Sangeeta Kaur

Sangeeta Kaur possesses a soprano voice remarkable for its flexibility across both classical repertoire and New Age settings. A dedicated yoga practitioner, she journeyed to Vietnam specifically to lead classes rather than to sing. She remains the sole Vietnamese American recipient of the Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Performance, an honor bestowed in 2022. Her work includes repeated partnerships with composer Danaë Xanthe Vlasse, most recently on the 2024 release Mythologies II.

Born Loan Xuan Mai in 1980 in Montclair, California, to Vietnamese refugee parents, she grew up in neighboring Manhattan Beach. Fluent in Vietnamese, she stays deeply engaged with the Vietnamese American community. Although raised Catholic under the baptismal name Teresa Mai, she adopted the name Sangeeta Kaur on an instructor’s recommendation once yoga entered her life. Her commitment to music took root at age four after she viewed a VHS recording of The Sound of Music. High-school attempts at singing were hampered by stage fright, while parental pressure later complicated her path at Santa Ana College and then California State University, Long Beach, where she majored in biology and minored in music without her family’s knowledge. After receiving her degree from Cal State Long Beach in 2006, she pursued a master’s at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. In 2011 she took part in the Miss World Vietnamese pageant. Two years of operatic study in Venice, Italy, preceded appearances at Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House as she initially envisioned an exclusively operatic trajectory.

Interest in yoga, particularly the Kundalini tradition, and her subsequent conversion to Buddhism redirected her artistic focus. Guitarist and producer Hai Nguyen, her husband, became another central influence; the couple began performing together in 2009. They run Studio Hill, a recording facility in Austin, and split their time between California and Texas. Their first joint recording, Yoga Is Love, appeared in 2012. Kaur expanded into larger-scale work with the mantra opera Niguma: The Mantra Opera, which premiered at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. She co-produced the 2020 album Illuminance with Peter Kater. In 2021 she joined Jon Anderson of Yes and ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro for a PBS Front & Center broadcast. She also contributed to Stewart Copeland of The Police and Ricky Kej’s 2022 album Divine Tides. Throughout the 2020s she has worked extensively with Danaë Xanthe Vlasse; her contributions to Mythologies earned the 2022 Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Performance. The morning after the ceremony, she awoke to dozens of notifications, many originating from Vietnam. An orchestral continuation, Mythologies II, followed in 2024 and again featured Kaur; both projects drew on Greek mythology. Mythologies II received a further Grammy nomination for Best Classical Compendium.