon be releasing my upcoming album ‘The Exalted One’ in honor of the bicentenary of the Birth of the Báb.
A few years ago I released ‘Rejoice with Exceeding Gladness’ – a song in honor of the Festival of Ridvan. I love listening to this composition: it is in 6 languages and everyone can join in singing the chorus!
The song is a gift to you (please feel free to share it). Even though the link says ‘Buy Now’ you can download it for free (just enter 0 in the amount).
As there were production costs, there is an option for donation. Just enter whatever amount you wish after clicking ‘Buy Now’ on the website.
I have uploaded a video for the Ridvan song that my talented friend Glenn Franco Simmons created of communities from around the world. I hope you enjoy it!Click here to watch it or watch below.
Can’t wait for the release of the new album ‘The Exalted One’ on May 2nd. Stay tuned…
Some friends have been asking for the chords of the song ‘Rejoice with exceeding gladness’ so I am sharing them below. Enjoy!
I am so elated to share with you that my new album ‘The Exalted One’ is now in my hands!
Over the past few days I have been fully engaged in the delightful yet demanding process of packaging the album. :)
As the cover is so intricate, I decided to assemble the packages containing the CDs, the unique code stickers and introduction card myself. Even though this process has been quite time consuming, I have enjoyed every moment of it – especially closing each gate and adding a personal note to every person who helped make this album come to life. :)
Since they are ready earlier than expected I will start shipping them out to the Kickstarter backers first before I make them available on the website.
The formal release date for the album is May 2, 2019, the last day of Ridvan!
I hope you have had a rejuvenating and uplifting 19 days of the Fast. I so enjoyed sharing daily inspiring music on ‘Lofty Notes’ group on Facebook.
We are seeing signs of spring all around which reminds me of growth and beauty everywhere.
Spotify Playlist for Bahá’í Holy Days
As a small gift, I have put together another Spotify playlist (that is also growing) :) of my favourite songs from different musicians for Bahá’í Holy Days.
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.
