Yungchen Lhamo
is a Tibetan singer-songwriter living in exile in New York City. She
has won an Australian Record Industry Association award (ARIA) for best
Folk/World/Traditional album, and was then signed by Peter Gabriel's
Realworld Record label.
She has performed with Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and has sung
duets with Natalie Merchant on Ophelia. She collaborated with Annie
Lennox on her latest CD Ama. Lhamo's recordings have been used in "Seven
Years in Tibet" and many Tibetan documentaries.
Lhamo has toured extensively throughout the world, singing
unaccompanied, a combination of songs of her own composition and
traditional Buddhist chant and mantras. She has performed with artists
including Natalie Merchant, Annie Lennox, Billy Corgan, Peter Gabriel,
Bono, Sheryl Crow and Michael Stipe. She has performed in the Lilith
Fair Festival and toured widely as a part of the WOMAD World music
festivals.
Lhamo's name means "Goddess of Song" - a name given to her by a Lama
soon after she was born near Lhasa. Yungchen fled Tibet in 1989. She has
made pilgrimage to Dharamsala, to receive the blessings of the Dalai
Lama (where he heads the Tibetan Government in Exile). She was inspired
to reach out to the world through her music; to share the great beauty
of her culture and spread understanding about the situation in Tibet.
She moved to Australia in 1993, then to New York City in 2000.
Lhamo's Australian debut album Tibetan Prayer, produced by John Prior,
won the ARIA Music Awards for best Folk/World/Traditional Music release
in 1995. She is the first Tibetan singer to win a prestigious music
industry award. The success of that record led to her signing with Peter
Gabriel's Real World label. Her first record for the label, Tibet,
Tibet, mainly features a cappella renditions of original
compositions—authentic Tibetan Buddhist prayers and songs. Her next
recording, Coming Home, was a collaboration with producer Hector Zazou,
showcasing her voice, and also featuring chanting by Tibetan monks, a
wide range of mostly modern Western instruments, and the benefits of
multi-track recording, enabling Lhamo's voice to be layered repeatedly.
On November 20, 22 and 24 2007 at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Yungchen
accompanied a site-specific dance work 'Walking The Line' by American
choreographer Bill T. Jones. This performance, with solo percussion by
Florent Jodelet, took place in one of the museum's locations (the
one-hundred meter perspective) stretching from the Winged Victory of
Samothrace, to the Renaissance Arch (from the Stanga Palace) in which
the celebrated sculptures The Dying Slave and The Rebellious Slave
(c1513) by Michelangelo are exhibited. Yungchen has also performed at
other venues such as London's Royal Festival Hall, New York's Carnegie
Hall, and Berlin's Philharmonic Hall.
Lhamo's album Ama (which means Mother in the Tibetan language) was
released in April 2006 and was produced by Iranian-American musician
Jamshied Sharifi. Featured artists include Annie Lennox and Joy Askew.
Recently, Yungchen’s music has earned her recognition by the Province of
Genoa, Italy as a “Messenger of Peace” and she was awarded the title of
“Ambassador of Culture.”
She is currently working on a new album with Jonathan Elias and guests
on his forthcoming Prayer Cycle 2: Path to Zero (due May 2011). is a
Tibetan singer-songwriter living in exile in New York City. She has won
an Australian Record Industry Association award (ARIA) for best
Folk/World/Traditional album, and was then signed by Peter Gabriel's
Realworld Record label.
She has performed with Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and has sung
duets with Natalie Merchant on Ophelia. She collaborated with Annie
Lennox on her latest CD Ama. Lhamo's recordings have been used in "Seven
Years in Tibet" and many Tibetan documentaries.
Lhamo has toured extensively throughout the world, singing
unaccompanied, a combination of songs of her own composition and
traditional Buddhist chant and mantras. She has performed with artists
including Natalie Merchant, Annie Lennox, Billy Corgan, Peter Gabriel,
Bono, Sheryl Crow and Michael Stipe. She has performed in the Lilith
Fair Festival and toured widely as a part of the WOMAD World music
festivals.
Lhamo's name means "Goddess of Song" - a name given to her by a Lama
soon after she was born near Lhasa. Yungchen fled Tibet in 1989. She has
made pilgrimage to Dharamsala, to receive the blessings of the Dalai
Lama (where he heads the Tibetan Government in Exile). She was inspired
to reach out to the world through her music; to share the great beauty
of her culture and spread understanding about the situation in Tibet.
She moved to Australia in 1993, then to New York City in 2000.
Lhamo's Australian debut album Tibetan Prayer, produced by John Prior,
won the ARIA Music Awards for best Folk/World/Traditional Music release
in 1995. She is the first Tibetan singer to win a prestigious music
industry award. The success of that record led to her signing with Peter
Gabriel's Real World label. Her first record for the label, Tibet,
Tibet, mainly features a cappella renditions of original
compositions—authentic Tibetan Buddhist prayers and songs. Her next
recording, Coming Home, was a collaboration with producer Hector Zazou,
showcasing her voice, and also featuring chanting by Tibetan monks, a
wide range of mostly modern Western instruments, and the benefits of
multi-track recording, enabling Lhamo's voice to be layered repeatedly.
On November 20, 22 and 24 2007 at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Yungchen
accompanied a site-specific dance work 'Walking The Line' by American
choreographer Bill T. Jones. This performance, with solo percussion by
Florent Jodelet, took place in one of the museum's locations (the
one-hundred meter perspective) stretching from the Winged Victory of
Samothrace, to the Renaissance Arch (from the Stanga Palace) in which
the celebrated sculptures The Dying Slave and The Rebellious Slave
(c1513) by Michelangelo are exhibited. Yungchen has also performed at
other venues such as London's Royal Festival Hall, New York's Carnegie
Hall, and Berlin's Philharmonic Hall.
Lhamo's album Ama (which means Mother in the Tibetan language) was
released in April 2006 and was produced by Iranian-American musician
Jamshied Sharifi. Featured artists include Annie Lennox and Joy Askew.
Recently, Yungchen’s music has earned her recognition by the Province of
Genoa, Italy as a “Messenger of Peace” and she was awarded the title of
“Ambassador of Culture.”
She is currently working on a new album with Jonathan Elias and guests
on his forthcoming Prayer Cycle 2: Path to Zero (due May 2011).