uma

     The search for the deep meaning of the word yoga brought Uma to India in 1977. She had been practising and teaching Hatha yoga for many years, and she knew from the very beginning that Yoga meant something quite different than physical exercises.
Uma`s quest led her to various experiences and adventures.
     Her first experience was in Bhakti yoga, living and meditating with a master, Maharaji Hans Raj near by Rishikesh.
     She could also practise Ashtânga Yoga (the 8-branches-Yoga) with Pattabhi Joïs in Mysore for half a year.
     After having spent two years in a Tibetan village in the Himâlayas learning Chinese medicine, her destiny sent her to Vârânasi (Benares) where, unexpectedly, she found that her way was music or even better said, was singing. There, she begun her training in vocal music under the guidance of Dr Ritwik Sanyal, then she went on learning from the late Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and from Ustad Zia Fariuddin Dagar

First listening to Dhrupad singing and then while singing this music genre herself, Uma realised that this was a Yoga in itself or a therapy in the true sense of the word.
Ancient civilizations all over the world have considered sacred music as a therapy, so was it also in India.
Indeed, Dhrupad had been regarded as a spiritual path by the musicians of ancient India for centuries, and Uma had the chance to study this music genre with some of the few masters and teachers who have been keeping the same approach to this music.
The Dhrupad music made Uma stay in India and devote her time to it until now. She has been experiencing the various aspects of this "Way-Music" or Mârg Sangeet as it is called in Sanskrit.
This music can be understood as Nâda yoga.
The word Nâda means the Sound of the origin or Supreme Sound and Nâda Brahman means the Sound as God, the Creator.

    Uma has been living 25 years in India, among those years 15 years in Varanasi (Benares or Kashi, various names for this holy city) where she lives presently. There Uma teaches singing to western students and works as well at the "Kiran centre", a centre for children with different abilities to whom she applies "Sound Therapy."
     In Kashi (Benares) Uma also offers workshops on sound and singing, entitled:
"Kashi-Nâda. A pilgrimage into sound and culture in the holy city of Kashi"
Those workshops include visits of the holy city of Benares (Kashi or Varanasi).
You will be singing facing the holy river Ganges and sometimes even on a house boat on the river! Besides swimming in the ocean of music, you will take a dip into the heart of the Indian culture!
Uma gives workshops and concerts in various countries of Europe: France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Italy.
     Regularly, she has been teaching in Switzerland for more than 15 years at the Zénith Institute formerly headed by the late Sufi master Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan now by his follower and son Pir Zia Inayat Khan.
Uma also teaches at “Terre du Ciel” in France.