Last year’s tribute concert at TreePeople.
Photo of Turiya by Radha Botofasina.
Concert photos by Adam Corey Thomas.
In 1976, Swamini Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda established The Vedantic Center in the Santa Monica Mountains neighborhood of Agoura Hills, later naming it the Sai Anantam Ashram. This 50-acre ashram served as a sanctuary where seekers of all faiths were welcomed to experience sublime teachings on spiritual life.
As Michelle Coltrane has shared, “Sunday services were filled with music, chanting, meditation and my mother’s discourses.” These discourses we a meditation on the transformational power of sound & that by chanting the names of god one could connect to divine consciousness. Music, as the foundation of Turiya’s spiritual practice, was led in epic bhajan sessions where chants were guided by the swirl and pulse of her Wurlitzer organ into uncharted, cosmic planes.
It was around this time in 1977 when an organization of young naturalists calling themselves TreePeople moved into the site of an old fire station further east along these same mountains. Working from the belief that the simple act of planting a tree can carry broader societal effects, TreePeople took root within the 45-acre Coldwater Canyon Park, just down the 101 from the The Vedantic Center. Today, TreePeople is one of the largest environmental organizations in Southern California and are responsible for planting more than 3 million trees in LA County. When the Sai Anantam Ashram burnt in 2018’s devastating Woolsey Fire, TreePeople were on the front lines of habitat restoration, bringing thousands of native plants back into the landscape.
This August 27th, on the night of Swamini Turiyasangitananda’s 88th solar return, we tie these legacies of communal determination together and bring this devotional music back into the familiar scents of coast live oaks and black walnut that first carried the ashram into being. Please bring an offering the evening’s altar & we look forward to sharing this sunset with you.
This evening is presented and organized by Surya Botofasina and Carlos Niño with love and support from TreePeople and Living Earth. This is an evening for living music, for breathing music, with bhajans and progressive sounds inspired from Turiyasangitananda’s devotional music as played by a sun of the Sai Anantam Ashram.
Raised on the Sai Anantam Ashram, Surya Botofasina was mentored from an early age by the legendary harpist, pianist and spiritual leader Turiyasangitananda.
His musical, personal and spiritual growth within the Ashram remains the central reference point in his life. ‘The very core of my being resides and has been cultivated at the sacred grounds of Sai Anantam Ashram,’ he says today. ‘Each value, aspect, place, memory, person, quality, feeling, bhajan, Satsang, energetic representation collectively composes this person.’ As his most recent album’s title indicates, he was and is an ‘Ashram Sun’, and the strong feminine presence of Swamini Turiyasangitananda and his mother Radha infuses how he hears and offers music.
Surya has collaborated with friends and luminaries like Georgia Anne Muldrow, André 3000, Carlos Niño, Nate Mercereau, Shabaka, Saul Williams, Marshall Allen, and Angel Bat Dawid. His work as the Music Director of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers has seen him tour internationally to honor the devotional music of Swamini Turiyasangitananda.
A prolific album Producer, expansive Percussionist, experimental Composer, connector, communicator, Carlos Niño is known primarily for his main project Carlos Niño & Friends, and for his extensive work on André 3000's New Blue Sun. Previously Niño made albums as/with Ammoncontact, Build An Ark, The Life Force Trio, and many others. Niño cites Iasos, Laraaji, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli, Adam Rudolph, Idris Ackamoor, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Yusef Lateef, Alice Coltrane, Airto, Kamau Daaood, Dwight Trible, Dexter Story, Jesse Peterson, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Jamire Williams, Deantoni Parks, Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau, and André 3000 as among his “closest Mentors, Influences, Elders, and peers, all of whom I know well, (or at least met several times,) in this life . . ."
Born in 1973 from the hopes and dreams of a teenager, TreePeople is now one of the largest environmental organizations headquartered in Southern California.
They have inspired, engaged, and supported more than 3 million people to take action for our environment by planting and caring for more than 3 million trees in our local forests, mountains, parks, and our neighborhoods. Through on-the-ground research and educational programs, TreePeople shares knowledge with policymakers, students, educators, and communities around the world.
After fires burn, TreePeople reforests. When schools are covered in concrete, TreePeople creates green schoolyards. When communities experience food insecurity, TreePeople distributes fruit trees. When California is drought-stricken, TreePeople designs solutions to capture rainwater. As the world faces increasing threats from a more hostile climate, TreePeople helps create actionable solutions.