She calls herself a songhealer, and once you hear her voice, you have to agree. It resonates with love and wisdom, and compassion. I first heard her work a decade ago, and used it for meditation classes. Everyone asked what album I was playing. She is simply one of the most powerful and enlightened voices in the conscious music arena. Recently, I caught up with Sophia to do a quick interview:

MM: Hey darling, so what are you up to these days?
CP: I completed my latest recording, my eleventh, on Maui, where most of my musician friends and the studio and engineer I like to work with are located.   I am fortunate to have friends with beautiful estates over there too, and I am grateful for their hospitality and patronage.    This CD, Spirit Healing Chants, features some of the songs I have wanted to do or re-do dating from my first cassette recording in 1978.    One of the songs on that album (Roots & Wings) was Blessed Am I, in a four-minute version.   I had always wanted to extend that into a long, sensual almost hypnotic version, andI think we succeeded in that.   I also always loved a song by Singer/Songwriter Michael Stillwater, Heart of the Mother. I was invited to record a fantastic 50 voice choir for that song, and it really sounds like the Angel Voices, along with several other singers including Michael, who happened to be on Maui when we were looking for a guitarist - and who better!

There is a version of a great song by my friend Fantuzzi - Universal Lover.   He also sings with me on that piece, and offers a powerful invocation to the Divine Feminine. The album also includes some of my original songs. I had the most fun ever working on this project, and I have to give big gratitude to Donny Regal, my engineer, who served above and beyond the call...

What I am getting ready to do now is a few jazz/pop songs that will be available for download. This seems to be the smart way to market music at this time.  This would be a departure from my "New Age" roots, but the music would still be sensual and would appeal to my Tantric fans. I am also singing with two wonderful choral groups, to keep my Alto range strong while I perform gorgeous classical music, which soothes my soul and fills me with harmony and joy. Also, I'm thrilled to have been playing music and working towards the 2012 Quantum Leap, the ascension of this world, with an inspired and insiring couple, Sri Ram Kaa and Kira Raa. I'll be singing with them at Princeton, NJ in October.

MM: Your music is so beautiful, it seems to activate the higher chakras. What's your approach to composition?
CP: Good question! These projects emerge from the cosmic void most of the time, although my Chakra Healing Chants CD was based on lots of research. It was inspired by Carolyn Myss' great book, Anatomy of the Spirit, in which she presented a system of correlation between the Chakras and the Tree of Life, as well as the Seven Sacraments of the Christian Church. Being (more or less) Jewish, and with invaluable assistance from Rabbi Leah Novick, a great Cabbalistic scholar and explorer into the Jewish Divine Feminine, the Shekhinah, I decided to focus on the Tree of Life. Hebrew is one of the potent seed languages, as is Sanskrit, which has a spiritual impact even if one doesn't understand the words. Once I had decided on this concept, I was invited to record a set of crystal bowls by teacher/sound healer Randy Masters, who advised me that there was a disembodied Tibetan Master who told us to start with the bowl tuned to "A" rather than the more traditional key of "C." Then, somehow, the bowls began to sing the melodies to me.  

Since I am an intuitive musician,  without  skill in writing parts out, I listen closely to these things. All the compositions on Chakra Healing Chants came from what I heard in those bowls, with the Hebrew Sephirot, the names of the Divine that correspond to the levels of the Tree of Life, and, in my project, the Chakras, acting quite often as the engine to drive the music.

There is a lot to be said about the inspiration for this recording.   For instance, the Heart Chakra piece was inspired by a Mayan Prayer I learned from a (non-traditional) Catholic Priest: "May the Heart of Earth and the Heart of Heaven meet in my heart, and may your heart and my heart be as one." I added Hebrew to the composition and created a Sufi Dance to go with the song.   So, it is the definition of eclectic...

My album Sophia~Return came from beyond and made me do it! The entire project emerged of a piece, and then it took me two years to manifest the finished recording. It was huge, and my first digital effort - so we could keep recording layer upon layer - ad infinitum almost. When I finally got it so that I loved every second of it, I collapsed in a heap and received what was there for myself. I was blown away to find that it was truly an initiation into the conscious embodiment of the Divine Feminine, and became my deep journey music for years.    With the great performances of Jai Uttal and Bhagavan Das, this remains my personal favorite.  

MM: Tell us about a time when your music brought someone to tears...
CP:  There have been several occasions, but one in particular came when a friend's son was dying of AIDS and she told me, tearfully, that he had requested only my music to be played during his last days. This brought me to tears too.

MM: Do you meditate yourself?
CP: Yes - I have to start my day with meditation. I was intiated into TM back in the early days (1970), and I still do something like that (don't ask my mantra - I'll never tell). I also use a variation of the Microcosmic orbit, which you can find out more about on the 3rd Chakra piece from Chakra Healing Chants.

MM: Have you ever done tantra?
CP: I think I am a natural born Tantrica, and have always considered sexuality and love as the most powerful and ecstatic paths to Heaven. I have also played music for several Tantra teachers over these last decades, including Charles and Caroline Muir, Margo Anand, Kutira and Raphael, and Lori Grace. I have many devoted fans who tell me that they often play my music when they practice Tantra. Even as I write this, I imagine there are many out there doing just that!