About Kiva

Kiva is a professional overtone singer/ keyboardist/ teacher and composer. The discovery that she could ‘play by ear’ began her childhood training in classical and eventual college training in jazz piano. This led to a professional career since 1978 in many genres of music, including: pop, rock, jazz, country, R&B and world beat music. From the start, she sang all these genres, being introduced to overtone singing in 1989, initially with Jill Purce in England. This immediately became an obsession, seeking out every resource she could find available at the time. In 1991, she studied toning and color with the Institute of Music, Health and Education, based in Boulder, Colorado, which was directed by world renowned sound healer and author Don Campbell. Along the way, she picked up inspiration from several other sources. In 1995, she was invited to the International Symposium of Throat Singing in Tuva, Russia. As the only female foreign performer, she presented her western style of overtone singing, and was a member of the jury for the throat singing competition amongst the local Tuvans. (She appears briefly in the Oscar nominated documentary ‘Genghis Blues‘ at this event).

She began composing overtone music shortly before the trip to Tuva, while she was a world tour member with Crash Test Dummies (’94). During this 14 month tour, she always spotlighted demonstrating overtone singing. This included a memorable performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

From ’95 on, she continued to evolve her writing, incorporating overtones into her original pop, jazz and world beat material. She released her debut solo CD The Ladder in ’98, featuring many prominent Toronto musicians. Her second solo CD Pulse, released in ’05, further explored world beat music with many of her own variations in overtone singing. It has a strong emphasis on hand percussion of many different cultures.

Some performances of note include:

• KEIKU throat singing festival, Helsinki, Finland 2001

• Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland 2001

• Winnipeg Folk Festival 2001, 2003

• Vancouver Folk Festival 2001

• Bylisfonia Polyphonic Singing Festival, Albania 2008

• Prague Overtone Festival 2009, 2010

She is frequently invited to improvise vocals with well known artists in recordings, live concerts, and in film soundtracks, including:

• Tanya Tagaq (Canadian Inuit throat singer)

• Wimme (Finnish Joik singer)

• Olla Vogala (20 piece orchestra, Belgium)

• Live Ullman (Norway)

• Lisa Walker (Canadian whale song researcher)

• Jennifer Berezan (USA, November 2010)

• Vladiswar Nadishana (multi- instrumentalist from Berlin)

• Yellow Sisters (vocal quartet from Prague)

• Beit Sha’ar (documentary premiere at 7th Dubai International Film Festival, December, 2010, jury honorable mention)

Kiva has been teaching overtone singing globally in workshops and privately since 1991. She has developed most of her teaching methods and progressive style on her own through experimentation and extensive world travel. More recently, she has received inspiration from working closely with overtone singers/ teachers Wolfgang Saus and Stuart Hinds.

Since relocating to Prague in 2008, she has been heavily involved with overtone choirs, belonging to two such choirs (Spektrum, European Overtone Choir) and a pop music choir, International Choir of Prague, as a tenor. She directs her own overtone choir Auralia, in which she composes and/ or arranges all the repertoire. The European Overtone Choir premiered three of her compositions with award winning conductor Prof. Steffen Schreyer.

Her musical influences include:
Bobby McFerrin, Lisa Gerrard, Yma Sumac, Sheila Chandra, Jane Siberry, Christian Zehnder, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Bulgarian folk music, Tuvan folk music, Indian classical music