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Be carried away on wings of music. Beautiful and mystically enchanting pieces will be performed on cello and piano by Keshava Betts and Todd Billingsley. The concert includes selections from The Mystic Harp, Songs of Divine Joy, adaptations of sacred chants by Paramhansa Yogananda, some classical gems for the first time, and much more. More musicians may join the festivities, too. But this will be a rare chance to listen to our most gifted instrumentalists share the sensitivity of their musical expression with us.

Keshava Betts studied cello for many years with professional performing artist David Eby. He is also a gifted tenor, with long experience as a vocal soloist in stage productions and concerts. His sensitivity in interpreting Swami Kriyananda’s compositions comes through his cello as if it, too, were a human voice. One feels the devotional vibration of cello almost as if the bow were being moved across our own hearts.

Todd Billingsley started his musical training at age 7 as a student of pianist Cheryl Leder at the Neighborhood Music School, and as a soprano in the Trinity Church Boy Choir. In high school he began to focus on jazz improvisation with George Raccio at the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven. His abiding interest in jazz led to study with Steve Brown and Rick Beato in the jazz performance program at Ithaca College School of Music, where he continued his classical studies with concert pianist Mary Ann Covert. Todd then moved to New York City to join percussionist Attila Engen and his New World Orchestra which debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1993. Since moving to California in 1997, Todd has been working as a solo jazz performer in the Bay Area, church organist, and as the resident accompanist with Palo Alto High School’s choral and musical theater departments.