performing
ARIELLA RAHMA is a Songstress Priestess ~
...of ancient language songs, channeled heart-opening melodies, and classical soul vocals.
Also a percussionist- hands on skin- She extracts rhythms and melodies from:
West Africa, Middle Eastern music, her Jewish heritage and Eastern European traditions.
Music for Ritual ~ Stage ~ Studio ~ Ceremony....
And in reciprocity to Mama Nature, and all she offers.
STAGE: Ariella's played stages with numerous bands + ensembles nationally, and in the Mediterranean regions.
MOVIE MUSIC: Ariella's vocals have been featured in film scores.
HERSTORY: Ariella grew up studying Jewish Cantorial music as an apprentice to U.S. Cantors. She then entered OSU's School of Music to study classical voice. Enticed by things "outside of the box," she studied music in Ghana. There, her world opened to rhythm and movement inspired by earth, nature, tradition and intuition. Ariella also studied Balinese Gamelan with I Supartha, Bulgarian singing in Bulgaria & with Moira Smiley, Middle Eastern mawal w/ Yuval Ron, African percussion/culture with Dr. Daniel Avorgbedor, and Joselyn Wilkinson.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS: A professional singer in the Los Angeles music industry from 2003-2011, she founded Yeh Dede - women's world music ensemble - for which she won the ASCAP Independent Artist award in the Jazz & Popular Division in 2008 and 2009, + 2011. Yeh Dede released their full-length CD, “Freedom" in July 2009. Ariella toured nationally with Moira Smiley & VOCO between 2007-2011. During 2014-2017 Midwest tours, she was the guest Vocalist with the Yuval Ron Ensemble, and sang with Bobby McFerrin at Orchestra Hall. In 2016 Ariella won the Minnesota Emerging Composer Award from the American Composer's Forum, which supported Vox Svara, her 1st electronica project, which planted seeds she's now sewing as she writes the vocals for her 1st Solo Album.
