Nina Rao

Nina Rao is a kirtan leader and chant artist based in New York whose practice comes from the devotional, or bhakti, traditions of India. She first learned bhajans as a nine-year-old from her grandfather in a south Indian village, returned to chanting through Krishna Das in New York in 1996, and has worked beside him ever since as business manager, accompanist on cymbals and voice, and fellow chant leader. From 1998 she spent nineteen years visiting her guru, Sri Siddhi Ma, in the Himalayan foothills, and she has more recently studied Vedic recitation with a teacher from the Mysore lineage.

Nina treats chanting as a daily practice rather than a performance: call-and-response kirtan, japa, prayers to the Goddess and the Hanuman Chalisa, with care for pronunciation and meaning. She leads kirtans, workshops and retreats in New York, around the United States and in India, often alongside Krishna Das, and every New Year's Day hosts a day of 108 Hanuman Chalisas at Tibet House. She has released three solo albums, Antarayaami, Anubhav and Bhumi Devi, hosts a podcast on the Be Here Now Network, has trained as a hospice volunteer, and chairs Saving Wild Tigers, a charity that protects forest habitat in India.