Suzanne Teng

Suzanne Teng, M. Mus. is a flutist, recording artist, composer, and teacher originally from Berkeley, California. She received her master’s degree in music from Boston University’s School for the Arts and after traveling adventures across the globe, furthered her graduate studies at UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology where she completed the coursework for the Ph.D. focusing on music and healing. She is currently based in Los Angeles where she performs with her band Suzanne Teng & Mystic Journey, records for soundtracks and sound recordings and presents music workshops. In performance and on recordings, Suzanne plays C flute, alto, bass and contrabass flutes, piccolo, Dizi (China), Turkish ney and zurna, Indian bansuri, Indonesian Suling, panpipes, recorders, pennywhistles, the Native American flute, ocarinas, flutes from Africa and Eastern Europe and double reed instruments from Egypt as well as percussion and voice.

She is winner of the 2006 International Acoustic Music Awards (Instrumental Division) and the 2005 and 2001 Independent Music Awards (Best New Age Artist), was a finalist for the 2005 Independent Music Awards (Best World Music Artist), the only artist to be nominated in two categories, and her contemporary world music band Suzanne Teng & Mystic Journey has appeared on Music Connection Magazine’s HOT 100 several years in a row. Click here to see Mystic Journey at the Ford Theater in Hollywood.
Her critically acclaimed albums have received nominations for the 2006 Just Plain Folks Awards/Best Asian Song, 2004 Just Plain Folks Awards/Best Instrumental Album, New Age Voice Magazine’s Best Acoustic Instrumental Album and Best Contemporary World Music Album and a candidacy for a Grammy nomination for Best New Age album. Her albums rank among the UK Top Albums in New Age, appear on numerous publication and radio “Top albums of the Year” lists including the Public Radio International nationally syndicated show “Echoes,” and are listed by Amazon.com among the Most Requested New Age albums on the Radio. Billboard Magazine selected her recording “Mystic Journey” as a Critic’s Choice and wrote ” Highly recommended…impressive solo debut.”

Known for creating heartfelt and healing music, Al Martinez of the Los Angeles Times claims “Suzanne Teng plays music for the soul.” She has been commissioned to compose music for yoga and acupuncture videos, including works for well-known yogis Gurmukh and Ana Forrest. The Los Angeles Times wrote that Suzanne's music for the critically acclaimed play Caterpillar Soup "adds a spiritual quality to the production." She performs in concerts, festivals, and dance/movement/yoga events internationally as a soloist and with Mystic Journey. They were featured performers at His Holiness the Dala Lama’s World Festival of Sacred Music and have represented the United States at International festivals in Mexico, Canada and Singapore. Suzanne has performed her flute meditations at numerous major events with spiritual leaders and writers such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Mathew Whyte, and Amachi, as well as for the top corporate leaders of Mexico and the US. She has also been a featured performer at the National Flute Association Conventions three times.

Called a "brilliant flutist" by the Los Angeles Times, she has worked with a wide variety of artists and ensembles including the Boston Philharmonic, Los Angeles Pops Orchestra, Tito Puente, Kenny Loggins, Babatundi Olatunji, Airto and Flora Purim, and The Dramatics.

Suzanne has explained to StayTunedTV the following: "My musical inspiration is anything that touches me deeply and that tends to be heartfelt beautiful medium to slow music made by greats such as Debussy, Miles Davis/Kind of Blue, Hariprasad Chaurasia...Although my parents both played instruments during their youth, there is no other professional musician in my family history.
I love to travel and to meet people from other parts of the world. I love going to parties where there are live musicians playing music from their homelands...and I taught for years at Lark in the Morning up in Mendocino which is a world music camp for adults...people playing all day and all night long, music from Ireland, the Middle East, Hungary, you name it. So...when I create my own music, I draw upon all that has seeped into my consciousness after all these years of hearing so much great music and with my classical background, what comes out is a unique blend of traditional sounds that are familiar yet new.

Suzanne has performed on hundreds of recordings for Polygram, Warner Brothers, Windham Hill, BMG, Shanachi, Scottie Brothers, and numerous independent labels. Select film, television and commercial performance credits include Kleenex, Boston Legal, Pepsi, Johnnie Walker, California Tan, Murder, She Wrote, “300,” Big Bully (Tom Arnold), Separate Lives (Jim Belushi, Linda Hamilton), Baby (Farrah Fawcett), Green Dragon (Patrick Swayze, Forest Whitaker), The Grey Zone, The Kid Stays in the Picture (Robert Evans), Ice Bound (Susan Sarandon), Miss Spider, numerous independent and foreign films, commercials for India, Germany, Korea and Mexico, and an Environmental PSA with music by Hans Zimmer.

She has appeared on national television, including a musical performance on the Survivor II final episode, which was viewed by over 40 million people, and her composition “Fertile Crescent” was featured on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. Her music has been heard on countless radio programs worldwide (ranking #3 on the New Age charts) and she has been featured on Public Radio International three times.

Dann Torres on Oud

She is an endorsed artist for Yamaha, AKG and High Spirit Flutes and is a popular teacher, having taught flute, percussion and world music to many hundreds of students at schools, colleges, camps and workshops throughout the country. She co-facilitates retreats, guiding music circles, most recently in Hawaii and Guatemala. She has practiced yoga for over 20 years, loves traveling, gardening, and hiking and has summitted 19,000’ peaks in the Himalayas. She lives in Topanga with her husband Gilbert Levy and their son Miles.

Mystic Journey co-leader, composer and producer Gilbert Levy was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. With an early love for drums, he purchased his first drum set with the money he received for his Bar Mitzvah. Since there were already 40 drummers in his school program, Gilbert chose to study the trumpet and tuba in order to play in the high school band. His passion for drumming won out though, and he was soon performing professionally as a drum set player in R & B bands in clubs on Bourbon Street and with jazz greats such as Wynton Marsalis.

Gilbert moved to Los Angeles in his 20’s to further his musical career and fell into the world of pop music. After playing in numerous bands and working on several major label recording projects, he grew tired of the Los Angeles music scene and took a sabbatical from music. He then discovered world music after hearing tabla virtuoso Trilok Gurtu and began intensive studies on the tabla with Pandit Ravi Bellare. Gilbert has since developed an ability to play just about any drum he picks up and is a specialist on the Indian devotional drums, the khol and pekawaj, on which he is the primary accompanying instrument for numerous kirtan chanters (devotional Sanskrit call-and-response chanting).

His unique drum kit includes drums from Africa and the Middle East blended with tom tom and cymbals. His musical style blends traditional rhythms with funk and R&B and his ability to create unique drum patterns keeps him in demand as a performer and recording artist. Gilbert has recorded on numerous soundtracks and CDs including the popular MYST game series as well as recordings for world music, kirtan and pop artists such as Jon Anderson (Yes).

The Band (Barry Newton, Suzanne, Gilbert, Dann Torres)

Suzanne; ney, alto flute, dizi; Gilbert; khol, dulcimer, tabla; Dann Torres, oud; Gilbert, bass.

For more on Suzanne visit the Internet site mysticjourney.net/