Utsav means celebration. Navagraha means nine planets. Tonight’s Navagraha Utsav is a celestial celebration, offering classical Hindustani ragas to bring harmony to the universe. Rita Sahai is an accomplished composer and singer from Allahabad, India who performs internationally and teaches classes in Hindustani vocal music throughout the Bay Area and at the University of California, Davis. She has released five albums, including Meera, which India Currents described as “artful” and “first-rate,” and has recorded with Grammy-winning banjo master Bella Fleck and with Alonzo King, whose album Sacred Texts won the Isadora Duncan award for music excellence. The Vasundhara Choir is comprised of 40 singers of all ages, including many of Rita’s students, as well as guest musicians. In 2010, Rita and her choir performed a celebration of Mother Earth, which the newspaper India-West called “a fabulous performance that created not just thoughts of nature’s beauty, but the experience of nature’s ability to refresh our spirits.”

Singer and songwriter, teacher and activist, Jennifer Berezan has a decades-long history of making music that blends her political commitment and spiritual sensitivity with her inspiring voice and intrepid guitar playing. Her recent album In These Arms, A Song for All Beings, is based on the Buddhist practice of loving kindness and compassion, and features voices from around the world, including 250 Buddhist nuns from Korea, Dechen Shak-Dagsay from Tibet, Katia Cardenal from Nicaragua, Jack Kornfield from Berkeley, and tonight’s host and musical guide, Rita Sahai. 

Visit Rita Sahai's website

Visit Jennifer Berezan's website

Listen to a track from Rita Sahai:

Listen to a track from Jennifer Berezan:

Photo by Irene Young