About Us
Svara in Sanskrit means manifest sound, voice, or tone, and Sangha means community.
Svara Sangha (a community of manifest voices) will specialize in non-denominational spiritual music suitable for a variety of ritualistic contexts, including public and private performances in unique settings, religious services, weddings, bedside of the dying, funerals, yoga and meditation classes, breath work sessions, and other similar spiritual or sacred gatherings.
These “musical rituals” will include unique covers of known chants and songs, as well as original compositions co-created by the group. The intention is to create in each setting a sacred and transformational experience thru beautiful, transcendent music that features the human voice.
We intend to also record our work (digital albums, videos, and VR experiences) to aid and inspire others on their spiritual journeys around the world.
The ensemble is designed to be flexible, performing in various configurations: as a full mixed-gender octet, as a women-only or men-only quartet, or split into smaller mixed-gender groups.
Rehearsals will be weekly and performances monthly. The group will operate on a hybrid model of compensation—some performances will be paid, while others will be volunteer-based depending on the context.
Examples of the style of music the group will sing can be found on Spotify:
Kevin Mayes
Musical Director
Kevin started his first musical group in high school, an a cappella doo-wop quintet called The Ramblers. At Yale University, where he double-majored in music and theater, Kevin was the musical director of The Yale Alley Cats and The Yale Whiffenpoofs. He was also the founder and musical director of the Chicago-based spiritual vocal quartet, 4Now. He’s musically directed shows at a number of theaters, including The Living Theater and Lincoln Center in New York City, and Bailiwick Repertory in Chicago, where he also served as Artistic Director for 5 years. He’s led music for services at Unity of Chicago and many other Unity churches in Illinois and Michigan.
The Group
Angeline Marsland
From a very young age, Angeline's life has always been uplifted by music. Whether singing, dancing, or playing an instrument, the healing forces of sound have been a palpable force in her life and ancestry. After spending years of travel around the world to heal through intentional ceremonies and practices, Angeline has found a home in utilizing the arts to express, integrate, and steward growth. At age 20, Angeline began diving into a formal relationship with piano and music, and at age 22 she connected with a vocal mentor that trained Angeline for 5 years in the synergy of somatic therapeutics, Qi Gong, and technical vocal study. Since then Angeline has studied Western classical styles, Turkish folk and devotional music, North Indian classical and raag, jazz improvisation, Eastern European folk music, and healing Icaros. Her path and mission is to steward cultural heritages while working through the arts to promote wellness and integration for herself and others. She is currently pursuing an interdisciplinary degree in contemplative art-therapy and trauma-informed psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Outside of music, she also serves as a professional astrologer, visual artist, and writer.
Akemi
Osajima
Akemi Osajima (Akemi Alchemy) is a fourth-generation Japanese American vocalist, songwriter, visionary artist, and creative facilitator. Her work is rooted in deep somatic awareness, and is shaped by her family’s (including her father’s) incarceration in WWII concentration camps and subsequent fight for reparations: she sings to liberate the body at a cellular level. As a vocalist, she draws on eight years of classical and contemporary vocal training, integrated with somatic practice rooted in her ancestral Buddhist lineage and trauma-informed mindfulness. Her songwriting centers mantra and melody as tools for grounding and resilience, culminating in her 2025 debut EP Flow Lines.
Before returning to her original calling, Akemi spent many years in nonprofit civic engagement, until the 2016 election prompted a wake-up call to seek more transformative change. Explorations in plant medicine, Buddhist meditation, raving, and creative collaboration with her UCLA a cappella family freed her body, reawakened her artistic voice, and grew her understanding of creativity as world-building work. She now lives within Cooperative Roots, a sustainable housing cooperative in Berkeley, works closely with the Asian Diaspora jam community, and produces intergenerational concerts, open mics, and mutual aid spaces across the Bay Area. Akemi is honored to bring her voice and experience to Svara Sangha, and is thrilled to co-create and share vocal harmonies in service of collective healing.
Ariel
Mazel-Gee
Ariel has been singing since she was three years old, and views her voice as her first love. She grew up chanting in temple, and that early devotion to voice and spirit became the thread running through everything that followed. Her vocal life has taken many forms: choral ensembles, musical theater, Keeva (a globally-inspired a cappella group), Fog City Harmonia (an all-women's barbershop ensemble), and sound healing, in which she uses crystal bowls, mantra, and voice to create immersive soundscapes that support nervous system regulation, expression, and deep listening.
Ariel brings the same quality of presence she cultivates in sound into the broader work of community connection. She holds a free biweekly meditation night in San Francisco, facilitates a weekly women's circle, spearheads a 200-person circling and authentic relating community, and is a founding member of Gather SF, a nonprofit building the city's next heart-centered third space for tea, movement, and mindful connection. Holding a Certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Research from CIIS, Ariel also supports plant journeyers and holds containers for collective care–all in service of the same invitation: to slow down, come back to yourself, and listen.