Bio
Tenzin Choegyal is one of the world’s finest musicians in the Tibetan tradition. As a son of Tibetan nomads, he feels a particular connection to the music of the high Himalayan plateau.
In a career spanning 20+ years Tenzin has performed at festivals across Australia and curated numerous events and concerts including Brisbane’s annual Festival of Tibet. Internationally he has performed in New Zealand, Japan, India, Germany, Bangladesh, Russia and USA, including performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He has also opened many of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Public Talks in Australia, New Zealand and Japan with his musical offerings.
While proudly continuing the unbroken nomadic lineage which is central to his repertoire, Tenzin also embraces opportunities to take his music into more contemporary, uncharted territory, both in the studio and on stage.
Tenzin has nine independent albums, three of them with his fusion band Tibet2Timbuk2, and regularly performs with Camerata Brisbane’s acclaimed Chamber Orchestra. His collaborative albums include The Last Dalai Lama?with Philip Glass, Peradam album by Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith featuring Anoushka Shankar & Charlotte Gainsbourh and the 2021 Grammy-nominated Songs from the Bardo released through Smithsonian Folkways with his longtime friend and collaborator Jesse Paris Smith and Laurie Anderson – a moving interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
An outstanding composer/ performer with a great depth of musical knowledge, intuition and inventiveness, Tenzin continues to bring new sounds of Tibet while strongly holding the essence of ancient Tibetan wisdom. He attributes his art form to the early karmic imprints of hearing his mother and father as a toddler.
Tenzin Choegyal is currently working on a few new music projects and a new album “Dear Ama la” with one of Australia’s finest Camerata Chamber Orchestra.
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/tibet_effect/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/tenzinchoegyaltibet/
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/4C4wNUmOrOgXWI3S3twrl4
Youtube –https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa5HBfu1q27U72CFiFGh6lw
Twitter – https://twitter.com/tenzinchoegyal
Background
Singer songwriter Tenzin Choegyal draws on his Tibetan roots to create original compositions which uniquely express his cultural lineage and the contemporary challenges faced by his people.
Tenzin was born to a nomadic family in Tibet, escaped the Chinese occupation with his family in the early 1970s and was raised in a Tibetan refugee community in Dharamsala, India. There, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama actively encourages his people to preserve their culture, Tenzin first began to explore his musical talents.
Tenzin feels a particular connection to the music of the wandering people of his homeland. He recalls his father’s mastery of the lingbu (bamboo flute) and his mother’s beautiful singing, and attributes much of his musical passion to those early influences.
Tenzin’s award winning songs have found a place in the complex tapestry of global sounds while collaboration with numerous Australian and international performers have allowed him to experiment with rhythm and structure and challenge traditional Tibetan musical norms.
Tenzin Choegyal plays the Dranyen (Tibetan lute) and Lingbu (transverse bamboo flute). His most outstanding instrument, however, is his voice. His music has been described as beautifully evocative, healing, and transcendent.
The Workshop in Tibetan singing
Tenzin Choegyal offers a thoroughly enjoyable workshop which explores the Tibetan style of vocal projection and spans a range of techniques unique to his musical lineages. He draws his inspirations from the wandering storytellers who performed musical parables and homage songs and shares this knowledge of stories told through songs, while leading participants on a musical journey from the joyous to the contemplative.
Tenzin will also share his knowledge in Mantra singing – energy-based sounds which produce vibrations within the universe – was revered as a powerful tool for meditation. The word mantra is derived from two Sanskrit words – man meaning mind and tra meaning to protect or to free from.
Come along prepared to sing your heart out!
Tenzin Choegyal
Tibetan Musician / Festival and Musical Director
Tenzin Choegyal is a Tibetan artist, composer, activist, musical director and cultural ambassador. Born to a family of Tibetan nomads, Tenzin Choegyal was forced into exile in India as his family fled the repression in Tibet. As a child, Tenzin would listen to his mother singing in the nomadic style and he attributes much of his passion for that genre to her early influence. Tenzin channels the wisdom and traditions of his ancestors through his songs. Over the years, Tenzin has a successful international career as a musician, playing at such prestigious events as WOMAD as well as several Concerts for Tibet House at Carnegie Hall, New York.
In addition to his much loved solo performances of soaring vocals and circling rhythms, Tenzin is an avid collaborator with musicians from diverse cultures,traditions and genres. From classical western (with chamber orchestra Camerata of St John’s), contemporary (with Philip Glass) to ancient traditional (with didgeridoo master William Barton), Tenzin embraces opportunities to take his music to uncharted territory both in the studio and on stage. Tenzin has six independent album releases and recently collaborated with Philip Glass on the breathtaking score for the film ‘The Last Dalai Lama?’. With Laurie Anderson, Tenzin is now working on an interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead which is due for release by the Smithsonian Institution in the coming months.
In 2008 Tenzin founded the annual Festival of Tibet in Brisbane, Australia, which showcases Tibetan culture through music, film, art and discussion. He was musical director for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2011 and 2013 and is artistic director of the Brisbane Himalayan Film Festival. In 2015, in his role as ambassador for the Australian Himalayan Foundation, Tenzin travelled to the border of Tibet on the Nepalese side, the closest he has ever come to his ancestral homeland.
Tenzin was musical director for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2011 and 2013 and has written and performed soundtracks for numerous TV shows, films and documentaries. Through his music and cultural activities such as the Brisbane Festival of Tibet, Himalayan Film Festival and Women with Wisdom concert series (Sydney Opera House, Federation Square) Tenzin shares the Tibetan story of what it really means in being human.