Dan Blanchard

Greetings DBlanchard86! Happy Holliday season – I want to fill you in on upcoming concerts. If you are the area and are inspired to come, I would love to see you. Also the album releases for “The Heart of Nepal” and “The Spirit of Christmas” are almost here – this Friday December 7- they should be available on iTunes and Amazon and Spotify that day.

This Friday December 7th at 8:00 pm, we will be doing a concert and two album releases in Santa Monica at the Bhakti Yoga Shala (207 Arizona St), for both “The Heart of Nepal” and “The Spirit of Christmas”. Manohar Gurung will be playing percussion and so this show will be more the Nepali folk and festival songs with a couple of Christmas carols sprinkled in.

Next up is a concert in Ojai on Sunday Dec 9 at 5:00pm with Dave Cipriani on Indian Slide Guitar and Leonice Shinneman on Tabla. All three of us are classically trained so this will be Christmas Carols and some of the Nepali songs done in an Indian Classical style.

Finally, very happy to announce will be playing a Holiday concert in Denver on Dec 22. Accompanying me will be Sheela Bringi on the bansuri flute – the combination of santoor (my main instrument) and the bansuri flute is very special, if you are in the area I hope you can make it! We will be joined by Nabin Shresthra on the tabla and Brent Kuecker on the harmonium and bass.

Wishing you lots of love and peace this Holiday season.

Dan

Greetings DBlanchard86! How are you? I hope you have been well. I have been very busy the past six months. Since I finally have a home studio, I completed two albums which I am releasing in the next month. One is “The Heart of Nepal”, this is a collaboration with Manohar Gurung and consists of instrumental versions of folk and festival songs of Nepal. The second is “The Spirit of Christmas”, an album of Christmas songs played Indian Classical style that I have wanted to make for over ten years.

This Saturday November 17th at 7:30PM in Encinitas we are doing an album release and concert for “The Heart of Nepal” at the Jyoti Mandir, which is very close to my heart. When I lived in Encinitas from 2000-2007 I used to play there often and I am good friends with Sundaram and Hilary La Pierre who are the owners. It will be a special night, for the san diego area folks, if you feel inspired to come, I look forward to seeing you there!

On Friday December 7th, we will be doing another concert in Santa Monica at the Bhakti Yoga Shala, for both “The Heart of Nepal” and “The Spirit of Christmas”.

I am also doing a concert in Ojai on Sunday Dec 9 at 5:00pm with Dave Cipriani on Indian Slide Guitar and Leonice Shinneman on Tabla. Details coming soon, please check my facebook page as we get closer if you are interested!

Greetings!  We did a Facebook Live Mini-Concert on Wed Apr 25 at 6pm PST. Manohar and I will be doing some songs from the Heart of Nepal album that we are working on.  Click on the image below to watch a recording of the concert.

In case you didn’t get the memo :), we have a crowdfunding campaign going on for an album of folk songs and festival songs with my friend and colleague Manohar Gurung.  Manohar is a percussionist from Nepal also living here in LA.  We are about 50% completed with the album and we are raising funds to finish the album.  Also, we will donate 5% of all proceeds of the fundraiser and the album sales to charities in Nepal.

I have been enjoying the whole process of selecting the songs, arranging, recording, putting together the crowdfunding campaign including the text, perks, and working on the video.  My purpose is to bring more peace in the world through beautiful music and helping those who are in need and who aren’t as fortunate as I am.

Greetings, Happy first day of Spring 2018 to you!  I have been very busy lately.  Last year I purchased a home in Woodland Hills, CA (a neighborhood of Los Angeles next to the Topanga State Park) and I finally fulfilled my dream of having my own home studio…

Since last year I have been working on a new project with my friend and colleague Manohar Gurung.  Manohar is a percussionist from Nepal also living here in LA.  We are creating a world music album based on folk and festival songs from Nepal.

So how did we come up with this theme?  Well, we played at a holiday party in December 2016, and we included Resham Firiri (“The Silk Road”), one of the most popular folk songs of Nepal.  It is played by street musicians and tourists and sung by hikers while they are trekking through the Himalayas. After the show we listened to more of the folk and festival songs, and they really touched my heart with their beauty.  So we decided to record a whole album, and the rest they say is history…

We are about 50% completed with the album and we just launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to finish the album.  Also, we will donate 5% of all proceeds of the fundraiser and the album sales to charities in Nepal.

I would be touched if you checked out our campaign and if you feel called to contribute and support us.  Click on the image or link below to check it out.  We have a cool video and you can see some images of my home studio.

http://heartofnepalalbum.com