Yungchen Lhamo in Concert with Rafe Pearlman

https://orcascenter.ludus.com/200542100Orcas Center Presents: Yungchen Lhamo in Concert with Rafe Pearlman Saturday, October 3 @ 7pm Center Stage Tiered Ticketing: (https://orcascenter.org/ticket-prices/) $25, $35, and $70 ($10 student/senior/veteran tickets available) Yungchen Lhamo in Concert with Rafe Pearlman World-acclaimed award-winning Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo, this year’s recipient of the 2026 Distinguished Artist Award presented by the City of Kingston Arts Commission and the Department of Arts & Cultural Affairs, will make her first-ever visit to Orcas Island in September/October, including performing in concert at Orcas Center on Saturday October 2026, with Rafe Pearlman as opening artist. Yungchen will sing some songs a cappella, others accompanied by guitarist John Alevizakis, producer of her most recent, and seventh, album, ‘One Drop of Kindness’ – and some with audience participation! Rafe will be accompanied by musician Bluetech and guitarist Chris Haugen. Rafe Pearlman says: “This is a special event not to be missed! I first heard the incredible voice of Yungchen Llamo when Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD Festival came to Seattle many years ago. I had never heard anyone like her before (or since). It was like hearing a Tibetan Goddess incarnate on earth. When I heard recently she was touring the PNW I reached out to see if we could do something together in Seattle and Orcas.  It’s a true delight to help welcome her to town. Come join us for this magical night and help support this unique artist as she makes a rare tour to our area.” Yungchen Lhamo Yungchen has performed in over 80 countries on all five continents. Her first album Tibetan Prayer won the Australian Recording Industry Award for Best World Music Album. Yungchen was then signed to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records label on which she released three more albums: Tibet Tibet, Coming Home, and Ama, which featured songs with Annie Lennox and Joy Askew. Tayatha, a collaborative work with Russian classical pianist Anton Batagov, was released by Cantaloupe Music, her sixth album Awakening by Six Degrees Records, and her seventh, One Drop of Kindness, by Real World Records on CD and pink vinyl. In addition to her ARIA Award in Australia and a UNESCO Music Prize, in Italy Yungchen was gifted the city of Silanus’s esteemed ‘Funtana Elighe’ award and was recognized by the province of Genoa as a ‘Messenger of Peace’ and given the title of ‘Ambassador of Culture’. In France, she received the Golden Voice Award from the Dijon Bourjogue Festival, and in the UK, Yungchen’s One Drop of Kindness album won the Asia & Pacific category in the Songlines Music Awards. Rafe Pearlman Rafe Pearlman began his singing career in the Alaskan wilderness, and the wildness of that origin has never left his voice. His exploratory vocal practice has taken him to stages across the globe—India, Hong Kong, Israel, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Thailand, Mexico, and throughout the United States—including a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He appeared on America’s Got Talent, which led to a touring collaboration with the Earth Harp Collective, the world’s largest stringed instrument. In Malaga, Spain, he performed accompanied by a full orchestra at MOSMA, the international festival of film composers, alongside Hollywood composer Tyler Bates. Rafe’s voice is featured on soundtracks for Netflix, Direct-TV,  NBC and Thunder Road Films, and on Sony’s top video games. Rafe will be a new voice on the upcoming season of Motherland: Fort Salem, creating vocal spells for the cast of characters. Rafe recently was awarded an artist residency at the Orcas Center Theater to create a new evening length show inspired by his childhood in Alaska featuring his music and visual art, entitled “KANU”. Rafe is a performer, composer, speaker, and creative vocal coach. His musical intention is to inspire a vision of a world in harmony and unity, celebrating diversity, sustainability, and equality for all beings.  He has been a long time resident of the Salish Sea area and feels a deep personal and artistic ties to this place as home. https://orcascenter.ludus.com/200542100 “Yungchen joined our Real World Records label in 1996. The label was founded in 1989 to provide gifted musicians from around the world with access to state-of-the-art recording facilities, with the aim of bringing the music of the world to the world. We were lucky to work with Yungchen’s wonderful voice and music, which encapsulate the spirit, understanding and compassion of Tibetan culture.” – Peter Gabriel “Yungchen sings like an unearthly creature. Her voice has the power to stop time and makes everything else in the world fall away. Her voice transports you.” – Natalie Merchant “Lhamo is a singer. A very acclaimed singer. Her name was given her by a Buddhist lama. It means ‘Goddess of Song’. Anyone who witnessed a brief performance of hers during the V-Day celebration in uptown Kingston will recognize the accuracy of her name. Or you could ask music critics. The New Yorker’s has called her singing “brilliant”. Newsweek called her “angel-voiced”. The New York Times admired her “pristine, gliding vocal lines”. – Jeremiah Horrigan