Suzanne Sterling is a singer, musician, ritual leader and activist who has spent more than 25 years teaching workshops built around sound, song and sacred ritual. If you are arriving cold, the useful thing to know is that her catalogue is wide and her work is meant to be participated in, not only heard. This guide gives you a concrete route in.
Begin with Kirtan: The Bhakti Yoga of Chanting Mantras (2018). It gathers chant-based devotional material across twenty tracks and frames kirtan as bhakti yoga, which is the most visible expression of her work. Kirtan is group call-and-response singing, so this album shows the core of her practice more clearly than anything else in the catalogue. Listen to it as a participant: sing back when the phrase returns.
Mala 2024 Remaster and Japa 2024 Remaster. Both center on mantra repetition. Japa points to the quiet repetition of a mantra, and mala to the beads used for counting. They suit seated practice and show her quieter side.
The 2026 singles. Hole in the Stone (January), Open All the Doors (February) and Songspell (March) show her current, more song-forward writing. They are short, so they are an easy way to hear where she is now.
Dub Mantra Sangha (2015). This is the most distinctive title in the catalogue, bringing mantra into dub production with reggae-style echo and space. Once you know the basic chant sound, this shows how far she will stretch it.
Expect the human voice, mantra and rhythm rather than dense orchestration. Pacing relies on repetition: a phrase returns, a melody settles, and you are asked to stay with it instead of waiting for a climax. The texture on chant recordings is communal and conversational. Production varies, from dub to the more ambient Chakra Flow (2014) and The Yoga Sessions: Hang With Angels (2011), but the voice is always the central instrument.
In a live setting, expect to sing. Her concerts and kirtans are framed as ritual, and her workshops ask participants to sing, move and experience sound. You do not need to consider yourself a singer, and newcomers can listen first and join in when ready.
Treating her as only a chant-album artist. Her work also includes ritual, workshops, the Voice of Change Method and activist training. She co-founded Off the Mat, Into the World, which has trained leaders of sacred activism since 2006, and in 2021 she co-founded the Auricle Collective to support sacred musicians.
Expecting a strict, single lineage. Her work sits primarily within bhakti, but she has also worked for over 25 years with the International Reclaiming Community, co-creating public ritual and training teachers in earth-based spirituality. Her practice is better read as a set of practices than as one guru line.
Miscounting the albums. The bio credits five solo albums, but the discography mixes solo records with compilations and remasters. Sacred Well: Ritual Music from Reclaiming and Deep Repose gather multiple contributors, so check the listing before assuming a title is solo.
Expecting a concert arc. The repetition is the point. If you want fast tempos or polished pop hooks, this is not that.
It tends to land when you want music tied to community practice rather than background listening. People who feel they have lost or never found their voice, literally or figuratively, are the natural audience for the Voice of Change Method. Yoga practitioners looking for kirtan, and people drawn to ritual and earth-based gathering, will find a home in the catalogue. Those in leadership or activist roles may connect most with her view that self-expression is a practical tool for healing, community building and conscious evolution. Her own line puts it plainly: "Your voice is the strongest tool you have."
Day 1. Play Kirtan: The Bhakti Yoga of Chanting Mantras from the start. Sing back, even quietly.
Day 2. Repeat the tracks that stuck, out loud. Repetition is how this music works.
Day 3. Listen to Japa 2024 Remaster for ten minutes of seated stillness.
Day 4. Play Mala 2024 Remaster the same way, and notice how it differs.
Day 5. Hear the three 2026 singles in order: Hole in the Stone, Open All the Doors, Songspell.
Day 6. Put on Dub Mantra Sangha and see what mantra does inside a different sound.
Day 7. Close with Deep Repose: Meditation Music from Reclaiming and Friends for rest, then visit suzannesterling.com and her YouTube channel to look for a live kirtan or workshop. The one dated event currently listed is the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island, Bahamas, on 1 March 2027. Recordings are the doorway, and the live room is where the work is meant to happen.
