2014 marks 30 years since Anthony first said “Yes!” to travel the world with his music. “Being a songwriter, you can share what this life experience is all about,” Anthony states in awe. A natural performer with a charismatic presence onstage, he was 23 when he first caught a glimpse of the magical world of music. “My brother [singer Oman Ken] roped me into being in a musical theater group at Unity Church of Christianity in Houston, Texas. They needed more male voices. I said, ‘I don’t sing,’ but they involved me anyway!” Suddenly Anthony was intoxicated with music. “I instantly knew what I wanted to do — learn how to play guitar and piano and write and sing songs. Music was impractical but I didn’t let that voice take over. I wanted to be happy!” Anthony admits he wasn’t a great musician out of the gate, but early on he noticed that people reacted positively to him onstage and that he could engage youth in his concerts. He began singing for children and teens “anytime, anywhere.” One day a principal asked him to sing for the school’s assembly, paying him $100. “I said to the principal, ‘You pay people for this?!’” Anthony later realized that he activated the universal flow of life in that very moment. Singer-songwriter Karl Anthony uses music to invite people into
a life of expanded horizons. Anthony has traveled the world with his empowering message of “Engage with life!” This, Anthony says, is the secret to living with expanded horizons. “We all tap into moments where we shut off the noise and access the universal flow,” he says. It is within this place where the singer- songwriter cocreates with Spirit. Anthony taps into the flow by exuberantly declaring to the universe: “Life, give me the opportunities and I promise I’ll say ‘Yes!’” And life, says Anthony, always responds affirmatively. “The doors have flown open!” “It didn’t matter if I was a success as society defined it. I was only focused on what I loved to do. I pursued life at the level of joy.” Soon Anthony was performing 180 school assemblies per year. “Being in front of high school students sharpens your skills!” Anthony shares with a big grin. Twelve trips to Russia followed, involving hundreds of teens led by Anthony. Ocean Robbins was a teen whom Anthony significantly impacted as a youth leader on two tours to Russia. “Those trips were turning points in my life,” says Robbins, now chief executive officer of the Food Revolution Network, which is committed to healthy, sustainable, humane and conscious food for all. “It was the first time I felt safe with my peers. Karl made it cool to open my heart and have fun.” Robbins says Anthony created community with the Russian citizens by sharing a contagious love of life. “Karl sees differences as a point of curiosity, not separation. He created a space where we could easily enter conversations about the state of the world.” Robbins adds, “He was brilliant in seducing the heart open.” In the years that followed, Anthony’s music took on a healing component, which attracted him to the Healing Arts Program at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, Calif. Now, almost a decade later, he continues his sacred work at the hospital, traveling room to room with his guitar, engaging children and families with a smile and a song. His goal is to reduce their stress and to give a voice to their experience. A child once told Anthony that receiving chemotherapy was like having an earthquake inside him with the ground shaking from within. Deeply moved by the boy’s response, Anthony asked, “What do you do when the ground is shaking?” The boy’s reply was, “Hold the sky.” Anthony smiled and said to the boy, “Let’s write a song about that.” He knew there was a powerful song in this young boy’s experience, and his new album, entitled “Hold the Sky,” debuting this month, features this title song. Anthony’s divorce from his wife of 20 years was a personal hell that he experienced. The pain brought him to his knees. Transcending that excruciating time with music led him to a new way to help others heal. “I wanted to hide in a cave. I was ready to stop being a performer. The spotlight was too bright. I didn’t want to be in front of people.
I didn’t want to be a light in the world.” Anthony sat in a dark room and lit a candle, singing and crying for months. He started writing intense songs and repetitive chants to quiet his mind. As he began to heal himself through music, he had a realization. “There was this moment when I thought, ‘Maybe others would like to sit in the dark with me and quiet their mind with chanting.’” “Mantra” was officially born. Today, he travels with a laser light show that bathes a room with thousands of pinpoint lights that simulate the stars in a galaxy. His songs and chants combine Sanskrit, English and other languages in a fusion of Western and Eastern influences inspired by his travels all over the world, especially India. Anthony reflects on these journeys. “You are surrounded in radiant light and invited to sing or just let go and relax in the healing vibration of music. Music and light are powerful healers and the real power begins as we gather together in community.” With “Mantra” birthed out of deep pain, Anthony once again says “Yes!” to life. This positive energy has stimulated other meaningful pursuits including a renewed passion for conscious travel and the sharing of one’s good with those less fortunate. He now takes groups on spiritual pilgrimages to India and Thailand, and a trip to Africa is planned for 2017. In India, where his godchildren live, he creates service days within his scheduled touring. “This is not a typical tour. We sing in the slums and at schools and do service work. I learned that a minuscule amount of money keeps a school in India going for many months, so now 10 percent of my tour costs support local schools.” Anthony is amazed at the good that is possible through the collective, and he and his tour members radiate with joy from the joy that the children share in return. “This puts light into me,” says Anthony, with happy contentment. z For more information on Karl Anthony and his global vision, visit KarlAnthony.com.