Shama began to focus on music seriously in her life after a major life transition at age 30. She began studying African dance and drumming, studying with West African teacher Ibrahima Carama in Boston for three years. She then studied Afro Cuban drumming, continuing in Hawaii, where she joined a singing troupe led by Lila, which performed original spiritual songs in many languages with African drum accompaniment.

In Portland, Shama began vocal study of Indian Raga music with disciples of Pandit Pran Nath, including Terry Riley, Mashkoor Ali Kahn, Michael Stirling, Rik Masterson, and Rose Okada. She studied in India with some of the masters of the Kirana Ghirana lineage. Through the vocal practice of this discipline, her voice developed both in its range and control as well as in its ability to carry the energy of spirit.

During this time she experienced kirtan with Jai Uttal and Krishna Das, and felt an immediate affinity with chant as a meditative practice.

Shama bought a harmonium and found Spirit teaching her how to play and lead chant. In 2004 she began playing a keyboard, and again felt Spirit guiding her playing and songwriting in ever-expanding ways. She shares her music in chant evenings as well as in New Thought churches and in special events, such as labyrinth walks and solstice ceremonies. In 2006 she joined the shamanic sound troupe Shemaya, which creates improvisational healing sound.

Shama’s music reflects the varied spiritual practices she has studied and embraced, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Mystical Christianity and the Kabbalah. She has studied with several sound shamans, including Frank Coppieters and Tito La Rosa, as well as sound healers such as Chris James. Shama views all these teachings and practices as different facets of the diamond mind. Through any one of them, we can see that all these differences are illusion, and that in truth all is one. Sound is a path which can guide us there.
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