Michelle Qureshi The River of Calm

Award-winning artist Michelle Qureshi is a composer, multi‐instrumentalist, and classically-trained guitarist who brings a contemporary yet timeless aesthetic to her music. She released her first of fifteen albums and nine singles in 2012. Her music is heard worldwide, with millions of streams on global platforms. Combining her formal training with intuitive and improvisational elements, she performs both as a solo guitarist and a presenter of sound experiences. Her Harmonic Sound Immersion™ is a transformative sound meditation created by the healing vibrations of ancient and modern instruments, which she describes as a kind of horizontal concert. 

Believing in the power and inherent spirituality of music with its great potential to unite, connect, and touch us all, Michelle shares her music at concerts, festivals, house concerts, in yoga studios, wellness centers, and for special events. As a self-taught guitarist in her teens, performing and teaching locally, she has aspirations for a more expansive understanding of music. Initially starting her undergraduate work in psychology, she recognized her need for creative expression, so she changed her course of study and began, at twenty, as a beginning classical guitar student pursuing the discipline and ultimate creativity that a formal music education promised. She graduated, with honors, with Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music. 

Awards and nominations for her music include recognition from Zone Music Reporter and One World Music Radio, with releases on various music charts as well. In 2020 she became a mainstream artist, debuting the highly-acclaimed solo guitar album Within. In May 2021 Within was awarded Best Acoustic Album by One World Music Radio."The music on “Within” is contemporary, yet timeless." Dyan Garris, "like a desperately needed miraculous healing" J. Widran. In May 2021, Within was awarded Best Acoustic Album by One World Music Radio. In 2019 she released Sage, Harmonic Dreams, Guitar Sojourner, Of the Harvest, Asleep with Windows Open, As it Once Was and Because We Knew. Silver Chord, an album of deep ambient tunes, as well as Short Stories, her acoustic guitar album, received ZMR nominations in 2018, also releasing An Offering, Floating and Inside the Lightbox. Her 2017 album Seventh Wave was nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album of the year by ZMR, the industry source for New Age, World, Ambient, Electronic, Instrumental Music, with many months on the top 100 Airplay Chart. Scattering Stars won Best Ambient Album from One World Music Radio in 2017 and placed in the top 50 albums of the year on the ZMR charts. Scattering Stars ranked in the top 25 albums for Echoes Radio and was an "Editor's Pick" and "Staff Pick" on CD Baby. 

A few words about Michelle's music

“Michelle Qureshi is an award-winning, chart-topping composer that marries spirituality with intention.

RJ Lannan, Ambient Visions

“Qureshi has an amazing ability to change course and create something outstanding at a whim.” 

Steven Sheppard, One World Music Radio    

“She seems more of a sonic sorceress using a wide range of instruments and technology in her artistic alchemy.”  

Michael Diamond, Music and Media Focus

“Michelle has delivered a refreshingly unique and creative album that offers an impressive configuration of subtly varied guitar-playing styles with ambient and minimalist soundscapes.”  

Candice Michelle, Journeyscapes Radio

“I sometimes open my reviews with a statement like "Guitarist so and so's new album…" and I could do that with Michelle Qureshi's Seventh Wave, but to be honest, she plays so much more than guitars on this album that it would be misleading to say the least. On this bold, adventurous, and broad of vision recording, she plays acoustic and electric guitars, Native American flute, didgeridoo, cello, banjo, steel tongue drum, percussion, keyboards, synths, and adds vocals too.”        

Bill Binkelman, Zone Music Reporter

 

Comments(0)

Log in to comment