Vocalist & Percussionist, Cantorial soloist, Director of Yeh Dede, and Reiki Master.
"All energies focused on the highest good flow through my actions, hands and voice."
Influences
world musicians- their friends- their elders- their ancestors- and their children.
AS A TEACHER:"Ariella is a professional and skilled teacher and performer. She is very open and willing to share her expertise while supporting your growth as a vocalist.”
-Diana Lynn Wallace, Singer-Songwriter
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"Music connects me to something deep within and simultaneously to something higher than myself. It is my deepest form of self-expression and exploration. It has become my life's practice to share my music through song, both as a teacher and performer."
Ariella always knew that she wanted to make a difference in the world, and that she wanted to be a singer when she “grew up.” Her pathway to getting there – via musical studies, interactions and performance – has been colorful and far from any one tradition, though at times, very traditional.
Ariella grew up studying Jewish Cantorial music as an apprentice to renown U.S. Cantors. Initiating her international intrigue was a trip to Bulgaria with a group of ambassadors to create Passover Seders for the small Jewish community – 5,000 people in 1998 – remaining after the fall of Communism. Ariella then entered OSU's School of Music to study classical voice. There, she founded The MeshugaNotes, OSU’s Jewish A Cappella group, for which she arranged and wrote music in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino. Enticed by things "outside of the box," and wanting to satisfy her need to explore something different, she studied abroad in Ghana with the ethnomusicology department. There Ariella's world opened to rhythm and movement inspired by earth, nature and things other than intellect. She was enlightened that she could have both; music making with complicated compositions and technique, but also connected to soul, the earth, and a wider universal language. Ariella then studied Balinese Gamelan with I Supartha where she played the Suling, Kengong, and sang.
Upon moving to Los Angeles in 2003, Ariella attended drum circles, auditioned for commercial studio projects, and learned to “jam” sans sheet music. This inspired Ariella's creation of Yeh Dede, the Los Angeles women's world music fusion ensemble. In the past 4 years, they've evolved into a reputable world music band, playing venues such as The Getty, California World Fest, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, The Mint, and the 2008 World Festival of Sacred Music.
Her work with Yeh Dede continues to prove strong, as she won the ASCAP Plus award for Independent Artist in the Jazz & Popular Division in (2008). Yeh Dede has released their first full-length CD, “Freedom" in July 2009.
Ariella's founded the vocal music company, EarthSounds, through which she teaches and facilitates lessons and workshops that emphasize healthy vocal technique, while also supporting and encouraging students to connect with themselves through the vehicle of the voice. Essentially, she provides healing work through helping people discover their voices.
Ariella is currently a recording and performing artist, teacher and composer, playing with 4 different bands/ensembles, teaching voice, and looking forward to experiencing her next educational, thought-provoking and life-altering experience.
“I can’t help you,” Semaj replied when Adamas complained, ”because you’re making too big of a deal of this.” “The size of the deal is the rub,” he said, “Semaj, you have a habit of disconnecting a thing before you know what something is, that’s blasphemous.” Frustrated Semaj stomped, “I only voice erased a John Coltrane horn line so I could sing in it’s place.”
"My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it
in my music. If you live it, when you play there's no problem because the music
is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very,
very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my
knowledge, my being." John Coltrane Print cube" border="0" width="325" />
Thanks for checking my stuff out. Nice group you have going for yourself, very cool.
I studied with a Ghanaian ethnomusicologist for about year (www.sowahmensah.com). He was the REAL deal, let me tell you. I also just got back form a teaching residency in Guatemala where I was teaching had percussion and designing some curriculum at an arts college, so I am somewhat fresh and definitely down for getting together and sharing some music. I have some drums in the studio I teach out of (www.TJGdrums.com), or we could just chat somewhere in town.
LOVE IS ... On a rainy night;
swirling with memories of distance and shattered beginnings, two souls
intersected in reunion. Fog lifted long enough for eyes to reconnect before
rain subsided to allow glimmers of recognition, we spoke. Pugnacious strangers
sallied forth through apprehension, emotional triggers and desire, all
minefields booby-trapped with explosives. Illusions
that had kept these souls apart denied rendezvous, denied webworks between
souls. In open sky, above booby traps, beyond abyss, where time and space
defer prowess to notions of zero gravity, two estranged spirits navigated
through chaos and language unclogging ethos, bursting dams, unblocking flow of
serendipity.
Dear Ariella, So very beautiful music; it makes one's heart shine!!! Thank you, for the great honor of adding us into your circle of friends. May Peace be with You Always, ~Our Earth
Ariella: If you ever need a sound bit for J. Otis please say something like: He uses his time to study his culture, his culture to study his time and he encourage other to be equally responsible. I hardy get a chance to miss you dear because you're usually on my heart ticking my mind and singing in my soul. ~J.OP! ~
Ariella: What a wonder quote, who’s the author? Love as sentient force causes me pause but I give “it” power too. Self as sanctuary I understand and love without pronouns or expectations affords hope of dwelling there.
Beyond Beats by J. Otis Powell! Inspiration, euphoria and pain cycle round like seasons Changing subjects, blinding ambition and dislodging Bottom heavy parasols from dandelions to father a future. Wind has no conscious – no need – no foe except resistance. Love is wind - battering resistance Going around what it can’t pass through. Love is subject without objects Revolution between opposing forces Retarded wishes remaking worlds Into realities without pronouns Out of unfolding mysterious distractions That thrive on spontaneity, transformation and nothing Absolutely nothing at all. ~J.OP! ~
I really like the percussion sound mixed with classical voices on una mantika de ruda, is the kind of Dead Can Dance sound that inspires me too. So I will be waiting to hear more.
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