Keyboardist Uma Uplifts The Soul And Soothes The Heart With New Music

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UMA SILBEY
ALTERED STATES

Termed by the press early in her career as "one of America's Renaissance Women, " Uma Silbey is known worldwide as a popular musician, author, jewelry-artist, healer and spiritual teacher. Her latest recording, Altered States, on which she simply goes by the name Uma, is an album of meditational instrumental music that she composed and performed on acoustic grand piano and electronic keyboards. The album is sub-titled "Music for the Journey Within."

Combining Eastern and Western spiritual practices and introducing them to the mainstream audience in a way that is practical and understandable, Uma (pronounced ooo-muh with a short o sound) became a leading spokesperson for the New Age, traveling worldwide for 20 years to speak and teach, lead workshops and perform concerts. One of the first of the early new age music artists, she recorded her first album in 1981. Since then, she has composed and recorded 17 albums of meditation music and guided imagery, with some of her bestsellers, such as Soul of the Beloved, joining the best new age albums of the year in the semi-final round of the Grammy Awards.

More information on Uma Silbey is available at her website (umasilbey.com). Her Altered States CD on the Airo Audio label - and many of her earlier recordings - as well as digital download tracks from those albums are available at online sales sites such as CDbaby, Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody and many others.

In addition to her music career, Uma is known for bringing understanding and appreciation of crystals into the mainstream, and for having the first quartz crystal jewelry manufacturing company selling to more than 2400 accounts and averaging over a million dollars of sales each year. She is also the author of four published books including "The Complete Crystal Guidebook" from Bantam Books (New York) that has sold nearly 800, 000 copies internationally and continues to sell to this day. Her follow-up book, "Crystal Ball Gazing, " is still carried by Simon & Schuster (New York), and the other two, "Enlightenment on the Run" and the children's book, "Paul and Mary and Their Magic Crystals, " are published by Airo Press. Currently she is working on a new book for Skyhorse Publishing (New York) called "The Ultimate Guide to Crystals and Stones."

Uma has now re-emerged in the world of music with her new recording, appropriately titled
Altered States, and using the ten scales upon which the classic ragas from India are based, but incorporating them, with a Western touch, into a new age keyboard album. This recording is meditative, evocative, deep and heartful. Not only is it perfect for meditation, but also relaxation, healing, massage, reiki, yoga and related practices. Combining melodic structured passages with ambient improvisational sections, the music on the album takes the listener on a peaceful, yet dynamic journey. Some of the tunes are played entirely on acoustic piano, others are completely synthesized, and a few combine acoustic and electronic keyboards. In addition, there are some sounds of nature imbedded in the work.

"A yogi taught me those Indian scales, " explains Uma, "and I was intrigued because they are each meant to evoke a certain mood. So I used them as a jumping off point. I played them in a Western mode, but tried to amplify the moods. Our Western ears are used to expecting certain notes to follow previous ones, but with Indian music you often get a different note which leads to a sense of drama and wonder at what comes next. Sometimes the timing also changes within a piece. All of this helps build anticipation for the listener. If you sink deep into these different sounds they automatically put you into a state of meditation which is my forte."

The album begins with "Invitation" ("gently inviting people in"). Uma says the tune "Remembering" is based on "a scale offering unconditional pure love and devotion, and I was feeling very heartful and nostalgic when I wrote this." Regarding "Voices From the Deep, " she explains that "this evokes deep space, our deep oceans and that place deep within ourselves." Somewhat different is "Mountain, " a "powerful piece with the bass sounding like a heartbeat or a pulse which always reminds us that we are living beings." The recording ends with "Heartfelt" because "I like to bring people back to their hearts at the end of a journey and make them feel good. When you leave someone with an open heart, that is the essence of all healing."

Related to the classical German composer, Christoph Willibald Gluck, and coming from a long line of musicians, Uma was trained from the age of five as a classical pianist. This instruction - coupled with her later training in shamanic drumming and music, sound current yoga, and sound healing - underlies the healing, heart opening and inspirational qualities of Uma's music.

Raised Christian, with a background in art and music, and descending from a long family
line of musicians, Uma has subsequently studied, meditated and taken initiation with Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist masters, along with Native American medicine people. She has practiced Vipassana meditation, kirtan (devotional singing, ) and bhakti yoga, (the yoga of love, service and devotion.) After meeting her Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, and receiving the name "Uma, " she was initiated in "Karma Sange Drolma" (Buddha Tara) by Venerable Kalu Rimpoche and studied the Buddhist Kalachakra and Mahamudra practices. After working with Yogi Bhajan in Los Angeles, Uma took the Bodhisatva Vow from his holiness, the Dalai Lama, and was initiated by him into the Blue Medicine Buddha practices. She has additionally studied mantra and sound current meditation and pranayam (breathing practices), and is a kundalini yoga teacher. Uma worked for many years with Native American spiritual leader Marcellus Bearheart Williams, completed four vision quests, became a pipe holder and an authorized sweat lodge leader, and trained extensively in indigenous healing ways. She also has a B.A. degree from UCLA and a M.A. degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies in counseling psychology. She brings this extensive spiritual background and training to her music, writing and artistic jewelry creations.

Her best-selling and acclaimed musical albums are Wakantanka; Crystal, Colors, Chakras and Sound; Crystal Path; Flying Free; Helios; Watergarden; Healing; Relax; Medicine Songs of the Native American Peyote Lodge; Vision Quest; Voyager; Heart of Peace; Quiet Dawn; Love; Prosperity; and Soul of the Beloved. These recordings vary from all-instrumental to singing and chanting as well as guided imagery set to music. Uma also has joined the Grammy award winning artist Kitaro and other leading musicians on compilations, among them Journey to the Heart, Music for the Spirit and Sleep.

Uma's articles and interviews have appeared in countless publications worldwide, including
People Magazine, Yoga Journal and the Smithsonian Magazine. Her media appearances have been broadcast nationally on over 80 TV and radio shows, including CNN and twice on the "Today Show." Her music has played on some of the most well-known radio stations, channels and satellite networks including Sirius Radio and Music Choice.

"All of my creations, whether musical compositions or symbolic jewelry, have always been specifically designed to help bring you balance, health, wholeness, inner peace and expanded awareness, " Uma states. "Everything changes - our thoughts, our feelings, our bodies, our planet. Happiness seems to come and go. What is lasting and real? We discover that if we go deeper there is an unchanging reality that brings happiness, internal peace and undying love. When we live in this realization, thankfulness becomes as natural as breathing. We become balanced and healed on a deep level which helps us get through the hard times.We exist beyond fear. Creativity becomes our natural expression. Much can help us to experience this state of being -- being balanced and grounded, relaxing and breathing, following teachers, and listening to guiding music. With that goal in mind, I offer my music to the world.”

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