Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Cohen.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Mike. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I wandered and stumbled and followed my heart to get to where I am today. It’s been quite a twisty-turny path.
In my teens and twenties, I was a full-time professional saxophonist who studied at Eastman School of Music and they played on the college circuit, in clubs, and on cruise ships, mainly with an African-American singer who sounded a whole lot like Aretha Franklin. In 1994, I left music behind to pursue other interests in politics, higher education, qigong, and entrepreneurship. I thought I was done, but music returned to my life and my heart in my first yoga class in April 2000.
The yoga teacher with whom I studied had lived in ashrams across the globe and was devoted to chanting, which she described as the quickest, easiest and most fun path to spiritual awakening!. I quickly realized that sacred chant blended two of my big loves- music, and qigong (energy cultivation). In many ways, Kirtan (sacred chant from the Indian yoga traditions) is a way to play with energy through music! It is also described as the Yoga of the Heart, and a way to journey through one’s heart to the Heart of the Divine. I fell in love with this amazing practice, and for years chanted and drummed in her band.
In 2005, I moved to a city over an hour away and found myself missing this exquisite practice. On a whim, during a spiritual retreat, I led a few chants and folks loved the practice. That inspired me to begin leading Kirtan regularly and building a local community.
In 2007, a series of synchronicities led me to connect with a brilliant spiritual teacher who was a renowned author, entrepreneur and the first Western student of a profound Indian Guru named Sri Kaleshwar. I dove deep into that lineage, which led me to learn about Shakti (Divine Energy) and engage deeply with potent mantra practices.
All of this came together in 2009 when I released my critically acclaimed debut album and promptly went on the road, sharing Kirtan in yoga studios, healing centers and at festivals across North America.
In 2010, I blended my longtime practice of leadership coaching with Kirtan and launched the Kirtan Leader Institute.
In 2015, I moved back to Colorado (I lived in Ft. Collins from 1996-8) and began devoting all of my time to sharing Kirtan and training students to do the same. These days I tour, play at festivals, share Kirtan locally and am currently working on my 5th album.
Through the Kirtan Leader Institute, I work with chant fans to help total newbies launch their home chant practices and more experienced practitioners share Kirtan with others. This mainly involves helping them learn to chant (which is our birthright as humans) and play an acoustic keyboard called the harmonium, which is a miniature version of a large church organ. Learn more at http://mikecohenkirtan.com/buy-a-harmonium-not-a-headache/
Things have really taken off. This year, the Kirtan Leader Institute is leading 20 training programs (2-4 day group intensives training and, six-week classes and online classes) and hundreds of bi-monthly private sessions. This quarter alone we worked with 150 students- from total beginners to those learning to create full-length Kirtan albums, tour, and play at festivals! We work with students in the domains of music, leadership, community building, spirituality, and entrepreneurship, so we engage in much more than just music. So far, five of our students have released albums, and six more are currently in the studio. We are building the next generation of chant leaders who will chant, lead and serve!
Our tag line is: “Come for the music, stay for the transformation.” Leading others in this profound spiritual practice requires many skills and capacities and demands that serious Kirtan Leaders wake up (spiritual practices), grow up (psychological practices) and clean up (shadow practices) so they can fully show up for self, others and the world. Some of the discourse/methods we use in our teaching include Somatics, the Enneagram of Personality, Ontology, Integral Theory, adult development theory and insights/practices from my spiritual lineage.
Has it been a smooth road?
Ha… this has definitely not been a smooth road! Some of the struggles have been financial, others demanded incredible learning in the domain of methodology creation and entrepreneurship, and yet others were health related.
I was just getting going with Kirtan when the financial crisis hit in 2008. Pretty much all of my private practice coaching work went away, and I felt very lucky to get a job in early 2009 delivering career coaching to employees (from admins to VP’s) who had been laid off by large corporations. It was pretty much miserable work that didn’t pay well. However the work was 100% online, so I could do it from anywhere.
My first album took much longer than expected to complete. And, literally, the day boxes containing 1000 CD’s arrived in the mail I put all of my belongings in storage and went on the road for almost three years. Along the way, I went to India several times, each visit offering magical/mystical experiences as I traveled to remote sacred sites where my travel partner and I were often the only Westerners in the whole town!
In 2010, I returned from a month in India as sick as I’d ever been. I had such a bad case of food poisoning that I was wheelchaired through the airports in Europe and Chicago! What I had was so awful that I received a letter from the Center for Disease control investigating where I contracted this bacteria, and if I was handling food, as they wanted to avoid an epidemic. From about a year, I struggled to get my health back to 100%, and in 2011 while headlining the Toronto Yoga Festival, I was stricken with laryngitis. I literally could not speak for three weeks. Somehow, I managed to to get through the tour, and realized that my days on the road were soon to be over.
Another big challenge has been the collapse of the CD as an income stream. When my first album came out in 2009, there was no streaming, and people bought CDs. Now, that’s no longer the case. Music has become free to access… but it’s definitely not free to create! This has made it much harder for musicians to fund their tours and album projects. I’m grateful I’ve always had leadership coaching and my Kirtan Leader Institute as ways to generate support for my creative projects.
An additional challenge has been figuring out how to teach Kirtan lovers (many of whom have never played a musical instrument) how to chant at home and share this practice with others. The methodology for teaching (i) beginners, (ii) experienced students, (iii) advanced practitioners and (iv) professionals has unfolded over the last ten years in many beautiful, bumpy and unexpected ways. My experience as a professional musician left me over-prepared to teach the folks who truly love this spiritual practice but have never played an instrument. I’ve learned so much from my students, and over the years, I learned how to teach them to chant and play songs from their favorite Kirtan artists without requiring that they learn, read or understand Indian or Western music. We’ve developed an amazing system, and this is giving access to chanting at home (and with others) to many more people than ever.
For sure, there have been many struggles, and I have done my best to embrace, learn from and (when possible) overcome them!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Shiva Datta Music has three functions.
First, we create sacred chant albums.
Second, we create live Kirtan experiences across North America in yoga studios, healing centers and at festivals.
Third, and most uniquely we are home for the Kirtan Leader Institute- the first school 100% dedicated to training and apprenticing Kirtan Leaders in “how to” chant at home and share with others. What sets us apart is our dedication to Kirtan education, which involves teaching chant fans “how to” do this practice. We are a learning community comprised by a methodology, teachers with expertise in the methodology, peers (fellow Kirtan Leaders in training) practice and coaching.
What we are most proud of is the way we meet students exactly where they are and coach/train/apprentice them to go further with a heart opening practice they so deeply love!
We are a full-service school. We help students buy great harmoniums and offer training for everyone- from total newbies to those who wish to tour, play festivals and create albums of original music. We offer group and individual programs both in person and online. This year, we are on track to work with more than 300 students.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Colorado is a wonderful place for anyone with an interest in anything related to yoga. I’m not sure I’d recommend anyone follow the path I’ve taken with my business… it’s been more of a calling than a business. However, if they felt called to do so, Colorado is as good a place as any in North America.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3551 Nyland Way Lafayette, CO 80026
- Website: www.MikeCohenKirtan.com
- Phone: 720-600-8377
- Email: Mike@MikeCohenKirtan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/KirtanLeaderInstitute/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MikeCohenKirtan/
- Other: www.soundcloud.com/mikecohen
Image Credit:
Lucas Zhou, Ben Fullerton
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