The Singing Heart offers workshops and performances with Rajeswar Bhattacharya and Suekali.

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Rajeswar Bhattacharya is one of the most renowned performers of the songs of Rabindranath Tagore in the world today. Tagore, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1913 wrote over 2500 original songs about all aspects of life. Some of the tunes are based on folk music he collected from Scotland, Ireland and England as well as classical raga. Rajeswar was born in Kolkata, West Bengal in India in 1943 and so has been singing and teaching for over 50 years. He studied with renowned classical performers such as Rashid Khan, and Malabika Kanan, and specialises in making Indian classical music and songs of Bengal accessible to people who would not normally benefit. So in Bengal, he teaches groups of slum children and villagers and is president of a school for children with learning disability. In the UK and other European countries, he has a remarkable skill to enable westerners to enter the ‘mood of the raga’, to open their hearts, and to find a voice from the deepest parts of themselves.
“When I first heard Rajeswar I felt I had come to my musical home - here was an experience of bliss, love, freedom, acceptance and above all, deep union with spirit.” (Rachel Douglas, violin maker)

Suekali helps mediate Rajeswar’s teaching and offers workshops and lessons of her own – ‘Song of the Yearning Heart’ that combine Indian raga with First Nature body and breath work (a unique approach that embraces the physical, energetic and spiritual dimensions of voice) together with songs from different spiritual traditions. “Thank you again for your wonderful workshop, it made me discover a whole new realm of music and, most of all, made me feel the connection between sound and soul” (Oanna, workshop participant).

Suekali is passionate about finding ways to integrate the essence of traditional forms of sacred music into our own bodies and current lives. Suekali is based in Brighton, has studied with Rajeswar for 20 years and is deeply inspired by the wandering mystical minstrels, the Bauls of Bengal. She was trained in western classical music and currently tours with a rock band in Europe that seeks to embody the spirit of the Bauls in western form.