Baird Hersey & Prana

Prana is a Sanskrit word meaning: breath, vital energy, life force. It is also a five voice a cappella group who uses their breath to make sound to relax the body, still the mind and open the heart. Their sound is a unique blend of western folk, jazz, and choral music influenced by the music of India, Tibet, Tuva, Mongolia, Bulgaria and Georgia, with a strong emphasis on vocal harmonics. The members of Prana are Amy Fradon, Kirsti Gholson, Baird Hersey, Timothy Hill, and Bruce Milner. Each of them is a respected performer in their own right who join together in Prana to create beautiful rising harmonies, shimmering vocal textures, and high arcing melodies.

Prana was formed by Baird Hersey in 2000 to breathe life into the music from his "Waking the Cobra" CD. Baird and PRANA have performed at a Benefit for The Dalai Lama Foundation, and Omega Institute's "Ecstatic Chant Retreat". They have opened for Philip Glass and performed as a part of the "Gatherings", "Tibet House", Menla", "One Voice", "Woodstock Cycle" concerts series, "The CSO Tsunami Relief Benefit" and many local benefits as well Yoga studios an colleges across the country. Prana has had the honor of giving a personal performance for Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and four pieces from "Waking the Cobra" were used as part of "Live! Light on Life" a performance for BKS Iyengar at City Center in New York City. In 2005 Prana's "The Eternal Embrace" was featured in its entirety for the whole hour of "Hearts of Space", which airs on more than 230 NPR stations.

Since 2005 Prana has performed regularly with Krishna Das. The evenings began with the group performing. Then KD joined them to sing several of his chants over Baird's a cappella arrangements for the voices of Prana. This collaboration was the starting point for their CD "Gathering In The Light". In 2014 Prana released Sadhana, the final album featuring the full 11 voice choir. The next release, Chiaroscuro, in 2016 is with the new 5 voice version of Prana and percussion ensemble Nexus.